Today's Sailing News 

Tour Voile 2000

Yesterday was a 77 mile offshore race for the fleet of 34 Mumm 30's.  Start was Portsmouth England, finish  Cherbourg France.

Conditions for the race were beating in winds of around 10 knots.  Most boats sailed the rum line, but a few tacked to the east hoping to be advantaged by the favorable tide.

The overall tour leader Barlo Plastics was the winner of this offshore race.  Skipper Adrian Stead said: "With Channel there are either 1, 2 or 3 tides to contend with. Its always a case of planning. Our navigator Julian Saltter was excellent with his race vision charts and good planning. We had a confident idea of our position. We had to dive to leeward of the lead boat and were happy to do that."

2nd was Ville de Genve Carrefour Prvention, 3rd for the race Marseille 2000.

The overall standings are now lead by Barlo Plastics, with Ville de Genve Carrefour Prvention 2nd, Ctes d' Armor 3rd (4th in the offshore), Region Ile de France 4th, (5th in the offshore) and Saint-Raphal-Var-Genrali 5th (6th in the offshore).

Today in Cherbourg the fleet will sail 2 course races.  Sailing Daily will provide an update tomorrow on how the inshore races effect the standings.

Image Essay:  Comparing 43 footers

Every so often an opportunity presents itself when you work at one the Great Lakes largest sailboat yards.  This morning such an opportunity was there to snap images of 43 sailboats intended for racing built 16 years apart.

Only two flights were sailed on Wednesday.  The top 4 skippers in the standings did not sail.  Conditions in Sweden were winds of 8-10 knots with shifts that had to be picked correctly if you wanted to win.

Best results in the days limited action were posted by home country sailors Magnus Holmberg and Hans Wallen.  They both won their 2 races.

After two days of racing 8 of the 12 skippers have a .500 winning percentage or better.  Without question the scramble to gain the four semi final spots is still all on.