Les Voiles de St. Tropez

Not a bad day for the Moneypenny. We think we beat Container, so that we put us ahead of her for the week. Numbers and Ran beat us for sure.

After a lengthy postponement ashore, the fleet headed out for a pleasant race. By 1300 the wind had moderated to 12 knots and we sailed a relatively short race of approximately 12 miles.

It was good that the fleet was able to get out for one last race. With several hundred boats of all types and vintages, the Voiles de St. Tropez is as much a festival of sailing as it is a race.

Shortly after finishing half the crew got off Moneypenny and half of us stayed onboard. We are just passing Cap de Antibes right now, the sun is setting, after a very fast and enjoyable spinnaker run to the east. Deliveries don’t get any easier than this.

So the Middle Sea Race is next for Moneypenny, with the start in Valetta, Malta on October 18th. I will not be in Malta with Moneypenny as I will be racing on El Desafio in the TP 52 World Championship in Lanzarote.

All the best from the Cote d’ Azur.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

No racing today. Mistral was in strong. 52 knots top wind speed! No one left the harbor.

The forecast is for this to moderate tomorrow and hopefully be raceable.

We will see.

I had a very nice dinner with my French cousins last night in Mougins, which is a very charming town just inland of Cannes.

Tonight is Moneypenny owner Jim Swartz’s birthday party. The cooks are preparing something special.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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Les Voiles de St. Tropez

We had an email blackout at our house over the past 24 hours and somehow my Blackberry went down at the same time. Blackberry is back up now so I am writing this from the boat.

Anyway, yesterday was a black day for us onboard Moneypenny as we were black flagged at the start.

Today was better in that when the wind got squirley, we played through and passed Container. Numbers still is very fast and probably won the race.

So we were 3rd or 4th today and hoping for at least one more race so we can discard our black flag of yesterday.

The temperature has warmed up a bit and the croissants are still good.

Tomorrow is a lay day with racing resuming Friday. The forecast for Friday is for a Mistral, so it should be pretty breezy.

The results for this regatta can be found at www.snst.org

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