The iconic season-closing regatta Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez was an immersive history lesson for Crosbie LorimerThe great French sailor, Eric Tabarly, an instrumental figure in the origins of what is now Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, is reputed to have said that strolling along the quays of the riviera town during this regatta was like \u2018flicking through the pages of a maritime history book\u2019.
\nTabarly\u2019s words deftly distil the essence of this unique event held each year in the small town of Saint-Tropez, perched on a north facing promontory in the gulf to which it gives its name.
\nAt first sight it seems inconceivable that this charming but pocket-sized fishing port could possibly accommodate the majority of the 250-boat fleet, representing almost 135 years of yacht design history, that descends on Saint-Tropez each year.
\nBut remarkably, for the last 25 years the skilled RIB drivers of the Capitainerie (Saint-Tropez\u2019s busy harbour master\u2019s office) have somehow nudged, towed and coaxed everything from 130ft schooners and modern maxis to small engineless sloops into cheek-by-jowl order along the harbour\u2019s modest walls and pontoons.
\nIt\u2019s perhaps that very concentration of yachting history, all in one place, that lends this event its charmed intensity, drawing huge crowds down the town\u2019s narrow laneways to walk the quays or admire the scene from the numerous waterfront eateries.
\nThe towering 210ft schooner Atlantic dominates the skyline outside the port of Saint-Tropez. Photo: Kurt Arrigo
\nSir Richard Matthews, founder of Oyster Yachts, has sailed at Les Voiles for many years, returning for the event\u2019s 25th anniversary in 2024 with his 12 Metre Crusader. He remains beguiled by the whole experience.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a magic place,\u201d he said. \u201cYou walk the docks at Saint-Tropez, it\u2019s yacht porn basically! It\u2019s just unique in my experience with the bands playing in the streets. Everybody loves it and we certainly do, it\u2019s fantastic.\u201d
\nThis relaxed end-of-season atmosphere at Les Voiles owes much to the conscious efforts of the host club Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Nautique Saint-Tropez (SNST) to preserve the spontaneous, quirky DNA of the event\u2019s origins.
\nThe spur-of-the-moment challenge in 1981 between American Dick Jayson\u2019s Swan 44 Pride and Jean Redele\u2019s 1964 12 Metre America\u2019s Cup boat Ikra is well documented. But the twists and turns that SNST\u2019s Patrice de Colmont took to evolve that mismatched challenge into Les Voiles\u2019 popular precursor, La Nioulargue, is worthy of its own documentary.
\nGaff and Bermudan rigs fill the horizon during racing for the Tradition yachts. Photo: Kurt Arrigo
\nFor all the amicable ambience that pervades the regatta, the competition across the three classes and 19 divisions of Maxis, Moderns and Tradition is real enough, even when the fixed start line location off the town\u2019s sea wall for the latter two classes can often add a random dimension to the results. Upwind or downwind, you take what comes on the day.
\nShort straw
\nWith 15 divisions across these two classes sent off from the line at midday, the early divisions can also draw the short straw when the sea breeze makes a late appearance, as it did on several days in 2024; a particular challenge for the favourably rated boats in the Moderns class.
\nCrews on the smaller classics get a good dousing in champagne conditions. Photo: Tobias Stoerkle \/www.blende64.com
\nBut for the likes of Will Ryan, a regular on the TP52 Super Series circuit and strategist aboard King Frederik of Denmark\u2019s chartered TP52 Nanoq at Les Voiles, it\u2019s all part of the deal: \u201cFor one-design racing you\u2019ll typically go to where the best wind is first and then do good quality racing there. Whereas here it\u2019s all about the show. It\u2019s fun to be part of the show, but it does come with the consequences that make it a challenging race course.\u201d
\nIt was, however, a challenge well met by Nanoq\u2019s team, taking the North Sails Trophy for best IRC B boat in the Moderns, despite the King\u2019s absence on royal duties.
\nMany of the sport\u2019s best navigators also relish the challenge of the complex weather patterns at Les Voiles. Ocean racing meteorologist Will Oxley, the navigator aboard Nanoq, holds Les Voiles as one of his top three favourite regattas around the world. He explained that the Mistral, which has played havoc with many sailors and regattas in the summer of 2024, does not always impact Saint-Tropez.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s interesting because just to the west of us we\u2019ve got the Gulf of Lyon and the Mistral funnels down there, said Oxley. \u201cBut here we are in a bay and we\u2019ll often see that the Mistral misses the bay in the morning.
