Full house An invitation-only regatta, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez will close its registration deadline after August 25, whilst the list of 250 to 270 competitors will not be revealed until September. Over 400 applications have already been received.
Full house An invitation-only regatta, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez will close its registration deadline after August 25, whilst the list of 250 to 270 competitors will not be revealed until September. Over 400 applications have already been received.
Maxi: A fleet split in two Over 40 Maxi yachts will be racing in Saint-Tropez at the end of September. These boats over 18.28m (60 ft) in length require space to manoeuvre “and the Gulf of Saint-Tropez is not extensible!” points out Georges Korhel. “While one part of the fleet will be sailing windward-leeward courses on Monday and Tuesday, the other will be racing coastal courses, and vice versa on Friday and Saturday,” adds the Principal Race Officer. This schedule, with the lay-day falling on the Wednesday, facilitates any necessary sail changes. The wardrobe of these sailing giants differs according to race course type. Rather than a breakdown by size, the IRC rating will be used to sort the boats, a more effective way of accounting for the speed and evolutionary capacities of each boat on the starting line. New weight to the Classics! Divided according to their rig – marconi or aurique -, the classic fleet will experience the emergence of a new category this year. At the request of the Comité International de Méditerranée which distributes measurement certificates for France, Spain, Italy and Monaco, the One-Tonners, the class that dominated the ‘70s and ‘80s racing circuit under the IOR rule, will, subject to being more than ten entrants, have their own dedicated classification. “It’s a trend we’ve been observing, particularly among our Italian neighbours, but more generally in the Mediterranean over the last few years,” remarks Georges Korhel . “It’s important for crews to identify their rivals and shape their strategy accordingly, this contributes greatly to the pleasure of racing.”