It must be said that French ocean racing is experiencing a genuine revolution, as from this year onwards, the one-design boat for the famous ‘Tour de France à la Voile’ is officially a multihull. The organizers have chosen the Diam 24 trimaran – 7.25m long and 5.62 wide, with a displacement of 450 kg and a downwind sail area of 54m², sailed by three crew. As a result, the list of entries to the ‘Spi’ has quickly taken on a taste of Route du Rhum mixed with Vendée Globe, with all the talented French ocean racers (Lemonchois - Riou - Guichard - Coville - Pennec - Beyou - Rogues - Féquet - Revil - Souben - Guilmin - Seguin...).
During the three days of the competition, the races followed one another in conditions varying from 12 to 25 knots, which allowed the 17 crews to show their full potential. At the finish, Spindrift White, skippered successively by François Morvan and Xavier Revil won, ahead of Groupama (Pierre Pennec) and Combiwest (Fred Guilmin), at the end of a breathtaking race which showed the whole point of the concept. This summer, for the Tour de France, there should be 30 crews doing battle, proving the advantage of having chosen a multihull as support for this superb race. We are just a bit sorry that the choice went to a boat which won’t really allow crews to race offshore (which was the whole point of the ‘Tour’), and which also lacks foils...
To see the results: www.spi-ouestfrance.com