\n\u201cYou typically get a light breeze coming down off the mountains and then you often get sea breezes setting up on each side of the bay, frequently from completely different directions.\u201d
\nThe distinctive restored 12 Metre Jenetta. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nUnpredictable breezes
\nThose mercurial breezes were much in evidence during this year\u2019s regatta, with the Moderns and Classics divisions struggling to get off the start line from the town\u2019s Portalet Tower on several days.
\nBut even for the four Maxi divisions which enjoyed a mix of coastal and windward\/leeward races in the more reliable offshore breezes, meeting the race cut-off time proved a challenge on the Tuesday, while racing was abandoned across all fleets on the Thursday.
\nAmong those Maxis, Black Jack 100 enjoyed consistent line honours wins in the Maxi A division under her new owner Remon Vos, but it was Peter Harrison\u2019s Jolt that held off Sir Peter Ogden\u2019s Jethou to take both the Barons de Rothschild and IMA trophies.
\nFor the professionals that sail at Les Voiles, this regatta is often seen as a welcome counterpoint to the intensity of fully professional events.
\nThe 130ft modern classic Naema is an Alfred Mylne replica. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nDual Olympic medallist and multiple World Champion in the Tornado class, Mitch Booth, is these days usually to be found racing with all-professional crews on some of the fastest maxi yachts in the world.
\nAt Les Voiles he was enjoying a changed role that he described as \u2018tactician\/coach\u2019 with two other pros and a mixed crew of family and friends aboard Matthew Gander\u2019s CNB 76 Playstation PS5, which is relatively new to racing.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExtraordinary boats: Maluka \u2013 restoration of a 1932 classic<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\tColumbia: a completely reinvented stunning classic yacht<\/p>\n
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He offered some insight into the role that professionals play on the mostly amateur-crewed day racer Maxi yachts at regattas like Les Voiles.
\n\u201cEvery race the owners want to win, but the atmosphere here is quite friendly and relaxed too. We call these boats cruiser-racers, but in fact they\u2019re really cruisers that race and most of these boats are not raced on a regular basis.
\n\u201cWe typically go through the boat before the event, checking all the strops and blocks; they might say \u2018Oh, we haven\u2019t used that spinnaker for two years,\u2019 or \u2018We don\u2019t know how it should be hoisted or how it sheets.\u2019 It\u2019s just applying the race mentality onto a non-racing boat.\u201d
\nSir Richard Matthews\u2019s 12 Metre Crusader. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nDanish sailor Nicolai Sehested is more typically seen wearing a helmet as the skipper of Rockwool, Denmark\u2019s SailGP team. But as regular tactician on Terry Hui\u2019s division-winning Wally 77 Lyra in the Maxi B division, Sehested enjoys the relaxed atmosphere of this event too.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s probably most sailors\u2019 favourite place in Europe to race for many reasons. There\u2019s always just very varied conditions. And you get to see so many cool boats racing at the same time.
\n\u201cBut the main thing is the culture. You can even hear it now,\u201d says Sehested as a trumpeter belts out a polished rendition of Verdi\u2019s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from a neighbouring classic.
\nCentenary Trophy winner Oriole. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nSmall but mighty
\nLes Voiles has evolved over the years. But should anyone try to subvert the competitive but friendly spirit of this invitation-only regatta, SNST\u2019s president Pierre Roinson has some tongue-in-cheek words of warning: \u201cInfluence peddling is always a factor, as some people \u2013 and we have their names! \u2013 try to change things around so they can join a class more in their favour. That is just not possible.\u201d
\nDetermined to sail his 26ft Solent Sunbeam Dainty in the Tradition class at Saint-Tropez in the boat\u2019s centenary year in 2022, Peter Nicholson pursued a long campaign with the SNST Committee to offer the boat an exemption to their minimum waterline length rule.
\nThe ever-practical Committee eventually saved face for all by offering Dainty guest status, making her the smallest boat in the regatta.
\nNicholson has spent almost 60 years sailing Sunbeams, finally calling it quits at the end of this year. But having broken Dainty\u2019s boom at the Cannes regatta a fortnight before Les Voiles, he and his crew were counting their blessings that they made it all.
\nSome 250 yachts, mostly with family and amateur crews, competed at this year\u2019s 25th anniversary regatta. Photo: Tobias Stoerkle \/www.blende64.com
\n\u201cThere is nowhere in the Mediterranean they could mend it or replace it. So I phoned back home to Haines Boatyard in Itchenor who had a spare,\u201d said Nicholson, having realised that the greater challenge was getting a 3.7m-long boom delivered to Saint-Tropez in time.
