Tour de France à la Voile 2003
Press release n°12

July the 24th

Antibes wins the next to last offshore race

Unlike the race from Sète to La Ciotat that had to be cancelled due to lack of wind, the race from la Ciotat to St-Maxime turned out to be a thrilling race as the wind picked up to 28 knots in the afternoon.

Marc Bouvet's Ville d'Antibes NEC came home in first ahead of Jimmy Pahun's Région Ile de France. With this win, the crew from Antibes gets back to third place overall. Xavier Lecoeur's Capsport finished in 5th and therefore remain at the top of the leader board. As for the former leaders on board Bouygues Telecom, it's been another bad day. Pierre Loïc Berthet's crew came home in 15th. They've dropped to 4th place overall. The Aussies of Southern Sun Team Australie finished in 12th and remain in 10th place overall where the Italians of Joe Fly Sailing Team had a most disappointing race, finishing in 26th. Therefore, they drop from 6th to 7th overall.

There were happy faces on board the Mumm 30's as the yachts entered the marina of St-Maxime after a most exciting race from La Ciotat. The 37 crews, who had suffered from lack of win in the previous days, enjoyed this windy race. "Sun and wind, it was fantastic! Races like this one are very rare. We usually only have one or two per year" , said Brittany¹s Jimmy Pahun as he stepped off his boat after finishing in 2nd, a most satisfying result for the "King of the Med" , as Kiwi Brad Butterworth used to call him. Région Ile de France had a nail-biting finish with Dieppe-Seine-Maritime. "They beat us by one meter, said Claude Rodelato, skipper of Dieppe Seine Maritime. It was tricky because the wind was shifting a lot. But we're happy. We had a good race". But the happiest team of the day is Ville d'Antibes NEC who snatched victory and therefore got back into 3rd place overall. With a speed average of 9,8 knots and some peaks speed of 18 knots, Ville d'Antibes NEC managed to control the whole fleet the whole way through. "Marc Bouvet will be disappointed that he wasn¹t onboard. We had some great surfs", commented helmsman Marc Audineau. After a bad day yesterday in la Ciotat, the crew of Ville d'Antibes feel they had their revenge. "Our objective in this tour de Franc à la Voile is to finish in the top three. It's difficult because there are four boats fighting for three spots", added Mar Audineau, helmsman of Ville d'Antibes NEC.

The Aussies of Southern Sun Team Australie are happy as well. A windy race is always satisfying. They came home in 12th but it could have been worse, as explained Kirwan Robb, the skipper: "Well, to start with, we were 6th or 7th at the top mark. We decided to head out to the ocean a bit more as the Mistral was expected to fill in up to 30 knots. But it did not. So the boats that were sailing inshore got more breeze and did better. At the next gate, we were around 30th. That's when the breeze filled in up to about 28 knots. We started making gains up to 8th. But towards the end, as it got tricky, we dropped again a lot. Then in the last beat to the finish, we decided to head to the shore and we gained a few spots to finish in 12th". Though they feel they could have done better, the Melbourne's guys are happy to remain in 10th overall.

For the Italians of Joe Fly Sailing Team, it's been a day to forget. Federico Michetti and his crew came home in 26th . Therefore they drop from 6th to 7th overall.

Two inshore races are scheduled for tomorrow. Then on Saturday, the fleet will kick off for the last offshore race to Antibes.

Full results and ranking on www.toourvoile.fr