From the 25th of September to the 2nd of October, the best classical sailboats are coming together at Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez for a week of competition etched in tradition, elegance and performance.
The Rolex Trophy – the Holy Grail of inescapable Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez – attracts the audience fascinated by the sport, so elegant, tactical, and very exigent!
The Swiss watchmaker is renowned for its high-quality products, which are aristocratic and elegant, but Rolex is also and above all one of the first brands to have accompanied exceptional people in their exploits: the young English female swimmer Mercedes Gleitze in 1927 crossed the English Channel with an Oyster model, the ascension of Everest in company of the Explorer model and the descent into the depths at 11 000 meter with the Deepsea model.
The impact of Rolex on human exploits, a topic you can read about here.
In a larger sense, Rolex has thus become the ideal partner for a number of sports competitions; before being the purveyor of desirable objects, the brand has always seekd to associate its name to activities that require a degree of excellence, precision and team work, just like watchmaking does. Naturally, the brand has subsequently gotten closer and closer to the prestigious world of sailing by consolidating its first partnership at the end of the 50s. Nowadays, is the Sponsor Title for fifteen world class races as well as certain presitigious yacht clubs around the world. The watchmaker has also sponsored the Voiles de Saint-Tropez since 2006: the Rolex Trophy rewards every year a new precise category of sailboats. This year, on top of celebrating the 40 year anniversary of Les Voiles, the competition also celebrates the 15 year jubilee of the partnership.
The 2021 Edition Of Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez
Thus, from the 25th of September to the 2nd of October, the most beeautiful sailboats will rendez-vous in the gulf of Saint-Tropez for a week long competition. Between 250 and 300 ships among the most splendid models in the world; a week during which the ships, some over a century old, will clash.
The boats, as chic as they are dominant, answer to the names of Chinook (1916), Chips (1913), Corinthian (1911), Marga (1910), Olympian (1913), Spartan (1913) and, finally, Scud (1903). Fearsome regattas with renowned elegance, all of which are born to the sketches of famed architects, such as Nathanaël Herreshoff, William Gardner, C. O. Lilregen or even Starling Burgess.
Seven among them will compete to try to snatch the Rolex Trophy. Only the consistency of navigation will decide the Chinook (1916 – 19m80), the Chips (1913 – 16m18), the Starling Burgess Corinthian (1911 – 16m80), the Marga (1910 – 17m20), the Liljegren Olympian (1913 – 16m76), the William Gardner Spartan (1913 – 22m), or the Scud (1903 – 18m59).
This is a guaranteed breathtaking event — especially when the former president of the Nautical Society of Saint-Tropez, André Beaufils, recalls the influence of the Sails of Saint-Tropez on one of the greatest sailors of the last century… ” I remember the surprise of Eric Tabarly who said: « I never imagined that I would one day see in real life everything I had seen in books. »
The book about Eric Tabarly to find out all subtleties of sailing through the work of inventor-enthusiast can be found here.