\n\u201cI asked an old friend Viv Williams if his [grown-up] children \u2013 who regularly run deliveries \u2013 could help. Viv said they were all busy but he quite liked the idea of coming down himself. So he drove it the 900 miles and we were up and running for the first race \u2013 which we won!
\nFittingly for her last appearance at Les Voiles, Dainty also won Best Yacht in Guest Category for the week.
\nAmong the smaller boats in the Moderns class were five Cape 31s racing under IRC. Michael Wilson owns Shotgunn, the eventual winner of the BMW Trophy for the best IRC C Division boat, and said his crew loved the change of format to IRC rating against other yachts at Les Voiles.
\nCompetitive racing in the Epoque Aurique class. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\n\u201cOne-design racing in Cape 31s is superb, very intense. You can come here to an IRC event and be competitive but it\u2019s just nice to do an event that\u2019s a bit more relaxed.\u201d
\nJet set and art
\nFor many, the name of Saint-Tropez is associated with the jet set celebrities of the 1960s and 70s, most notably Brigitte Bardot, whose 90th birthday in 2024 was celebrated with a wrapped image of her younger self on the lighthouse that marks the port\u2019s entrance.
\nBut Saint-Tropez\u2019s appeal was first brought to popular attention by the post-impressionist artists of the late 19th Century, chief among them Paul Signac, whose colourful pointillist paintings of yachts in Saint-Tropez harbour reflected his own interests as a very accomplished sailor and owner of numerous yachts.
\nThe 1907 yawl Veronique. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nThe design of a number of the 19 yachts that competed in the Gstaad Centenarian Trophy pursuit race for classics over 100 years old would doubtless have been familiar to Signac, not least the 1905 Herreshoff-designed (gaff-rigged) Oriole, which won the race.
\nThe age of a yacht has no bearing on its crew\u2019s competitiveness, however, with Oriole\u2019s Spanish team having bent on a new and stiffer mainsail that morning to best suit the light air conditions!
\nAgainst expectations the breeze lifted on the last day of racing to show off the whole Tradition class at its best. Being a weekend day, the locals came out in force on power boats and yachts, keeping the marshalls busy in their fast RIBs, corralling the numerous infringers of the No Go boundaries with piercing whistles.
\nAs the mixed fleet of classics approached the port\u2019s finish line in the late afternoon sun, the magnificent Fife-designed gaff cutter Tuiga \u2013 eventual winner of the Ch\u00e2teau Saint-Maur Trophy \u2013 was surrounded by the huge spectator flotilla.
\nBattling waves \u2013 the 1918 Eight Metre yacht Apache. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nSuch is the almost venerated aura that surrounds the regatta-founding challenge between the Swan 44 Pride and the 12 metre Ikra (not present in 2024), that the former occupies the most prominent berth on Qaui de Jean Jaures each year, moored under the watchful eye of Admiral Suffren\u2019s soaring statue, which fronts the popular Hotel Sube.
\nWith so much of the regatta\u2019s rich and well-documented history centred on Pride, it would be reasonable for Will and Gillian Graves (the third generation of the extended family to race Pride at les Voiles) to feel the weight of that storied heritage. But Will Graves sees it as a legacy to be embraced.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been coming here for 14 years now and it\u2019s an amazing event for a family. This is a heritage that Bill has from his father \u2013 Gillian\u2019s grandfather \u2013 and I hope that our kids come and get to see this. It\u2019s wonderful sailing, an incredible area of the world, it\u2019s just really special.\u201d
\nThe new Carkeek-designed Daguet 5 retired after breaking one of her rudders during a collision with a spectator boat. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget
\nThe Pride\/Ikra challenge has been re-enacted by both boats in previous years, while the SNST also continues the tradition by encouraging other yachts to issue their own match race challenges for the coveted Club 55 Paul Watson Cup.
\nIn 2024 two Maxis, Filip Balcean\u2019s Balthasar and Pier Luigi Loro Piana\u2019s My Song threw down the gauntlet for a match race, with My Song winning across the line.
\nBut at the officially described \u2018boozy\u2019 post-race lunch, which tradition dictates will take place among the challenge crews and SNST officials at Club 55 on Pampelonne Beach, there was obviously a shared concern about the result.
\nIn light of the marked disparity in ratings between the two yachts the SNST committee later deemed My Song and Balthasar joint winners of the Club 55 Paul Watson Cup. Only at Les Voiles, surely!<\/p>\n
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The iconic season-closing regatta Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez was an immersive history lesson for Crosbie LorimerThe great French sailor, Eric Tabarly, an instrumental figure in the origins of what is now Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, is reputed to have said … <\/p>\n