A regatta born of a lunch

At the start there was no organising committee, no rulebook, no title sponsor, not even a nautical chart. There were two boat owners and a question left unanswered: which of the two was faster?

1981, the challenge

On 29 September 1981 two boats with nothing in common raced each other between the Tour du Portalet and Pampelonne beach. On one side Pride, a Swan 44. On the other Ikra, a 12 M JI, which is to say the rule used by America’s Cup yachts.

On paper the comparison makes no sense. That is exactly what made it interesting. The loser bought lunch.

Rather than pay for a nautical chart, the improvised organisers drew the course in pencil on a road map, inside the blue area marked “golfe de Saint-Tropez”.

From La Nioulargue to Les Voiles

The course rounded a mark local fishermen call the Nioulargue, nioulargo in Provençal, “nest out to sea”. Patrice de Colmont, who runs the Club 55, suggested doing it again the following year. The challenge became the Club 55 Cup, then La Nioulargue.

The event ran until 1995. That year a collision cost a crew member his life and the event was suspended pending proceedings. In 1999 the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez took the organisation back on under a new name: Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez.

Three fleets

The principle set in 1981 has not moved. Three fleets race the same week on the same water:

• The Tradition: classic yachts, often a century old, wood and bronze.
• The Moderns: contemporary hulls, composite materials.
• The Maxis: the largest boats, over 18 metres.

At least three J Class yachts are expected in the gulf for the 2026 edition. They are former America’s Cup boats, drawn in the 1930s.

Watching the racing

Access to the village and the quays is free. The village is open from 9 am to 9 pm, and until 5 pm on the last day. The clearest viewpoints are the Môle Jean Réveille and the Tour du Portalet. The Graniers road gives another, a little higher up.

Starts are given in the early afternoon. The fleet comes back in at the end of the day, which is the most spectacular moment from the harbour.

The event is run by the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, a yacht club founded in 1862, under the patronage of the Yacht Club de France.