Solo stampede coming to America

Brittany turned on its best Spring sailing weather – sunshine, puffy cumulus clouds and a decent 10-15 knots of Westerly wind – to send the 2024 Transat CIC fleet on its way from Lorient towards New York for the start on April 28 of the legendary solo race across the North Atlantic.

The first edition of the race since 2016 was blessed with relatively benign, modest breezes for early afternoon’s farewell to the fleet of 33 IMOCA solo skippers, 13 Class 40 singlehanded racers and two vintage craft. For the very latest generation of IMOCAs there was enough wind to accelerate on to their foils for increasingly long periods.

Almost as if to make up for the time and two key races he missed last Autumn due to a medical issue, Charlie Dalin on MACIF Santé Prévoyance made the sharpest, best timed start and led what will be a hotly contested race before being overtaken by the powerful Charal sailed by Jéremie Beyou, who – just as he did on the start of last Autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre – quickly powered ahead on his Sam Manuard designed scow.

Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux (TeamWork Team SNEF) was in hot pursuit of the top trio which included Yoann Richomme (Paprec-Arkéa) winner of last year’s Rétour à La Base solo race from Marinique to Lorient.

Boris Herrmann was in the mix after a more conservative start, taking an offshore line. As he left the dock in Lorient the German ace remarked, “I am excited but have enormous respect for the North Atlantic, a little bit of fear almost, excited….anxiety even for this race. This is an adventure, we don’t know what is going to happen out there. It will take a lot of energy at the start to mix it up with the coast and the rocks after the start and then to try to find the new NW wind early hopefully, earlier than the others I hope and then we have a big strategic decision at night to close to Ireland or not to stay further offshore before we tack north and that is the potentially the biggest strategic decision of the race. I am looking forwards to be sailing with my boat and I have great memories of the route.”

And Class 40 put on another stunning display of close racing, pre-race favourites Ambrogio Beccaria and Ian Lipinski dueling off the line under tightly sheeted Code sails on the close reach.

“I’m feeling quite stressed but confident,” noted Beccaria, winner of the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre. “For the first two days, I would like to be 100% comfortable on my boat, without any major damage. The strongest wind is going to come in two and a half days and it’s the position where it won’t help us win the race but instead where we can lose it.

“It’s definitely the first time sailing there for me, it’s really different from the other times because in my other times at the end it got easier than at the start, whereas this is not the same. There will be a lot of new things for me to manage such the forbidden zone, the Gulf Stream.”

The battle of the IMOCAs
Of a maximum capacity entry of 40 entries for the upcoming Vendée Globe, 33 are lining up on this outbound race of two back to back Transatlantic races, both valuable qualifiers to be sure of starting the solo race round the world.

In 2016, this IMOCA race which was won by Armel Le Cléac’h in 12 days and two hours, was the first evidence of the potential of foils. Now, all of the top Vendée Globe campaigns are fitted with new, latest generation foils – Jéremie Beyou’s Charal, Charlie Dalin’s MACIF Santé et Prévoyance, Justine Mettraux’s TeamWork Team SNEF, Boris Herrmann’s Malizia Sea Explorer, and Sam Davies Initiatives Coeur.

This race to New York will be a fascinating insight into the speed and efficiency gains made sailing upwind on the new foils. Indeed, the winning time for François Gabart’s giant ULTIME multihull in 2016 of 8 days 8 hours could be matched by the winning IMOCA this time. And whilst the start of last Autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre showed Beyou’s Charal to have a significant upwind speed and height advantage, this should be evened out by the latest upgrades through the fleet.

In theory, 47 year old Beyou should be the favorite. In successive Vendée Globe campaigns, his modus operandi is to design, build, and launch early – ahead of his rivals – and continuously test, tinker, and optimize. But in spite of this, since winning the 2020 New York-Vendée race, the ‘major’ wins have continued to elude him because of small technical breakdowns. This could be his race.

Of the trio of favorites tipped by the French media cognoscenti, Charlie Dalin is only just returning to solo ocean racing after a medical issue required him to miss both of last Autumn’s Transatlantic races. And now the French skipper, who memorably was first to finish the last Vendée Globe, needs to finish this race to be sure of his own qualification.

Therefore, Dalin will have to rein in his urges to fight on level terms with Beyou and Yoann Richomme (Paprec-Arkéa). This golden trio have been rivals since their days on the Figaro offshore one design circuit on which they share five overall victories between them, Dalin being the only one never to have won but have collected five overall podiums.

Of the 33 skippers there are four women – Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux, Briton Sam Davies, German-French Isabelle Joschke, and France’s 23 year old up and coming Violette Dorange on an older, legendary 2006 Farr design.

Both Mettraux and Davies – who raced round the world together on Team SCA in 2014-2015, have the skills and the perfect boats to be on the podium in New York. Indeed Matttraux’s bold, northerly strategy on the Transat Jacques Vabre had her and co-skipper Julien Villon lead for much of the race. And Davies’ consistent fourths and fifths last season are ready to be bettered.

Of the strong contingent of international – non French – IMOCAs Germany’s Boris Herrmann has perhaps the best chance of making the podium. He has sailed the most ocean miles on his IMOCA and has just completed performance upgrades which should significantly address the weakness upwind which was his only Achilles Heel.

Joschke is a redoubtable competitor who should finish in the top 10 and Switzerland’s Alan Roura is looking to validate his winter upgrades to HUBLOT – formerly Alex Thomson’s most recent HUGO BOSS – and fight in the white heat of the race’s peloton.

Italy’s Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian Group) – 8th on the last Vendée Globe is back after illness on the Transat Jacques Vabre required him to miss the Retour à La Base.

Switzerland’s Ollie Heer (Oliver Heer) and young Brit James Harayada (Gentoo Sailing Team) are now both fighting to make the cut for Vendée qualification and need miles and finishes to ensure they are on the right side of the cruellest cut of all which will be made at the end of the New York Vendée race in early June.

The Class40 enigma
The Class40 is one off the fastest growing classes on the offshore scene, and whilst there were only four boats in 2016, today there will be 13 entrants, including 11 last generation scows. The battle seems to echo a classic Italy vs France football match.

The two Italians Ambrogio Beccaria (Alla Grande Pirelli), winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, and Alberto Bona (IBSA), last year’s Class40 champion, are certainly among the favorites, but they will have to defend themselves from multiple attacks from their French competitors like Ian Lipinski, who despite having just launched his new scow, will race on his faithful °158; or Fabien Delahaye hoping to do as well as he did last season on LEGALLAIS, Nicolas d’Estais has one more reason to shine: celebrate the opening of his sponsor’s CAFÉ JOYEUX new cafe in New York.

All eyes will also be on 2004-5 Vendée Globe winner and three times winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre Vincent Riou who will set off on his brand new, single rudder Verdier design Pierreval – GoodPlanet Foundation. Expert commentators though, do not rule out the only woman in Class40 Amélie Grassi (La Boulangère Bio), Axel Tréhin (Project Rescue Ocean), or Quentin Le Nabour (Bleu Blanc Planète Location) who recently launched a Mach6.

Vintage class: back to the future
There are two boats in the Vintage category: Patrick Isoard’s Uship pour Enfants du Mékong and Rémy Gérin’s FAIAOAHE. Being quite different from each other is easy to expect they will do their own race but they have an important goal too, promote the Vintage class to have more and more boats celebrating the history of The Transat CIC in the future.

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Source: agence.rivacom.fr