Transquadra: "Sharifa" in the top three - Cord Hall: "All is well on board, the mood is good"

The cautious start was followed by a strong intermediate spurt: Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall worked their way up to second place in the two-handed performance ranking on their Transquadra premiere at sea on the third day. Although the tracking only shows positions sailed and not calculated according to IRC handicap, the gap of around eight nautical miles to the leaders Eric Guignet and Tangi Caron is likely to shrink. The French are sailing with their JPK 10.30 "Ose" (IRC factor: 1.012), the Germans with the JPK 10.10 "Sharifa" (IRC factor: 1.003).

On Wednesday morning, Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall were still travelling in the south-western Bay of Biscay, heading for Spain's north-western tip, when they finally made progress at a good five knots. In the Atlantic, the fleet left the front that had plagued them since the start the evening before. "Six participants have already had to turn back due to damage or injury, some will continue, others unfortunately will not," according to a press release issued by the organisers on the morning of 10 July.

Transquadra crews plagued by seasickness

In challenging conditions, which have so far been more autumnal than summery in the Bay of Biscay, the soloists and double-handed crews have so far mainly completed many tacks on this first leg of the two-part Transquadra. And seasickness! Cord Hall reports on the first few days since the start on Sunday: "Our start was moderate with little wind, but we were doing well again up to the wind farm. Then we caught up quite well in the night to Monday. On Monday I was seasick from 9am to 10pm, I was throwing up every half hour. Even Rasmus got it briefly. Everything has been chico since then. The engine is running well. We even have weather data again, everything on board is fine, the mood is good."

Things are getting exciting around Finisterre. Then we should be able to pull the spi again at some point" (Cord Hall)

With five to seven knots of wind, the crews had a good opportunity to take a deep breath on Wednesday morning. Cape Finisterre was less than 100 nautical miles away. The leading boats in the Transquadra Atlantic fleet could pass it as early as the following night on their first leg from La Turballe to Madeira. At an air temperature of 19 degrees, this was the scenario for breakfast on "Sharifa". The crew from the Yacht Club Strande reckon they have a good six days left to Madeira.

Two-parter from France via Madeira to Martinique

"It's getting exciting around Finisterre now. Then we should be able to pull the spinnaker again at some point. Let's see what else we can do," announced Cord Hall. Together with "Sharifa" owner Rasmus Töpsch, Hall devised the German double-handed classic Baltic 500. Now the duo are realising their dream of taking part in the Transquadra and competing in a classic themselves. The two-part race for soloists and double-handed crews, ambitious regatta sailors and Atlantic stormers will start either from La Turballe or Marseille with the first leg to Madeira this year. At the beginning of next year, it will continue from there across the pond to Martinique.

The idea behind splitting up the transatlantic amateur race is that many of the participants can better integrate the two legs, which are very far apart in terms of time, into their jobs and available holidays. In the current first leg, the leading boats in the Atlantic fleet still had around 800 nautical miles to go to the finish off Madeira on Wednesday morning.

Click here for the live tracker for stage 1 of the Transquadra 2024/2025. The "Sharifa" crew can be found in the "Double Turballe Performance" category.