La Bordée Maltaise regatta

After a five-day rest, eight French yachts which took part in the La Bordée Maltaise regatta put up their sails again yesterday to join Maltese skippers in the Comino Race.

The boats had left the port of Le Lavandou, a seaside resort in the south of France, on July 7, and arrived in Malta last Monday.

This regatta is jointly organised by the Malta Tourism Authority's office in France, the Town Hall in Le Lavandou and the Club des Passionées.

This is the eighth edition of La Bordée Maltaise and Dominic Micallef, director of the MTA office in Paris, said the event was geared to stimulate tourism between the two countries.

La Bordée Maltaise is a leisurely event in which different types of yachts can take part, with skippers bringing along their families and friends.

On their way from Le Lavandou to Carlo Fonte in Sardinia and Port El Kantaoui in Tunisia, the yachts sailed through very calm seas, but the wind shifted on the last stretch to Malta and two yachts had to turn back.

However, these two yachts caught up 48 hours later and yesterday joined the 18 boats taking part in the Comino Race organised by the Royal Malta Yacht Club.

Club des Passionées representative Jean-Marc Rutin, and Le Lavandou deputy mayor Charlotte Bouvard were also in Malta yesterday to watch the Comino Race.

Mr Micallef, who was speaking at the start of the Comino Race, said that this year the number of yachts taking part in the La Bordée Maltaise had gone down compared to last year.

"We have to rethink how and when we organise the event to encourage more people to take part," Mr Micallef said.

It was first held in 1992, but after five consecutive years, the organisers, mainly the sailing Club Euro Naut., decided to give the event a break.

However, in 2000 the mayor of Le Lavandou, Gil Bernardi, approached Mr Micallef to see if Malta was interested in reviving the event and it has once again become a yearly event.

The MTA office in France organises an entire promotional campaign in the south of France for La Bordée Maltaise.

Among them was an exhibition of 24 paintings by Luciano Micallef titled 'Memories in Stone'. These depicted Malta's main monuments in a modern way.

"There is a lot of sun and sea in Le Lavandou so we try to promote Malta's cultural heritage, as well as its niche markets instead," Mr Micallef said.

Meanwhile, a French television crew also flew to Malta to film the Comino Race and Malta's attributes as a maritime centre for a documentary on La Bordée Maltaise.

The prize were presented to the skippers by Tourism Minister Michael Refalo during a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Sliema last night.