Despite the wind turning light and complicated for the last two days, Maxi Yacht competition at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez was successfully held on three out of four days.
The smaller yachts raced in week one leaving the maxis (yachts of 18.29+ m) to race exclusively over four days in the second.
The change enabled maxi racing to take place in the prime spot of the Baie de Saint-Tropez with fixed, spectator-friendly start and finish lines immediately off the town.
Delighted with the week was the crew of the Farr 100 Leopard (image above).
Chartered this week to Dutch internet entrepreneur Joost Schuijff. The yacht, originally built for Mike Slade, scored race wins Thursday and Friday.
A 2-1-1 scoreline was enough to secure Leopard a well-deserved victory in IR1.
Elena of London, the 41.6m modern classic schooner, scored a perfect scoreline against the 38m long gaff schooner Puritan in the GTR class competing for the Trophée Bessarat de Bellefon.
While Renaud Rupert’s B60 Criollos won the almost exclusively French six boat IR3 class from Richard Bedere’s Bordeaux 60 Mr Beelzebuth.
The tightest racing was certainly in IR2, where Philippe Ligier’s Wally 80 Ryokan 2 prevailed, with a 1-2-2 scoreline over the three races.
While Jean-Philippe Blanpain’s Vismara-Mills 62 Leaps & Bounds (formerly Roberto Lacorte’s Super Nikka) won Thursday’s race,
On Friday it was finally the turn of Benoît de Froidmont’s Wally 60, Wallyño, which last year won the International Maxi Association’s Mediterranean Maxi Inshore Challenge on these waters.