Leg 2 complete for Atlantic Cup
Published on June 3rd, 2024
Portland, ME (June 3, 2024) – The 2024 Atlantic Cup held its second leg – a 360-nautical mile race from Newport, RI to Portland which started June 1 – with mere minutes separating the top two Class40 doublehanded teams. The Italian/French duo of Alberto Riva and Jean Mare on Acrobatica captured line honors when they crossed the finish line at 08:56:52 a.m. EST. The Italian duo also won the first leg from Charleston to Newport, cementing their place atop the leaderboard.
Finishing 7 minutes and 31 seconds after Acrobatica was Pierre-Louis Atwell and Maxime Bensa on Vogue avec un Crohn in second place which puts them in a tie for second overall in the race. Completing the podium, dékulpe edged out Everial by 25 seconds to secure third place.
The nearly two-day race challenged the teams as the wind on multiple occasions would drop off, creating a restart with nearly all the teams within sight of each other throughout the race.
“It was crazy intense because we were all together all the time,” said Mare. “We could see each other the entire race. [With the weather] we had to restart multiple times and we had to fight a lot! It was really hard, but fun.”
Atwell added, “We had lots of transitions and sometimes it was a bit hard for us because we have a small gennaker but we had a good last night, we were expecting to win until these guys [Acrobatica] decided to that they want to win, so next time.”
The duo of Mike Hennessey and Roger Junet on Scowling Dragon, which had to retire from the first leg after sustaining major structural damage, deemed it necessary to withdraw from the remainder of the race.
The remaining seven teams will be in Portland as the Atlantic Cup culminates with a two-day coastal series on June 5-6 that will take them into Casco Bay and the surrounding waters.
Race details – Tracking – Facebook
The seventh edition of the Atlantic Cup is the only dedicated Class40 race in the United States and the longest offshore race in the Western Atlantic.
2024 schedule:
May 25 – Leg 1 Start: Charleston, SC to Newport, RI (708nm)
June 1 – Leg 2 Start: Newport, RI to Portland, ME (249nm)
June 5-6 – Leg 3 – Coastal series: Portland, ME