25 and 26 February 2023

On this first weekend of the long-awaited ArMen 2023 Festival, even if the Saint-Tropez – Lavandou race could not be held due to a strong gale forecast, the competitors were still able to compete in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez!

On Saturday 25 February, the 44 IRC or Osiris boats were ready on the quays of Saint Tropez but the lack of wind meant that the day’s regatta was cancelled. The next day, the forecast was more muscular! The race committee had the good idea to bring forward the start of the races to 9am (instead of 11am) so that the crews could return to the race course before the forecasted gale, i.e. at 1pm on land.

At the end of this first weekend, Olivier Bouquet’s CHIHUAHUA (IRC3), Marc Pons’ MACAYA (IRC4), Didier François’ ROCK N ROLL (OSG), Christian Le Floch’s MAJOLANM (OSP) and Thibaut Garnotel’s SENSATION 2 (OSR) are leading the provisional ranking in their respective groups.

During the welcome drink on Friday 24th February at the Société Nautique de Saint Tropez, the President of the Club, Pierre Roinson, thanked the competitors, the organisation, the annual partners of the SNST, including the Galeries Bartoux who marked their presence with a superb statue of Luo Li Rong in front of the Club, without forgetting Cécile de Kock and Roland Delsemme, faithful artists engaged for the ARMEN Festival.

Some very nice works were produced by the competitors on the theme “Make the ARMEN 2024 Festival poster” and it will be difficult to decide between them!

A special thanks to the town of Le Lavandou and its Yacht Club who had prepared a welcome cocktail for Saturday evening. The caterer was brought back to the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez for the occasion.

The racers are delighted with this first weekend of racing and will meet again for some of them on Friday 3rd March 2023 for the skiing event in Isola 2000 before the second weekend on the water in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez!