Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez: A maritime history book

The nice French sailor, Eric Tabarly, an instrumental determine within the origins of what’s now Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, is reputed to have stated that strolling alongside the quays of the riviera city throughout this regatta was like ‘flicking by means of the pages of a maritime historical past e-book’.

Tabarly’s phrases deftly distil the essence of this distinctive occasion held annually within the small city of Saint-Tropez, perched on a north dealing with promontory within the gulf to which it offers its identify.

At first sight it appears inconceivable that this charming however pocket-sized fishing port might probably accommodate nearly all of the 250-boat fleet, representing virtually 135 years of yacht design historical past, that descends on Saint-Tropez annually.

However remarkably, for the final 25 years the expert RIB drivers of the Capitainerie (Saint-Tropez’s busy harbour grasp’s workplace) have in some way nudged, towed and coaxed all the things from 130ft schooners and trendy maxis to small engineless sloops into cheek-by-jowl order alongside the harbour’s modest partitions and pontoons.

It’s maybe that very focus of yachting historical past, multi functional place, that lends this occasion its charmed depth, drawing big crowds down the city’s slender laneways to stroll the quays or admire the scene from the quite a few waterfront eateries.

Sir Richard Matthews, founding father of Oyster Yachts, has sailed at Les Voiles for a few years, returning for the occasion’s twenty fifth anniversary in 2024 together with his 12 Metre Crusader. He stays beguiled by the entire expertise.

“It’s a magic place,” he stated. “You stroll the docks at Saint-Tropez, it’s yacht porn principally! It’s simply distinctive in my expertise with the bands enjoying within the streets. Everyone loves it and we definitely do, it’s implausible.”

This relaxed end-of-season ambiance at Les Voiles owes a lot to the aware efforts of the host membership Société Nautique Saint-Tropez (SNST) to protect the spontaneous, quirky DNA of the occasion’s origins.

The spur-of-the-moment problem in 1981 between American Dick Jayson’s Swan 44 Satisfaction and Jean Redele’s 1964 12 Metre America’s Cup boat Ikra is effectively documented. However the twists and turns that SNST’s Patrice de Colmont took to evolve that mismatched problem into Les Voiles’ standard precursor, La Nioulargue, is worthy of its personal documentary.

Gaff and Bermudan rigs fill the horizon throughout racing for the Custom yachts. Picture: Kurt Arrigo

For all of the amicable atmosphere that pervades the regatta, the competitors throughout the three courses and 19 divisions of Maxis, Moderns and Custom is actual sufficient, even when the fastened begin line location off the city’s sea wall for the latter two courses can usually add a random dimension to the outcomes. Upwind or downwind, you’re taking what comes on the day.

Quick straw

With 15 divisions throughout these two courses despatched off from the road at noon, the early divisions may also draw the brief straw when the ocean breeze makes a late look, because it did on a number of days in 2024; a selected problem for the favourably rated boats within the Moderns class.

Crews on the smaller classics get a great dousing in champagne circumstances. Picture: Tobias Stoerkle /www.blende64.com

However for the likes of Will Ryan, a daily on the TP52 Tremendous Sequence circuit and strategist aboard King Frederik of Denmark’s chartered TP52 Nanoq at Les Voiles, it’s all a part of the deal: “For one-design racing you’ll sometimes go to the place the most effective wind is first after which do good high quality racing there. Whereas right here it’s all concerning the present. It’s enjoyable to be a part of the present, however it does include the results that make it a difficult race course.”

It was, nonetheless, a problem effectively met by Nanoq’s staff, taking the North Sails Trophy for finest IRC B boat within the Moderns, regardless of the King’s absence on royal duties.

Most of the sport’s finest navigators additionally relish the problem of the complicated climate patterns at Les Voiles. Ocean racing meteorologist Will Oxley, the navigator aboard Nanoq, holds Les Voiles as one among his high three favorite regattas all over the world. He defined that the Mistral, which has performed havoc with many sailors and regattas in the summertime of 2024, doesn’t at all times affect Saint-Tropez.

“It’s fascinating as a result of simply to the west of us we’ve bought the Gulf of Lyon and the Mistral funnels down there, stated Oxley. “However right here we’re in a bay and we’ll usually see that the Mistral misses the bay within the morning.

“You sometimes get a light-weight breeze coming down off the mountains and you then usually get sea breezes organising on both sides of the bay, incessantly from fully totally different instructions.”

