Transquadra: Winner with "extra-planetary routing", GER boats at the finish line

After just over two weeks at sea, Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall completed their first transatlantic race at the weekend. It took them 14 days, 2 hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds to cover 2871.1 nautical miles over ground on the second leg from Madeira to Le Marin in Martinique on the JPK 10.10 "Sharifa".

Transquadra: both GER boats finish on the same day

Just under four hours after the two-handed crew from the Yacht Club Strande, the brothers Benjamin and Christoph Morgen crossed the finish line with their JPK 10.30 "Momo" (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein). Among other things, they had to contend with a broken spinnaker pole. In addition, a piece had broken out of the mast base, the boom rail had flown out and a railing support had been torn away.

"The first week was racing, the second was repairing," they shouted from on board as Cord Hall and Rasmus Töpsch took up their lines at the dock in Le Marin late on Saturday evening. Benjamin Morgen recorded at the finish harbour of the Transquadra premiere for the two brothers in one boat: "The race had two faces for us. The first week was very nice: good racing! The second week consisted of a lot of repairs. We then just tried to get here safely."

Brother Christoph added: "We were a bit surprised by the violent squalls we experienced. We really didn't expect that." The brothers had to deal with gusts of almost 50 knots on "Momo".

With a broken spine to the Transquadra finish line

"We pushed a bit too hard at first," says Christoph Morgen in the first interview on land, "then we had to slow down a bit." Among other things, both end fittings of the spinnaker pole broke. But the brothers were still able to laugh. Despite all the breakages, the "worst moments" still came during the catering situation.

"The food was awful, the sailing was great," Benjamin Morgen cheerfully summarised the experience. All in all, the second leg was a much more pleasant experience than the first from La Turballe to Madeira last summer, when the autopilot on "Momo" failed and forced the crew to steer by hand.

In terms of time sailed, the two German boats finished seventh and eighth in the two-handed performance classification on the second leg, which was twice as long. Calculated, "Sharifa" even climbed up to fifth place. For "Momo" it remained calculated eighth place in the largest double-handed performance division dominated by JPKs.

The Transquadra high-flyer: Alex Ozon

The first boat to cross the finish line in this group was the JPK 10.30 "Ose" of Eric Guigne and Tangi Caron from France, which had already reached the finish after 13 days, 15 hours, 35 minutes and 42 seconds. However, their compatriots Emeric de Vigan and Bernard Mallaret took the calculated stage win on the JPK 10.10 "Nabla 2", which crossed the finish line just over two hours later. Third place went to the crew on "Transformation Catalysts", another JPK 10.10.

The high-flyer in the over-40 transat for ambitious amateur crews was Alexandre Ozon in the solo classification on his Bepox 950 "Team 2 Choc", which has been optimised for this race for more than a decade. With a sailed time of just 12 days, 18 hours, 39 minutes and 6 seconds, Ozon was almost a day faster than the best two-handed crews.

"Sharifa" skipper Rasmus Töpsch attested to the French solo winner's "extra-planetary routing". However, Töpsch also said: "Without wanting to diminish Alex's performance in the slightest: Don't underestimate 'the wooden ship'... The cutter has been optimised for precisely and exclusively this race for over ten years."

Stage two: two weeks of downwind surfing

Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall had already summarised their Transat premiere in detail here at YACHT online a few days before the finish. Immediately after crossing the finish line on Saturday evening, Rasmus Töpsch said in Le Marin harbour: "It was a great experience! Two weeks of downwind surfing. Twelve days of 'kite up'."

It's been a bit windy the last few days..." Rasmus Töpsch

Cord Hall was also delighted with the exciting sport on the water: "We had a lot of very, very close battles. We hadn't expected such a close race. In the two-handed class, there were perhaps 80 nautical miles between the first ten boats at the end. It was really intense. You didn't have time to slow down or relax. It was a bit tougher than expected."

For the last three days we've more or less travelled down the wave in folkboat style with the Hansa jib out and a full main at 170 degrees TWA." Cord Hall

On the other hand, it was "what we came for", said Rasmus Töpsch with a smile at the finish. "We are surprised that we were able to keep up the pace so well over such a long period of time. It's the longest race we've ever done together. It's the first time we've ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean. We are more than satisfied with our performance and our result."

Crossing the Atlantic with Herrmann audiobooks

Do sailors with their own transatlantic experience have more sympathy for a performance like that of the Vendée Globe soloists? Rasmus Töpsch doesn't think twice, he says: "Definitely! In terms of the basic idea, I would now thoroughly revise single-handed plans, even if JPKs are very well suited for this."

Rasmus Töpsch continued: "If you think about the fact that a Chalie Dalin sailed around the world in 64 days or a Violette Dorange in 90 days with a bit more dynamism than on a JPK 10.10 and got dirty with a coffee grinder and more - that takes the whole thing to a whole new level."

Rasmus Töpsch's thoughts on this: "I don't think non-sailors can even begin to comprehend this. And I don't think even sailors can understand what it means unless they've done something similar." While Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall were gaining this first Atlantic experience, Rasmus Töpsch was also inspired by Boris Herrmann - the six-time circumnavigator's audio books were available to listen to.

Quite a lot of water, the Atlantic!" Rasmus Töpsch

The North German sailors found the Atlantic a mighty place on their first Transquadra, as Rasmus Töpsch describes: "After a week you think to yourself: Phew, that's still quite a corner. But all in all, it's just a tenth of a Vendée Globe. And then another 60 days of food like that?"

Cord Hall explains that there is also a difference between long-distance races closer to the coast and a transat: "It's a mental thing. In a 500-mile race, you're more or less close to land. Here, after a day out of heli range. In one you're within a well-organised rescue chain, in the other... Nothing matters here."

The sailed and calculated results of all participants for both Transquadra stages can be found here. There is no overall classification for this race due to the two different first stages - one leads from La Turballe, the other from Marseille to Madeira.

The Transquadra concept is well received

After the shorter first stage from Turballe to Madeira last year and the now completed second stage, the conclusion is positive. The splitting of the race into two parts with the long break of six months between the stages also went down well with the crew from Strande. "It makes a lot of sense for two reasons," explained Rasmus Töpsch.

"For novices like us," says Töpsch, "it's a different ball game if you cross the Atlantic in a 14-day run instead of an almost three-week run where you start somewhere in Brittany. You could easily end up with 20 days. And that's a whole different ball game. It's also much more manageable for our families and our social lives if the regatta is split into two sections."

Cord Hall, who, together with Rasmus Töpsch and the team from Yacht Club Strande, devised the German double-handed race Baltic 500 and organises it every year, sees it exactly the same way: "Divided into two stages, the regatta makes it much easier to balance work, family life and sailing. Although the logistics are a little more complicated with the stopover in Madeira. But it was a wonderful stopover that we really enjoyed. We'll go back there again without a boat, just for holidays."

Click here for the interview with Rasmus Töpsch and Cord Hall, which the organisers conducted directly after the finish: