Opposite: Uruguayan skipper Federico Waksman is jubilant as he crosses the finish line of the second stage of the 2023 Mini Transat in first place – and knowing he has enough of a margin over runner-up Carlos Manera Pascual of Spain to secure the overall prize. There has been a growing contingent of non-French winners in the Mini 6.50s in the last few years, which bodes well for the further ‘internationalisation’ of senior classes like the Imoca. Waksman was racing the same David Raison scow that won the Protos two years ago… but the runner-up was racing the much more complex new Sam Manuard ‘four-foil’ design we have featured previously. What this may mean for the class we cannot yet say, but Manuard’s new experiment has so far only been sailing for a few months… Above: Ambrogio Beccaria’s Italian-built Musa40 Alla Grande Pirelli is without doubt very fast, maybe too fast… when he hit the first mark of the TJV having arrived there in the lead! But it was not long before he and co-skipper Nicolas Andrieu were back in the lead
In Imoca many of the non-foiling boats chose to stay north passing
closer to the Azores, which the Imocas must leave to starboard, taking a shorter route but with more upwind sailing – an unhappy ‘cup of tea’ for their foiling rivals. In terms of boat preservation for the foilers, the southern option
is the obvious choice. Tough guys Beyou/Cammas, Richomme/Eliès and Ruyant/Lagravière are leading the pack in the south, pushing as hard as you would expect. After a tough start the Imocas are now having some ‘easy sailing’, much less violent but they still average well over 20kt for most of the time! The Class40s obviously had an awful first two days but the group
at the head of the fleet remains compact. I would say as many as a dozen of them – all have gone south – have a chance of winning. Let’s move on to the round-the-world ‘adventurers’. In Don
McIntyre’s Ocean Globe Race veteran Pen Duick VI, skippered by Eric’s daughter Marie Tabarly, led the first leg from start to nearly the finish, until the Swan 651 Spirit of Helsinki went further south of the subtropical high, and in so doing arrived first at Cape Town. The disappointment of the French crew was nothing compared
to the huge 72-hour penalty they were given after the ‘sealed bag’ containing their smartphones was discovered with broken seals. The race restarted on Sunday 5 November and a week later Pen
Duick VI was again leading at good speed in the Roaring Forties, heading for Auckland. The ambition of the crew of the black ketch is to do better than Euromarché in the Whitbread Race when Eric was skipper and, in doing so, to arrive first of the OGR fleet…
TJV – a complicated start On Sunday 29 October the Ultims left Le Havre first in the TJV. With the wind blowing at 30kt (more in the gusts), the sight of these
flying giants, pushed by a reefed main and small jib, is magnificent. Fifteen minutes later the Ocean Fiftys also head directly offshore.
Another 15 minutes and it is the turn of the Class40s to start, but now not offshore but to a ‘show’ turning mark they have to round before leaving the Channel. Here too the spectacle of 40 Class40s planing at high speed was spectacular. Rounding this mark was particularly chaotic, with several collisions because the 40-footers had to tack immediately afterwards to head to the next gate. Due to the forecast of storm force winds in Biscay threatening
both the Class40 and Ocean Fifty, the race director decided the day before the start to create a first sprint leg from Le Havre to Lorient where everyone could find shelter. But on this windy Sunday the Imocas stayed in port. Their crews
were warned that morning, shortly before the boats were due to leave the quay, that they would not go out because the weather had worsened further (to become the storm Ciarán) and they could not reach Spain before the storm, as the Ultims could; also in an emergency there was not enough room in Lorient or elsewhere down the Biscay coast to take these deep-draft 60-footers. The organisation was criticised for not having the Imocas at least
race around Le Havre with the other boats. In response they pointed out there were already major logistical and safety issues getting so many big boats back and forth through the locks into the port. So, while the Ultims were already far south when the storm hit
the coast, the other boats remained firmly moored in port, most in Lorient, some in Le Havre. Eventually the three remaining classes did start more than one week later than scheduled and with their courses trimmed – but only slightly – to make up a little of the time lost. The TJV is still the longest race across the Atlantic. Patrice Carpentier
SEAHORSE 21
JAMES TOMLINSON
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