The distinctive restored 12 Metre Jenetta. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

Unpredictable breezes

These mercurial breezes had been a lot in proof throughout this yr’s regatta, with the Moderns and Classics divisions struggling to get off the beginning line from the city’s Portalet Tower on a number of days.

However even for the 4 Maxi divisions which loved a mixture of coastal and windward/leeward races within the extra dependable offshore breezes, assembly the race cut-off time proved a problem on the Tuesday, whereas racing was deserted throughout all fleets on the Thursday.

Amongst these Maxis, Black Jack 100 loved constant line honours wins within the Maxi A division beneath her new proprietor Remon Vos, however it was Peter Harrison’s Jolt that held off Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou to take each the Barons de Rothschild and IMA trophies.

For the professionals that sail at Les Voiles, this regatta is usually seen as a welcome counterpoint to the depth of absolutely skilled occasions.

The 130ft trendy basic Naema is an Alfred Mylne duplicate. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

Twin Olympic medallist and a number of World Champion within the Twister class, Mitch Sales space, is nowadays often to be discovered racing with all-professional crews on a few of the quickest maxi yachts on the earth.

At Les Voiles he was having fun with a modified position that he described as ‘tactician/coach’ with two different professionals and a blended crew of household and buddies aboard Matthew Gander’s CNB 76 Ps PS5, which is comparatively new to racing.

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He provided some perception into the position that professionals play on the largely amateur-crewed day racer Maxi yachts at regattas like Les Voiles.

“Each race the homeowners need to win, however the ambiance right here is kind of pleasant and relaxed too. We name these boats cruiser-racers, however the truth is they’re actually cruisers that race and most of those boats will not be raced frequently.

“We sometimes undergo the boat earlier than the occasion, checking all of the strops and blocks; they may say ‘Oh, we haven’t used that spinnaker for 2 years,’ or ‘We don’t know the way it must be hoisted or the way it sheets.’ It’s simply making use of the race mentality onto a non-racing boat.”

Sir Richard Matthews’s 12 Metre Crusader. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

Danish sailor Nicolai Sehested is extra sometimes seen carrying a helmet because the skipper of Rockwool, Denmark’s SailGP staff. However as common tactician on Terry Hui’s division-winning Wally 77 Lyra within the Maxi B division, Sehested enjoys the relaxed ambiance of this occasion too.

“It’s most likely most sailors’ favorite place in Europe to race for a lot of causes. There’s at all times simply very diversified circumstances. And also you get to see so many cool boats racing on the identical time.

“However the primary factor is the tradition. You may even hear it now,” says Sehested as a trumpeter belts out a elegant rendition of Verdi’s Refrain of the Hebrew Slaves from a neighbouring basic.

Centenary Trophy winner Oriole. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

Small however mighty

Les Voiles has developed over time. However ought to anybody attempt to subvert the aggressive however pleasant spirit of this invitation-only regatta, SNST’s president Pierre Roinson has some tongue-in-cheek phrases of warning: “Affect peddling is at all times an element, as some folks – and we’ve their names! – attempt to change issues round to allow them to be part of a category extra of their favour. That’s simply not doable.”

Decided to sail his 26ft Solent Sunbeam Dainty within the Custom class at Saint-Tropez within the boat’s centenary yr in 2022, Peter Nicholson pursued an extended marketing campaign with the SNST Committee to supply the boat an exemption to their minimal waterline size rule.

The ever-practical Committee ultimately saved face for all by providing Dainty visitor standing, making her the smallest boat within the regatta.

Nicholson has spent virtually 60 years crusing Sunbeams, lastly calling it quits on the finish of this yr. However having damaged Dainty’s growth on the Cannes regatta a fortnight earlier than Les Voiles, he and his crew had been counting their blessings that they made all of it.

Some 250 yachts, largely with household and beginner crews, competed at this yr’s twenty fifth anniversary regatta. Picture: Tobias Stoerkle /www.blende64.com

“There may be nowhere within the Mediterranean they may mend it or exchange it. So I phoned again dwelling to Haines Boatyard in Itchenor who had a spare,” stated Nicholson, having realised that the better problem was getting a 3.7m-long growth delivered to Saint-Tropez in time.

