Jean-Marie LIOT Images / TourVoile
Sailor Albane Dubois and her Mars'Elles team will be flying the colours of Action Education in the Tour Voile 2023. (formerly known as the Tour de France à la voile). See you at the start on 1er July in Saint-Quay-Portrieux, Côtes d'Armor.
Albane Dubois has already signed up alongside Action Education for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, along with another athlete, Lili Sebesi. The two Frenchwomen managed to qualify for the final and finished in the world's top 10 in the sailing speciality.
The new project for Albane and her women's 100% team, known as the Mars'Elles Sailing Team, is to take part in the Tour Voile 2023. This competition, previously known as the "Tour de France à la voile", will take place from 1er to 16 July, with 12 crews taking part. A course of around 700 nautical miles in 20 legs awaits the sailors of the Tour Voile.
The aim of the competition is to facilitate the inclusion of young top-level athletes in ocean racing and to encourage gender diversity. Each crew of four must include at least one woman and two crew members under the age of 26. The race also incorporates budgetary and environmental sobriety objectives (avoiding land transport of boats, limiting overnight stays ashore by crews, etc.).
The crews will alternate coastal courses and offshore sailing aboard the world's first production hydrofoil monohulls (Figaro Bénéteau 3). Six stopover towns will host the Tour Voile 2023 festivities: Saint-Quay-Portrieux (30 June to 2 July), Brest (3 to 6 July), Lorient (6 to 8 July), Quiberon (8 to 10 July), Pornichet (11 to 13 July) and La Rochelle (14 to 16 July).
Albane's team is made up of eight women sailors, each with a different background in sailing and some very fine achievements (French champions, world champions...). This is the first women's 100% team. "I'm very attached to the values passed on through education, such as respect and tolerance. Defending the right to education for people who don't have access to it is very important to me. I'm very committed by nature, whether it's to a race or a project that's close to my heart, and if we can promote Action Education through this challenge, it's a pleasure for us!" says Albane.
Tour Voile 2023, Brest stage, built course in Brest harbour, arrival in Brest, 3 July 2023, photo © J-M LIOT Images # TourVoile
