It was the chase of his life - with a crowning finale: only 55 nautical miles before the finish did the Swiss Mathis Bourgnon first catch up with and then beat the big favourite and Mini-Transat perennial dominator Benoît Marie in the Mini-Transat. The young Swiss proto-sailor then brought his masterpiece to the finish line in a final feat of strength. He was still shaking there hours after his jubilant arrival.
Long live Switzerland and long live the Atlantic." Mathis Bourgnon
Overjoyed, but long past the limits of his strength, Mathis Bourgnon spoke about the background and the emotional significance of his coup in the finish harbour of Saint-François. When the beaten Benoît Marie crossed the finish line a few hours later with 400 litres of water in his bow, the 38-year-old Frenchman and 2013 Mini-Transat winner paid tribute to his conqueror with the utmost fairness.
Whale tail fin meets the Bourgnon mini
Both Bourgnon and Marie had to overcome a series of technical challenges in the race of around 2,600 nautical miles from Santa Cruz de La Palma to Saint-François on Gouadeloupe. Mathis Bourgnon reported: "From the halfway point of the race, I was afraid of losing a rudder. Fortunately, I was well equipped and had everything I needed on board to repair it and make sure it held."
In Saint-François, Mathis Bourgnon said: "Winning is something magical. I'm still shaking a little. I didn't sleep for a long time, I was just steering, steering... I got ready. I had a few problems with the GPS and I didn't have a centre spi. I was really pushing my limits, with a lot of stress: the stress of constantly sailing with the big spinnaker, the cracking of the rudder that I was worried might break. The lack of sleep was the worst thing: I really exhausted myself."
Bourgnon was also moved by an almost close encounter with a whale at sea: "It hit me with its tail fin on the starboard side. I was sitting comfortably in the back eating when I heard a loud noise and saw a huge back as wide as the boat emerge. I shivered for two minutes."
Mini-Transat: eight-year-old Proto in front
According to one of the five sons of Yvan Bourgnon, who won the Mini-Transat in 1995, he had "thought a lot about my father's victory, who won the race when I wasn't yet born". Bourgnon also recounted the radio conversation with Benoî Marie when he caught up with him: "We spoke on the VHF. They were strong words. We were 55 nautical miles from the finish. He told me that it was over for him, that he had a lot of damage to the boat. We have a lot of respect for each other."
Part of the fascination of Mathis Bourgnon's last-minute coup is his boat, a Bertrand Mini from 2017, with which a lot of German mini-history is also linked. Once built for Offshore Team Germany in Tunis, it carried Jörg Riechers to second place in the 2017 Mini-Transat - the best result to date for a GER soloist in the big Transat for small boats. Two years later, Morten Bogacki took third place with the former "Lilienthal".
Eight years after it was built, the Mini 934 is now the winning boat in the development class, in which Benoît Marie had won every race he had contested this season with his foiling boat before the Mini Transat. In the end, the tried and tested boat prevailed over the foiling rocket, which had suffered too much damage.
Mathis Borgnon said: "I have a boat from 2017, it's not the newest, but it works great. Small team, small budget. My father gave me a lot of advice and taught me about the weather. It's magical that this project is successful!"
That's also the beauty of this story: We prepared the boat together, in my family's garden, the old-fashioned way." Mathis Bourgnon
24-hour record as a consolation prize for Marie
With the "consolation prize" of the 24-hour record (352.59 nautical miles), just under four hours after Mathis Bourgnon, Benoît Marie, who was overtaken just before the finish, crossed the finish line after 13 days, 21 hours, 21 minutes and 57 seconds with a badly limping boat. The break list of the big favourite was brutal to hear. The breakage of his starboard foil five days after the start of the race had had the most serious effect.
On the Friday before the final, the bowsprit was also broken. In addition, the Mini 1067 lost its gennaker in the last gybe off Saint-François. Slowed down by 400 litres of water in the bow, Benoît Marie was no longer able to keep up with the tirelessly attacking Mathis Bourgnon on his foiler "Nicomatic - Petit Bateau". Benoît Marie had already known for a while that he would not be able to repeat his victory from 2013. At the finish line, the skipper, who had become a father just a few days before the start of the race, paid homage to the Swiss winner.
Bravo Mathis! You rode an incredible race and thank you for pushing me so hard. It's incredible what you've achieved." Benoît Marie
On the docks in the finishing harbour, Benoît Marie also gave an insight into his emotional world: "The last 24 hours were hard because I broke everything: the bowsprit, the boat, the crash box... It's not nice. I feel like I've hurt my companion and I don't like that. I wasn't performing at the level I would have liked and Mathis found the gap and capitalised on it. That's sport, that's competition, that's the beauty of it."
Mini-Transat: the record stays in the family
Nevertheless, Benoît Marie was also able to reflect positively on his own performance: "When you arrive here in this Saint-François lagoon, which I know well, you realise that you've crossed the Atlantic in a tiny boat, and that's no small feat."
Marie smiled at the fact that he beat his wife Caroline Boule's 24-hour record with 352.59 nautical miles: "I'm sorry, Caro, but we're married and what stays in the marriage stays in the marriage."
Benoît Marie will remember the 25th La Boulangère Mini-Transat as an "absolute thrill". "It was extraordinary to fly over the sea day and night on autopilot," he said. And this too: "I experienced 13 fantastic days, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it incredibly. Breaking the record is great, it's a milestone in itself. I'm glad I was there:"
I think Mathis was ultimately better than me in the race. He really deserved his first place and I'm very proud to be behind him." Benoît Marie
In the meantime, the first six proto-skippers have reached the finish line in the mini-transat. Alexandre Demange on "DMG Mori Sailing Academy 2" secured the third place on the podium, crossing the finish line almost exactly six hours after Benoît Marie.
His first brief assessment at the finish harbour: "It wasn't the transatlantic regatta of my dreams, but I'm super happy to be here, because the more difficult it is, the more you learn. Maybe with a bit of distance I can say that it was the best race of my life. This time it was more of a cross course, an obstacle course than an Atlantic crossing."
Demange also said he was very proud of his third place. He was also racing for his team-mate Hajime Kokumai, who had retired: "I said it at the start of this second leg: there are two of us in this project. He had to give up because his boat sank. A large part of the success of this podium finish is down to Hajime. I will be very happy to come back. But I have to take my time to arrive, because it's not trivial to cross the Atlantic in such a small boat:"
Tough mini-transat for the GER soloists
Thaïs Le Cam with "Frerots Ad" was expected to finish seventh and best skipper on Sunday. In the series boats, the long-term leader Paul Cousin still had around 50 nautical miles to go to the finish at midday on 9 November. For the German participants, however, this edition was not under a good star.
"Europe" skipper Thiemo Huuk brought up the rear of the series boat fleet after his mast break in 57th place, with just under 1000 nautical miles to go to the finish at speeds of around five knots under emergency rig. For the German-Frenchman Victor David, it was a good 600 nautical miles to Guadeloupe on "Ich bin en Solitaire" after he broke his mast in 53rd place on Sunday.
Hendrik Lenz, so strong in third place when the first leg was abandoned, sailed towards Saint-François on the Vector "Monoka" in sixteenth place with just under 280 nautical miles remaining.