“I requested an outdated pal Viv Williams if his [grown-up] kids – who frequently run deliveries – might assist. Viv stated they had been all busy however he fairly appreciated the concept of coming down himself. So he drove it the 900 miles and we had been up and working for the primary race – which we gained!

Fittingly for her final look at Les Voiles, Dainty additionally gained Greatest Yacht in Visitor Class for the week.

Among the many smaller boats within the Moderns class had been 5 Cape 31s racing beneath IRC. Michael Wilson owns Shotgunn, the eventual winner of the BMW Trophy for the most effective IRC C Division boat, and stated his crew beloved the change of format to IRC ranking in opposition to different yachts at Les Voiles.

Aggressive racing within the Epoque Aurique class. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

“One-design racing in Cape 31s is excellent, very intense. You may come right here to an IRC occasion and be aggressive however it’s simply good to do an occasion that’s a bit extra relaxed.”

Jet set and artwork

For a lot of, the identify of Saint-Tropez is related to the jet set celebrities of the Nineteen Sixties and 70s, most notably Brigitte Bardot, whose ninetieth birthday in 2024 was celebrated with a wrapped picture of her youthful self on the lighthouse that marks the port’s entrance.

However Saint-Tropez’s attraction was first dropped at standard consideration by the post-impressionist artists of the late nineteenth Century, chief amongst them Paul Signac, whose vibrant pointillist work of yachts in Saint-Tropez harbour mirrored his personal pursuits as a really achieved sailor and proprietor of quite a few yachts.

The 1907 yawl Veronique. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

The design of plenty of the 19 yachts that competed within the Gstaad Centenarian Trophy pursuit race for classics over 100 years outdated would probably have been acquainted to Signac, not least the 1905 Herreshoff-designed (gaff-rigged) Oriole, which gained the race.

The age of a yacht has no bearing on its crew’s competitiveness, nonetheless, with Oriole’s Spanish staff having bent on a brand new and stiffer mainsail that morning to finest swimsuit the sunshine air circumstances!In opposition to expectations the breeze lifted on the final day of racing to point out off the entire Custom class at its finest. Being a weekend day, the locals got here out in pressure on energy boats and yachts, maintaining the marshalls busy of their quick RIBs, corralling the quite a few infringers of the No Go boundaries with piercing whistles.

Because the blended fleet of classics approached the port’s end line within the late afternoon solar, the magnificent Fife-designed gaff cutter Tuiga – eventual winner of the Château Saint-Maur Trophy – was surrounded by the massive spectator flotilla.

Battling waves – the 1918 Eight Metre yacht Apache. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

Such is the just about honored aura that surrounds the regatta-founding problem between the Swan 44 Satisfaction and the 12 metre Ikra (not current in 2024), that the previous occupies probably the most distinguished berth on Qaui de Jean Jaures annually, moored beneath the watchful eye of Admiral Suffren’s hovering statue, which fronts the favored Lodge Sube.

With a lot of the regatta’s wealthy and well-documented historical past centred on Satisfaction, it might be cheap for Will and Gillian Graves (the third era of the prolonged household to race Satisfaction at les Voiles) to really feel the load of that storied heritage. However Will Graves sees it as a legacy to be embraced.

“I’ve been coming right here for 14 years now and it’s a tremendous occasion for a household. This can be a heritage that Invoice has from his father – Gillian’s grandfather – and I hope that our youngsters come and get to see this. It’s great crusing, an unbelievable space of the world, it’s simply actually particular.”

The brand new Carkeek-designed Daguet 5 retired after breaking one among her rudders throughout a collision with a spectator boat. Picture: Gilles Martin-Raget

The Satisfaction/Ikra problem has been re-enacted by each boats in earlier years, whereas the SNST additionally continues the custom by encouraging different yachts to difficulty their very own match race challenges for the coveted Membership 55 Paul Watson Cup.

In 2024 two Maxis, Filip Balcean’s Balthasar and Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s My Tune threw down the gauntlet for a match race, with My Tune profitable throughout the road.

However on the formally described ‘boozy’ post-race lunch, which custom dictates will happen among the many problem crews and SNST officers at Membership 55 on Pampelonne Seashore, there was clearly a shared concern concerning the outcome.

In mild of the marked disparity in rankings between the 2 yachts the SNST committee later deemed My Tune and Balthasar joint winners of the Membership 55 Paul Watson Cup. Solely at Les Voiles, absolutely!

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