Transat Café L'Or: Time limit and lack of water loom in the Class40 thriller
Thrilling sailing at the Transat Café L'Or! The early fleet split after the relaunch in La Coruña on 1 November was a cause for celebration. an exciting scenario in the Class40 result: One group is fighting for the podium in the north, the other in the south. Top favourites are positioned in both groups.
On 6 November, it still looked as if the season's best Guillaume Piroulle and Cédric Chateau on "Seafrigo - Sogestran" had got the chosen southern route wrong. They were 415 nautical miles behind the leaders in the north, Corentin Douguet and Axel Tréhin on "SNSM - Fait un don".
Transat Café L'Or: the Order for the North after all?
But then the hoped-for counterattack began: Pirouelle/Chateau and the other southern crews, including Sasha Lanièce and Sanni Beucke on "Alderan" (21st) in the midfield, inexorably let their deficit melt away with the fresh trade winds. By 11 November, Pirouelle/Chateau had made up around 400 nautical miles in the long-distance duel with Douguet/Tréhin, coming within eleven nautical miles of the leaders.
However, they are now defending their lead in the north and were even able to extend it slightly by 12 November, currently at 48 nautical miles, and were recently travelling two knots faster than Pirouelle/Chateau. How the 1000 nautical mile final sprint will turn out remains to be seen. On Wednesday, the southern pacemakers sailed on a west-south-westerly course at around the 20th parallel north. The pacemakers in the north reached about 25 degrees north at that time.
On the north-south axis, Douguet/Tréhin and Pirouelle/Chateau were still separated by around 380 nautical miles as the courses moved towards each other. On the way to Fort-de-France, even more volatile winds are expected in the last third of this second leg for the Class40 after the stopover in La Coruña. Douguet/Tréhin sailed into these on Wednesday with a slight advantage. An interesting side effect of the Class40 power play in the Transat Café L'Or: in the south, the hunters Pirouelle/Chateau were separated from the last Imoca in the race by just over 300 nautical miles.
Class40 best in the tail water of the last Imoca crews
It's been five days since "Charal" the Imoca race at the Transat Café L on 7 November'Or won had and Frankie Clapcich and Will Harris as proud runners-up had reached the finish line. However, four of the 18 Imocas are still underway. On Wednesday morning, Fabrice Amedeo and Andreas Baden from Kiel on "FDJ United Wewise" battled for 15th place with Manu Cousin/Jean-Baptiste on "Coup de Pouce", who were just ahead of them to the south. The French duo ultimately held a lead of almost 40 nautical miles over the French-German duo.
Andreas Baden had already reported the day before: "We are once again travelling extremely fast, the most northerly boat in the entire fleet. (...) We are now looking forward to an exciting final sprint, against Manu in particular, and hope that we can make up a few miles." "Coup de Pouce" and "FDJ United WeWise" are expected to cross the finish line from midday on 13 November.
Behind this penultimate Imoca duel in the Transat Café L'Or there is one last one, in which the preliminary decision seems to have been made: Szabi Weöres and Bérénice Charrez on "New Europe" are now almost 90 nautical miles behind "MSIG Europe" in 17th place with Conrad Colman and Mathieu Blanchard.
Class 40 threats for the latecomers: time limit and lack of water
Many of the Class40 crews at sea are now concerned about the time limit for this Transat Café L'Or. It has been postponed a second time - also in view of the Class40's safety stop in La Coruña, which will last several days - and is now finally set for 24 November.
The race organisers assume that not all Class40ies will be able to reach the finish line in this time. On 12 November, three crews still had well over 2000 nautical miles to go to the finish. Click here to track the Transat Café L'Or. For another five duos it was at least another 1900 to Fort-de-France on Wednesday.
While their provisioning is not a problem, according to the race organisers, the water supply could become a more serious issue because not all Class 40 boats are equipped with desalination systems. Each boat was allowed to carry a maximum of 160 litres at the start. In addition, there are 20 litres from the survival canister or the reserves in the life rafts for extreme cases. However, the use of these reserves is punishable by a penalty of 2 to 24 hours for wilfully breaking a seal.
