Tuesday, April 18, 2023 – The crews of the 12thedition of the Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille got down to business on Monday, April 17. At midday, as planned, they set off for a first race. A loop around the island which proved to be particularly tactical, the fault of a flow of is rather light but also and above all unstable. In this context, concentration was clearly required for the sailors who had to juggle as well as possible with the small (or large) shifts, thewindy zones or, on the contrary, the acceleration corridors. In this little game, inevitably, some were more comfortable than others but the action was indeed there in each of the eight classes, thus setting the tone for the week ahead. thrilling!

© VDS2023 / Christophe Jouany

“ This first day was magnificent! It lacked a bit of wind, it’s true, but it was undeniably a perfect warm-up for everyone. The conditions were very variable but that opened the game up well. The spectacle on the water was incredible, especially at the time of the departures “, relates Loïck Peyron, helmsman of the Multi70 Zoulou of Erik Maris, winner in real time of this first race nearly an hour ahead of its closest competitor. “ While we raced a bit alone in front today, we still had a lot of fun on the water, overtaking the monohulls one after the other, but also fighting against ourselves. It’s always great to sail with a great team “, adds the Baulois winner of the Transat Anglaise, the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Barcelona World Race or the Route du Rhum, supported this week by particularly experienced sailors like Thierry Fouchier, Bruno Jeanjean and Thomas Le Breton, all of whom have passed through the prestigious America’s Cup, but also Bruno Mourniac, SB20 World Champion in 2018 and double winner of the Tour de France à la Voile.
“ We applied ourselves to making the best of each little blow on the ground and to exploiting the different veins of wind. We really worked on the thing , ”explains Loïck Peyron who must however be satisfied with third place in the provisional classification in compound time behind Nala of James Vos then Cui Bono of Rob Mervin. ” There remains the satisfaction of a job well done in addition to the pleasure taken on the water “, assures Loïck Peyron, delighted with the growing success of multihulls in the Caribbean and, by extension, the match which will be played until Saturday in this category. . A class where some have already compromised their ambitions for victory, like Fujin skippered by American Greg Slyngstad. Disqualified today following a fault on Nala during a mark passage, the winner of the 2019 edition clearly took a lead in the wing even if history has shown that sailing sometimes writes stories among the most unlikely.

© VDS2023 / Théo Questel

Close matches

Among the monohulls, the match also got off to a flying start. As proof, the tiny differences on all levels, as evidenced by Bouwe Bekking, a true legend of the Volvo Ocean Race with a record of eight participations in the event between 1995 and 2018. “It was not an easy day but a very interesting day nonetheless. The crew did a good job, especially at the front of the boat, without ever making any mistakes. Our sail changes were formidably effective, as were our placements within the fleet ,” says the tactician of Belgian Filip Balcaen’s Swan 50 OD, who is thus in first place in the CSA 1 rankings after this first act. ” It was tight from start to finish, especially with Stark Raving Mad IX and Final Final. We constantly had to fight to stay on the pace and at the forefront ,” concedes the German sailor, a repeat offender in the Voiles de Saint-Barth Richard Mille and in the Saint-Barths Bucket Regatta. For him, certainly, the body of water has fewer and fewer mysteries despite many subtleties.

© VDS2023 / Christophe Jouany

Pleasure outweighs frustration

Ditto for Briton Chris Draper, also a regular at the event and a sailor with a dazzling track record with, among other things, a bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in the 49er and multiple successes in the America’s Cup – including a very recent one in New Zealand with the Canadian SailGP team. “ Knowing the race is not always enough. The level of the event is raised and the right to error does not exist. In this sense, this Monday we had a difficult day aboard the Cape 31 Adrenaline (CSA 3) because of the sargassum but also because of an unfortunate tactical blow at the end of the course which allowed many of our competitors to come back and even to surpass ourselves “, underlines the tactician, a little frustrated at the end of this first day of competition but certainly no less motivated for the rest of the events. “ The crew is still breaking in. He is progressing little by little and will continue to do so during this week in Saint-Barth. There are not many better places in the world to race! » . An opinion fully shared by Jean-François Terrien, skipper of Sans Neuf in the CSA 4 category and also slightly upset in his plans during this first round. ” During the departure phase, we encountered a problem with the mainsail car. A shackle jumped and we found ourselves without a mainsail when the cannon fired. We then whipped as hard as we could to get back to the score and we overshot the first mark to windward in the lead but it got complicated again on the edge of the spinnaker. We would have needed a little more pressure but we are optimistic for the future because normally, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the wind should be a little more consistent ”, concludes the skipper from Martinique. In fact, between 13 and 15 knots are expected. Enough to continue the match intensely and see new boats emerge.

Find below the video of the 1st day, Loïck Peyron on the trimaran Zoulou:

In short: Five days of competition This week, the crews will race on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before taking advantage of the traditional off day on Thursday and then moving on to two new days of racing, Friday and Saturday. Seven starting procedures The different classes mentioned above will start in seven separate groups on the start line of each of the races on the program this week. As in previous editions, the small units will start before the fastest. Thus, the CSA 4s will take off first, followed by the CSA 3s, CSA 2s, CSA 1s, Maxis and Multihulls, while the Diam 24s will bring up the rear. In total, therefore, seven procedures will be launched successively. Twenty-eight possible routes

For this 12th edition  of the Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille, Luc Poupon, Race Director, and Yvon Poutriquet, President of the Race Committee, have developed a panel of 28 possible courses for the competitors (from 8 to 47 miles ). Up to three per day can be cast.

Ten nationalities represented
Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, United States, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom: in total, no less than ten countries are represented among the skippers of this 12th  edition of Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille. The two most represented nations are the United States and France with respectively 7 and 14 boats entered.

© Caribbean Sailing Association 2018