The Transquadra is currently living up to its promise: the crews are largely enjoying beautiful trade wind sailing. The German crews, Benjamin and Christoph Morgen on the JPK 10.30 "Momo" and Rasmus Töpsch with Cord Hall on the JPK 10.10 "Sharifa", are also experiencing this on the second leg from Madeira to Le Marin on Martinique, which started on 1 February.
Transquadra: Trade wind dreams on course for the Caribbean
The two GER-JPKs were calculated in fourth and fifth place on Wednesday. Eleven days after the start off Madeira, there were only around two hours between "Sharifa" and "Momo". The 16 boats in their "Double Turballe Performance" division were led on Wednesday by the JPK 10.10 "Nabla 2" with Emeric de Vigan and Bernard Mallaret. After eleven days at sea, the French team had built up a calculated lead of almost eleven hours over "Sharifa".
The boats in second and third place are also JPKs in the most heavily populated group. The first non-JPK in the two-handed performance division on Wednesday was the Sun Fast 3600 "Jib" ahead of the Figaro 2 "Rêves de Gosses". Click here for the current intermediate results of the two-part Transquadrawho led his crews to Madeira on stage one last summer, either from Turballe or via the Mediterranean from Marseille. The participants had a six-month break before starting the decisive second leg. Now the fleet of ambitious solo and double-handed amateur sailors is approaching the Caribbean finale.
We rock!" Cord Hall
The mood on board "Sharifa" is good. The boat sailed towards the finish line, which was still a good 600 nautical miles away on Wednesday afternoon, in crisp trade winds. The day before, the duo from the Yacht Club Strande had once again "made good metres". The "Momo" of the Morgen brothers from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein also sailed briskly towards the line with a remaining distance of around 20 nautical miles.
The Transquadra as a sailing festival and challenge
With air temperatures of 30 degrees and water temperatures of 22 degrees, the Caribbean sailing conditions have long since worked their magic at over 20 knots. The heavy weather clothing from the surprisingly cold start of the leg has given way to shirts, shorts and sun hats. The last night of the full moon has illuminated the sea beautifully.
In the meantime, however, Cord Hall and Rasmus Töpsch have had to adapt their enjoyable sailing to the increasingly strong winds. On Wednesday morning, Rasmus Töpsch reported: "We've been sailing without a spinnaker since 3 o'clock UTC. The basic wind is between 25 and 26 knots, gusting up to 33 knots, and the waves are between four and four and a half metres. After almost eleven days at sea, we have put seamanship before risk."
The sporting alliance of sailors from Schleswig-Holstein? "It's sporty! The standard is very high," says Rasmus Töpsch. You can tell "that old Figaristi are also at the start," says Töpsch, who founded the Baltic 500 in Germany together with Cord Hall and organises the double-handed race once a year with the team from the Yacht Club Strande.
Sailing on the Transquadra
The performance of the two keelboat sailors from Strand so far on their first transat is more than impressive. Rasmus Töpsch says: "We didn't position ourselves quite so sensationally in terms of weather tactics at the beginning. We were novices to the Atlantic. But I think we've fought our way back quite well. We didn't even realise that we were calculated at four. That's particularly nice, of course."
The good and perhaps less good things from the perspective of the co-skipper friends? "The good thing is that we were sailing with a spinnaker for almost twelve days. In all that time, we only had a small f...up at the very beginning, otherwise we got through really cleanly. We didn't sail Chinese, we didn't wrap the thing around our forestay. Of course, there's a lot of wear and tear on the whole 'harness'."
This refers, for example, to the fractional halyard, which has already been repaired three times, and the aft haulers have already received their second "set of schooners". "However, we have been spared any major mishaps so far. There are other competitors, especially in the single-handed classes, who have fared much worse."
Transquadra: The sea makes the difference
Cord Hall confirms: "Everything is actually intact. Nothing is missing. The mood on board is usually quite good." Cord Hall describes the unprecedented trade wind sailing as follows: "The first two days were just awesome. In the meantime... We've already talked about how to tell this in a later lecture? It's the same every day: You go to bed in the evening at 22, 23 knots from 155, 160 TWA. And wake up the next day in exactly the same conditions. The planet is in the same place, the clouds are the same...."
"But the sea is changing, that's the exciting thing. That's where the difference lies. There are passages with fantastic swell, but then there are also those that are a little closer to the clouds. And that's where we want to go, of course, because there's always a bit more pressure," Rasmus Töpsch adds. That's more 'haché', as the French say, meaning chopped sea. And that's no fun at all. You're just using your core muscles to stabilise yourself so that you don't fly around."
The sustainable JPK design
According to Töpsch, this leads back to the question: "How does the boat perform?" His answer to the behaviour of the JPK 10.10 in these conditions: "It means that the boat was made precisely for this purpose. So Jean Pierre (ed.: Kelbert) had something in mind. But you also realise that the design - I don't want to say anything wrong - is at least 15 years old. You can't really beat a 10.30 or even a more modern scow-like boat."
We are all the more pleased that we can play at the front here. That suggests that we haven't done too much wrong." Rasmus Töpsch
The crew expects to reach the destination harbour of Le Marin at the weekend. According to Cord Hall, the boat speed is "normally easily in double figures, now with the jib and main extended it is always around eight or nine knots, the wave down is also in double figures, but directly towards the destination". The top speed of the "Sharifa" has so far been just over 18 knots, with an average of 9.4 or 9.5 knots.
Transquadra: eat, sleep, sail
During the Transquadra, Cord Hall and Rasmus not only experience their longest regatta together, but also their longest time together on a boat. The two-handed crew always try to get into a four-hour rhythm in the evening and sleep for another hour or two during the day. "Eat, sleep, sail," summarises Rasmus Töpsch. "Sometimes without the sleeping," adds Cord Hall.
Physically, they both feel "amazingly okay", explains Cord Hall. What will they be looking forward to most at the finish line? Cord Hall laughs and says: "I think quite a lot." Rasmus Töpsch says: "Serious solid food that is freshly prepared. That's always a classic. Then, of course, it's especially nice that my parents will be there to welcome us. That makes us very happy. And then it's sure to be a great party with the boys."
According to Töpsch, you could already tell "that this Transquadra community had grown together enormously during the time in Madeira. For us foreigners in La Turballe, that hadn't been so fruitful. But on Madeira we then realised: Okay, now the Alemanni are part of it too. I think this effect will be even stronger in Martinique."
Will the Transquadra generation change work?
Taking part in the Transquadra has turned the two co-skippers into fans. Rasmus Töpsch says: "We can definitely recommend the race. But you have to keep an eye on whether it will last in its current form. It's an incredibly active, very large organising committee. But they've been organising the whole thing for 32 years now. Since then, no new blood has joined the committee... Unfortunately, President Frank Lang passed away a few weeks ago."
According to Rasmus Töpsch, this is "a bit of a sword of Damocles hanging over the whole event". He continues: "I'm curious to see how the Reds, as they call themselves, will deal with it. Whether there will be a generational change, or whether the Transquadra in the foreseeable future from the La Cap Martinique (editor's note: amateur races from La Trinité sur Mer and Fort de France for soloists and double-handed sailors with boats between 30 and 40 feet), which is currently experiencing enormous popularity."
