Swiss boat Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention grabbed their second victory in the Tour de France à la Voile 2002 at the weekend.

Etienne David and his crew came home first in today’s coastal race off Paimpol. Local boat Côtes d’Armor, skippered by Vincent Biarnes, crossed the finish line in second ahead of Nicolas Clément’s Vitamine-Hyères-Coych. British boat Panther Team GBR came home in 11th position with amateur boat Royal Thames finishing in 26th.

“We had a nice sail and a good course. We sailed extremely well and had a tough battle with Côtes d’Armor who made a small mistake that allowed us to pass and win”, confessed Swiss skipper Etienne David.

After the second start was black flagged, as there had been a general recall on the first, the fleet of 40 Mumm 30’s eventually sailed off in 15 knots of wind from the southwest in a flat sea state. Student boat Jacques Vabre-ESC Le Havre, which welcomes onboard several double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre winners, sailed this race with Stève Ravussin onboard.

The Swiss skipper, who won the last Transat Jacques Vabre with Franck Cammas onboard Groupama, was Guillaume Got and his crew’s lucky charm. They came home in 7th position, their best result so far.

Tomorrow, the Swiss will board his friend’s boat Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention for the longest offshore race in the Tour de France à la Voile, 244 miles from Paimpol to St-Nazaire. There is definitely a Swiss touch in the Tour de France à la Voile.

Kiny Parade, watch captain onboard Christine Guillou’s EF Education in the last Whitbread around the world race, will join Aussie Nick Moloney and Frenchman Bernard Mallaret onboard Cassis Maugio Carnon. The boats were due to leave to start a particularly tricky race around Brittany at 0800 this morning. This is an important leg as there will be lots of points to score with a 3,5 coefficient.

Isabelle Musy

Provisional overall ranking after yesterday’s race

1. Nantes-St-Nazaire / Pierre Loic Berthet 510 points

2. Région Ile de France / Jimmy Pahun 494 points

3. Ville de Genève Carrefour Prévention / Etienne David 481 points

4. Ville d’Antibes -NEC / Julien Farnarier 453 points

4, Dieppe-Seine Maritime / Gildas Philippe 453 points

6. Marseille / Dimitri Deruelle 446 points

7. Force EDC / Simon Sutherland 445 points

8. Kenzo / Marc Thiercelin 432 points

9. Vitamine-Hyères-Coych / Nicolas Clément 428 points

10. Défi Partagé / Thierry Bouchard 425,5 points