Savour the scent of the earth with the taste of the sea: With these words, the organisers described the arrival of the Ultim winners at the Transat Café L'Or. Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas brought "SVR Lazartigue" to the finish line off Martinique on Thursday night. Franck Cammas said: "It's stressful to be in the lead for ten days. The chances of losing something are greater than the chances of winning something. We have sailed good courses."
We didn't win through speed, but through our driving style, and that's even better." Franck Cammas
The Ultim winners are now followed by one finish after another. While Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas celebrated the success of their "SVR Lazartigue" at the Transat Café L'Or with a Ti Punch and gave the first interviews in the Caribbean after 10 days, 13 hours, 3 minutes and 58 seconds at sea, the winner's stage belonged to them alone. It was around four and a half hours later that Thomas Coville and Benjamin Schwartz reached the finish with "Sodebo Ultim 3". Anthony Marchand and Julien Villon, who were competing in their first Ultim Transat together, still had 300 nautical miles to go on the morning of 6 November.
Ocean Fifties: changing balance of power
One of the outstanding achievements of all three crews in this Transat Café L'Or, apart from average speeds of 25 knots, was certainly the fact that they managed to bring their trimaran giants to the finish cleanly and without any further failures. The co-favourites on "Banque Populaire XI" did not quite manage this. They had to make repairs early on and were never able to make up the deficit in the battle with strong opponents and also due to other weather windows. Armel Le Cléac'h and Sébastien Josse still had around 400 nautical miles to sail to the finish on Thursday morning.
By the end of the day (in France), it should also be clear who will be on the podium in the second trimaran class of the Transat Café L'Or, where the balance of power has changed again recently. Pierre Quinoga and Gaston Morvan on "WeWise" took the lead in the Ocean Fifties with 185 nautical miles to the finish on what is expected to be the last day at sea. But the pursuers kept up the pace: "Viabilis Océans" and "Le Rire Medicin Lamotte" followed just 24 and 39 nautical miles behind. Thibaut Vachel-Camus and Damien Seguin in fourth place on "Solidaires en peloton" were still fighting for a podium place, as were the former leaders Emmanuel Le Roch and Basile Bourgnon on "Edenred 5", who had dropped back with outrigger problems.
Just the day before, "Viabilis Oceans" had led the Ocean Fifty fleet in the Transat Café L'Or by 30 nautical miles at the same time. The reversal of this pecking order in the meantime was caused by a thunderstorm that caught Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxel unawares. The Frenchmen had to tack four times, while the new leaders Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan were able to sail straight ahead, take the lead and extend their advantage. They remained focussed between their opponents and Martinique.
Transat Café L'Or: one hell of a night
"Since Cape Verde, Gaston and I have been trying to sail fairly centrally to give us the opportunity to get out of a squall if necessary. We've made up kilometre after kilometre by sailing a bit better," Pierre Quiroga stated in the morning in the briefing with the race management. However, the last 24 hours were not a walk in the park, even for the leaders: "This night is hell with very strong gusts. It's stressful for the classification, but also for safety. Just because it's warm doesn't mean that a trimaran can't capsize!" said Pierre Quiroga.
There could well be a match race in the bay of Fort de France. Anything is possible, we're all very tired." Pierre Quiroga
In the following Imocas, Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière seem to be in with a shout of victory. "Charal" had recently increased her lead to more than 100 nautical miles. The duel for second place, on the other hand, promises to be exciting. In the Transat Café L'Or, Sam Goodchild and Lois Berrehar on the Vendée Globe winner "Macif Santé Prévoyance" and Francesca Clapcich and Will Harris on "11th Hour Racing" will be battling it out. The ex-"Malizia - Seaexplorer" had recently reduced the gap to the runners-up to just five nautical miles.
Jérémie Beyou said on the morning show: "Everything is going well. The trade winds were very stable all day yesterday, the sea was a bit choppy, but now it's calmed down. We are holding our course. We'll tackle the day as long as we have clear visibility. At night, we try to match our speed to that of our pursuers." This strategy has paid off well so far.
Concentration for success at Transat Café L'Or
According to Beyou, the interaction between the two co-skippers on "Charal" is limited to the essentials. "When we meet, we have factual conversations and one or two smiles, but nothing more. We're in our own world!" reported Beyou, who admitted that he hadn't realised anything about the arrival of SVR Lazartigue the previous night.
"We're just watching the route of 'Actual' to see what the wind is like, because it's not far ahead of us, but otherwise we haven't followed the racing in the other classes," said Beyou. This high level of concentration should pay off in Martinique. It would be Jérémie Beyou's second victory on the coffee route. The first with Jean-Pierre Dick was 14 years ago. Interesting fact: For Beyou's co-skipper Morgan Lagravière, it would be the third Transat triumph in a row! This could further cement the Frenchman's reputation as a master craftsman.
That leaves the Class40, which has been trailing the other classes since its safety stop in La Caruña. Here, Corentin Douguet and Axel Tréhin on "SNSM - Faites un don" recently held a 25 nautical mile lead over "Legallais". When observing the fleet of the smallest monohulls in the Transat Café L'Or, observers occasionally find themselves wondering what would have happened if the Globe40 winners had been there?
What if Burke and Fink had been there?
What could "Crédit Mutuel", Team Belgium Ocean Racing - Curium and above all Lannart Burke and Melwin Fink have achieved in this Transat Café L'Or? But the three top teams were just about a thrilling three-way battle with a final thriller off La Réunion on stage two of the circumnavigation, have decided to embark on the circumnavigation adventure.
Five Class40ies have now given up at the Transat Café L'Or. Two are on their way back to the European coast, others are tinkering with everything that can be repaired 72 turbulent hours after the restart so that they can continue their journey. Looking at the Class40, the division of the fleet into two is exciting, with the first nine boats having decided in favour of the northern route. With strong weather contrasts and more than 2,200 nautical miles to the finish for the leading boats, it remains to be seen whether this will be the winning route. Click here for the Transat Café L'Or tracker.
