New faces at the top at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez maxi racing
by James Boyd / International Maxi Association 4 Oct 22:09 NZDT
28 September - 6 October 2024
Following Wednesday's layday it was all change on the Bay of Pampelonne for the third day of maxi racing at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez organised by the Société Nautique de Saint Tropez, with the competition between the 41 maxi yachts overseen by the International Maxi Association.
The faster boats in Maxi A and B swapped with the slower of Maxi C and D; the former heading off on a 28 mile course between Pampelonne and Cavalaire-sur-Mer while the latter raced two windward-leewards. The wind, initially at least, was northerly, opposite to two days ago, although those racing the coastal had to negotiate a transition zone which saw the wind drop before filling in from the opposite direction.
In Maxi A the winning streak of Peter Harrison's 72ft Jolt came to an abrupt halt as she touched bottom exiting the Bay of Pampelonne causing some bumps and bruises among her crew. Jolt completed the race, finishing an uncharacteristic sixth and will be racing again tomorrow.
With the main player suffering her set-back, this left the field open and ultimately it was the fastest here, Remon Vos' Black Jack 100, that won both on the water and under IRC corrected time. The lightweight 100 footer, which as Alfa Romeo II, Esimit Europa II and ultimately Black Jack, has won line and occasionally overall honours in most races in the Med. She relishes light conditions. Having a 40m tall mast no doubt helped her through today's tricky spots.
"It was headland racing - good fun," commented Black Jack tactician Mark Bradford. "We had good crew work and good manoeuvres in the transitions: There was a southerly in the final bay while it was blowing from the north or northeast in the other bays. There were obvious lines on the water but how you managed that was pretty difficult. In the last transition we made it through in pretty good shape while the others stopped."
This left Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou to claim the fifth in her perfect run of seconds with Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's 82ft Django HF third. With the first discards kicking in today, Jolt leads overall, four points clear of Jethou with Django HF another four behind.
Django HF headsail trimmer Alessio Razeto added of today: "There was a big transition from north to south, going from gennaker to jibs, which can change the leader if you are lucky or smart with your position. It was difficult from a tactical point of view with lots of manoeuvres and sail changes."
The lengthy, unbroken run of wins for Terry Hui's Lyra came to an end today with Paul Berger's Swan 82FD Kallima pushing the matte black Wally 77 into second to win by a substantial 12 minutes 18 seconds under IRC.
"We were a bit lucky from time to time, but the boat is fast in light wind, compared to over 15 knots when Lyra is much faster," explained Vincent Fertin, Paul Berger's coach. "Our heavy weight is important especially on flat water: When we arrived in light wind areas with some speed our weight carries us through impressively compared to the light boats." While previously they have felt weak reaching or under Code 0, today they didn't. "We noticed we weren't losing much distance compared to Lyra. It is funny to sail against all these boats that are so different to each other and to be racing so closely - it's cool."
Overall Lyra still holds a 4 point lead over second-placed Geist, Christian Oldendorff's Spirit 111 with Kallima now a point behind.
While Luigi Sala's Vismara 62 Yoru won both coastal races in Maxi C at the beginning of the week, they resumed their winning stream in today's second race, after losing the first to IMA President Benoît de Froidmont's Wally 60 Wallyño, the defending champion here.
"Wallyño is very, very strong upwind, while we are very strong downwind," commented a delighted Sala. "Today we had good starts and were also able to control Wallyño's position in an effective way." Sala says his success this week is not sudden. "It has taken place over the past 18 months: finally we are taking advantage of minor improvements on the boat and the ability of the team to work together in a very tight way. We had some taste of this in Porto Cervo."
Today's first windward-leeward across the Bay of Pampelonne, held after the northerly had picked up to around 10 knots, was won by Wallyño by 3 minutes 1 second while the second Yoru won by just 16 seconds under IRC. "We have similarly good crews on board, so there is no room for mistakes, " commented de Froidmont. "In the first race we had a great start and went left to get the shift. In the second race we went right, when we should have gone left!" Their performance was all the more remarkable as Wallyño still has inoperative electronics and minutes prior to todays' start broke a mainsheet block.
Overall Yoru leads Wallyño by two points with Jean-Pierre Dreau's Mylius 60 Lady First III five more behind.
As with Yoru, the perfect scoreline of Anthony Ball's Swan 65 sloop Six Jaguar ended today with Luca Scoppa's Dehler 60 Blue Oyster claiming today's final windward-leeward in Maxi D. Overall Six Jaguar leads on three points to Blue Oyster's seven, with the CNB60 Expression of London another point behind.
"We had 1-2 today, so we are going alright," commented Ball's son George, who steers, for the largely Barcelona-based crew, led by top Spanish pro Iñaki Castañer. "The wind today was much better than what we were expecting but that's been the case throughout the week. I think we are quite well trained with a young crew and we are gelling quite well."
Racing continues tomorrow before concluding on Saturday.
Event website: www.lesvoilesdesaint-tropez.fr/en