The Real Tour de France
William BOREL the Director of the "Tour de France" à la voile (Around France Sailing Tour) announced that the new Archambault M34 had been chosen as the next One Design boat of the "Tour de France". The "Tour de France" has been previously raced for the last decades on several One-Design. The most recent one was the Farr (Mumm) 30. The moulds of the M34 will be made in September 2009. Next spring 2010, the first prototype will be tested in order to market this new One-Design during summer 2010.
Philippe Paturel, the Archambault Distributor for North America, was very happy with the choice of the M34 for the Tour de France à la Voile. Philippe already did 9 "Tours" from 1990 to 1998 with a victory in 1994 and several podiums. World wide class sailors such as Russel Coutts, Dean Barker, Luc Gellusseau and Alain Fedensieu were on board of Paturel’s boat who was proudly carrying the colours of the tiny French Islands of St.Pierre and Miquelon on the Tour de France à la Voile. His next goal will be to motivate racing teams from North America to join the Tour in 2011 on board of a new Archambault M34. Archambault North America will certainly set up a team to compete and will also be ready to import a couple of demo M34 in USA and Canada to allow potential participant to practice on this new OD. Team Anarchy, anyone??
As the M34 is to become an international OD, Aquila Import Inc – the actual Archambault Distributor for North America – will study the possibility of building the M34 in USA or Canada in the near future. "It is a serious possibility already discussed with the yard at the last Paris Boat Show". said Paturel. "Now that the M34 has been selected, we need to move forward and analyze the possibilities of reaching this next step. We believe it would be a great opportunity for north american sailors to get their own M34 directly built in their own country in the near future".
