Tour de France à la Voile 2003
Press release n°10

July the 17th

Getting ready for the Med

The 37-Mumm 30 fleet of the Tour de France à la Voile has accomplished the Channel and Atlantic part and is getting ready for the last part to be sailed in the Mediterranean. Today, the boats have been hauled out and transported to St-Cyprien where two inshore races are scheduled for Saturday. Pierre Loïc Berthet and his dream team onboard Bouygues Telecom are still at the top of the leaderboard with a strong 42,5 points lead. Xavier Lecoeur's team on Capsport, who won yesterday's windy inshore race in Arcachon, stand in second place overall ahead of Jimmy Pahun on Région Ile de France who scored a disappointing 32nd yesterday and therefore dropped to third place overall. The Italians of Joe Fly Sailing Team had an awesome race yesterday and finished in 2nd, which them come up to 7th place overall. With the arrival today of Flavio Favini, who will drive the Mumm 30, Federico Michetti's team are ready to be a real threat in the Med. As for the Aussies of Southern Sun Team Australia, the last day in the Atlantic has also been most promising. Melbourne's team, skippered by Michael Smith and Kirwan Robb came home in 4th yesterday and therefore are back in the top ten overall.

There are still many races left until the finish on the 28th of July in Antibes. So it will be very interesting to see if a team will manage to threat the amazingly consistent defending champions onboard Bouygues Telecom. The Med can be very tricky and is always full of surprises for the Tour de France à la Voile¹s competitors.

Comments on the first two half of the regatta and the third one to come:

Italian Federico Michetti, skipper of Joe Fly Sailing Team: "We expect to have very good results in the Med and therefore to stay in the top group. For sure, the Atlantic was an incredible experience, very nice, but also very difficult because of the tides. Sometimes we had speed problems. We paid the price of our lack of experience. As when one sails in the Tour de France à la Voile fort the first time, one lacks local knowledge as one sails in many places for the first time. Besides, we're not used to change places nearly every day. But for us, it's a great experience and we already think about 2004. I'm very happy with my crew as there's always been a good atmosphere on the boat even when we had bad races.

We're very positive about the next ten days and I think it's possible for us to do a good job. As in the Med, it is more a matter of technique, boat handling and tactics. With both Vasco Vascotto and Flavio Favini on board, we should have a good team. We're looking forward to sailing with shorts and T-shirts on instead of boots and weather gear."

British Mike Broughton, navigator onboard Southern Sun Team Australia: "It's been an extraordinary light wind event so far. It's been below 10 knots most of the time apart from a couple races in 16-17 knots. It was not the best conditions for our team as the guys trained in higher winds.

Generally speaking, the offshore races have gone very well considering that most of the young guys in our team had never sailed offshore before. It's great credit to their results. Since the third race, we sailed consistently in the top group. It was quite disappointing to encounter problems with our masthead spinnaker in the last offshore race to Arcachon as we were doing very well. In inshore races, we've sailed inconsistently. So we have to improve. We might have a couple of crew changes.

As far the standard of the fleet is concerned, I'd say that it's as high as last year. There is a première ligue of five yachts and then from 5th to 18th, all the yachts could get in the top ten. It was a big upset for the guys (the Aussies) not to be accepted in the amateur division as it was their goal to win in that division and they would be leading it.

We think we can make it to 8th or 9th, but we're 10th at the moment so it is our objective."

Full results and ranking on www.toourvoile.fr