Heirs to the Nioulargue, the Voiles de Saint-Tropez express an exceptional alchemy, combining the pleasure of sailing with an innate sense of festivity. Patrice de Colmont, director of Club 55 and founder of the event, and André Beaufils, Past-President of the SNST, testify.
The origins of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez are said to lie in a meeting that took place over thirty years ago. How did it all begin?
Patrice de Colmont. A happy coincidence! At the end of September 1981, an American couple with a racing Swan stopped off in Saint-Tropez after the Swan Cup in Porto Cervo. They took part in a few SNST regattas, got to know a few people and, one fine day, as the owner was talking about his regatta successes, the 12-meter Ikra entered the harbor. Someone says: “What about Ikra, do you think you could beat her?” Immediate reply: “Why not, if Ikra accepts the challenge.” I immediately ran to Jean Laurain, skipper ofIkra, who agreed to go out for a regatta the next day. That’s how it all started, with a crazy challenge between a Swan 44 and a 12 Meter JI!
It was already an alliance of the ancient and the modern. What was the outcome of the battle?
Patrice de Colmont. On the morning of the start, a friend and I decided to buy a nautical chart to define the route. But we found it too expensive, and settled on a road map where we pencilled in the blue zone marked “golfe de Saint-Tropez”! The start is given in front of the Portalet tower, we round the Nioulargue shoal buoy and the finish is judged in front of my house, at Club 55, where a big table awaits everyone. Ikra comes in first, well ahead of Pride, the Swan 44, but that’s all secondary. The crews have lunch together and, as a trophy, I present the winner with a silver compotier from the French Navy’s crockery collection. The atmosphere is in full swing when the Var Matin correspondent arrives to ask who these people are who seem to be having so much fun. I explain that it’s a regatta. “Ah! What regatta?” I reply, “But… the Club 55 Cup!” and the crews go on to declare, “It’s been very tough, a high-level challenge, we’ll have our revenge next year,” and so on. The next day, the headline in Var Matin: “A new America’s Cup is born!
And that was enough to launch the event?
Patrice de Colmont. No, of course not. We’d almost forgotten all about it when, the following September, in 1982, our American friend insisted on taking his revenge, and other boats wanted to join in the challenge. So we organized a second edition with a few disparate boats including, among others, the one-tonner Fantomas, Queen of Sheeba, a Belgian boat, Helisara and also Bourru III, an old auric cutter and the only classic boat in this second edition. The prize-giving ceremony was once again a joyous mix, with the mayor awarding the town medal and the Belgians winning their weight in potatoes. I think there was even a pumpkin as a prize! That’s when a friend of ours, Gouédard, arrived, someone quite decisive and who told us: “If there aren’t any maxis, your thing isn’t a regatta!” We looked at each other, for a moment dumbfounded, and said, without really knowing what he was talking about, “If that’s all there is, we’ll invite maxis.”
But back then, it was a very organized class, a very closed club. How did you go about it?
Patrice de Colmont. According to initial information, it was unthinkable to bring them in, so the world’s biggest yachting bluff operation began. We sent a telex to the Aga Khan, president of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, where the second round of the Maxi World Championship was taking place, saying: “The Yacht-Club de Saint-Tropez (which didn’t exist!) would like to present its regatta program to Maxi owners, so could you arrange a meeting?” Twenty-four hours later, we had an appointment. Serge Krasnianski, whose firm Kiss was just making a name for itself, lent us his jet for a small group to fly to Sardinia. There, we told our little story and were courteously rebuffed by the skippers. Before leaving, after giving the owners all sorts of trinkets – polo shirts, cases of wine, cigars bearing the Nioulargue coat of arms – we organized a surprise breakfast for a couple of hundred people on the very pontoon where the maxis were moored, to treat all the crews. Then we left, leaving the guys intrigued and very impressed.
