Les Voiles De Saint-Tropez

Disco in the South of France

This was another first time event for the Disco this year, although myself and Matt went down last year and raced on a friend's classic to find out what the regatta was all about.

We rented a villa in La Croix Valmer and berthed Disco in Port Grimaud, it was a 15 minute drive in the mornings and kept us out of all the traffic that was going into Saint-Tropez port. The villa was fantastic and made a great base for the week, with plenty of room for the 13 of us. Nothing beats the thought of our view that we woke up to every morning looking out across the bay onto Cavalier. Rowena the house keeper made us breakfast every morning which added to the perfect life.

Down in the port we were berthed next to another 47.7. There were 8 47.7s in our class which made top racing and we got to see how we compared to the rest. We were 3rd out of the 8 with our result improving every day with the best result of 7th out of the actual 40 that were in our class. Our class was certainly one to be mixing with, the IMS World Champions were at the front of the fleet with boats with Olympic and America's Cup sailors chasing them, our performance was none too shabby with a final result of 13th in class. In the top half and just outside the top quarter, gives us something to aim at next year because we will be coming back.

The other fleets consisted on the Wally Class with 9 Wally's racing and the big boat class contained, Mari Cha IV, Leopard of London, Velsheda, Pyewacket, Chippewa to name just a few of the giants. It was great to watch both of their starts before our own. We had our cameras in our pockets through most of the races! It was a real spectacle and a great event to be part of. The courses were a little long and sometimes uninteresting in the light airs but you can't have everything unless you're in the Caribbean!

The Disco Crew were as ever great and were tested to the limits as we rotated the cooking at the house. Some fine food was certainly eaten, with Bob's BBQ, normally held during Cowes Week now moved permanently to Saint-Tropez, with Grado and Kristian finishing the week in perfect style. Northy and Hutch were back as Perky's winch bitches and Kristian volunteered himself for a bit of action too... Anna & Jules ventured down onto the foredeck, Jules returned but I think Anna will be wandering back that way again. Grado was on flying form on the wine and the pole and there was the crazy beer drinking Belgium boy who managed to survive the week without eating a muscle.

What a great way to finish the summer, the villa has already been rebooked. Bring on Les Voiles De Saint-Tropez 2005, Yeah Baby!

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