Still, it looked like a failure…
Patrice de Colmont. Wait! A few weeks later, we learn that the maxi Mistress Quickly is pointing her bow into the bay to have her electronics repaired in Port-Grimaud. We immediately head out there and give them one hell of a welcome. To give you an idea of the atmosphere, as one of the crew complains about the noise of the clock in the belfry, which chimes every hour, Gouédard makes no bones about it, dashes up, climbs the belfry with his bare hands and blocks the hands by twisting them on the spot. That way,” he says, ” you’ll sleep in peace! The boys thought they’d landed in a madhouse! Then we invited them to Saint-Tropez, and the game was to keep them there by organizing a continuous party, dinners, wild nights, boules tournaments, anything. That’s when we created a new tradition: the Australian breakfast, beer and croissants at eight o’clock in the morning! Then came Midnight Sun, and we learned that Christian de Galéa, who had just launched a new maxi, was planning to come and run. As a result, the Midnight guys were tempted to join in and things got serious. With two boats, we had a class, a cup… It was won! We ended up with four maxis side by side in the harbour and, at the end of the race, François Carn, the class secretary, came to tell us that the Nioulargue would be included in the official maxi class calendar from the following year.
But what was the idea behind all this?
Patrice de Colmont. Have fun! Nothing but fun! We all worked like crazy throughout the summer season, and when October 1st came around, it was a holiday. We wanted to use Saint-Tropez for our own pleasure, and the regattas gave us an excuse to throw a real party that wasn’t all glitz and glamour, but where people could really enjoy themselves. We had no commercial goals, and every extravagance was welcome! I compare the first Nioulargue to the annual lumberjack festival in the forests of the far north. It’s all about who can chop down their tree the fastest, while the kids tug on the rope and the women compete to produce the best blueberry pie! It was the same for us, but around the sea.
André Beaufils. That’s right, the sea was more important than sailing, and from 1984 onwards, categories such as “sea-explorers”, “tropéziens-travailers”, “tropéziens-marconi” were invented to create classes where everyone was included. The parades, the fancy dresses, the water games at the harbor entrance with the girls in their guêpières – the famous “girelles” – and the boules competitions, all came together spontaneously. It was all about having fun, people wanted to see something else, to have their minds full of memories, to share all the ingredients for a good time together. Having said that, the Nioulargue quickly gained an international audience and gave an unprecedented boost to restoration. Classic yachts developed thanks to people like Albert Obrist, who began digging through archives to rebuild boats to their original condition. It was with successive editions that we saw the return of boats with authentic rigs. It was a complete change of mentality, because crews also had to be found and trained to handle them.
The fatal accident in 1995 between the schooner Mariette and the 6 MJI Taos Brett marked the end of the Nioulargue and a certain state of mind. How did you come to create Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez?
André Beaufils. After the accident, the case went to trial, and the event was suspended until judgment was handed down. However, the participants had got into the habit of getting together, and for some years there was an end-of-season regatta for modern boats and a spontaneous, non-regatta gathering for classics. In 1999, with the procedure completed, the SNST was faced with a dilemma: to abandon everything or to continue. But the town, the sailors and the local economic players were all pushing for a revival. And so, with Thierry Catino, then president of the SNST, Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez was born. Today, we welcome around three hundred boats, with roughly equal numbers of modern and classic boats.
But the spirit has changed, and we no longer see young girls throwing buckets of water on the crews…
André Beaufils. It’s the times, the rules and the boats themselves that have changed. Today, the race instructions stipulate that water games are forbidden, whereas in the past it was quite the opposite. A lot of crews sleep in hotels. These are changes we have to take into account, and we can no longer have the casual attitude of the first editions. Above all, we mustn’t forget that it was Patrice who did all the work to get the boats here. Today, organizing the Voiles de Saint-Tropez is easy, but we’ve moved on.
Don’t you miss the wild atmosphere of the first editions of the Nioulargue?
Patrice de Colmont. There’s no need for nostalgia, because you never do the same thing twice. Annabelle Buffet, wife of painter Bernard Buffet, was once asked if she didn’t miss the Saint-Tropez of yesteryear, and she had this perfect answer: “I can’t find the Saint-Tropez I loved, but I know my children love the Saint-Tropez of today.” Well, when it comes to regattas, it’s the same thing. The fleet of boats has never been so beautiful, we’re playing to full houses and we know that all the great classics that come out of the yards will one day sail in Saint-Tropez. What more could you want?
André Beaufils. I remember Eric Tabarly’s amazement when he said, “I never imagined that one day I would see in real life all that I had seen in books.” Personally, I’m committed to respecting what Patrice has done, and I take great pleasure in overseeing this organization. Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez retains its unique character. It’s first and foremost a state of mind that we perpetuate, and we never forget the origins of our history.
Interview by Eric Vibart – 2009