Transat CIC: Boris Herrmann happy in New York - former navigator Lunven finishes despite breakage

The battle for the top places in the Transat CIC has long since been decided, with the podium finishers Yoann Richomme ("Paprec Arkéa"), Boris Herrmann ("Malizia - Seaexplorer") and Samantha Davies ("Initiatives Cœur") celebrated in New York. For other strong players, however, the North Atlantic test involuntarily went into extra time. And for some, the struggle to arrive in extremely challenging conditions continues.

Two Transat break pilots: Lunven ahead of Meilhat at the finish

Boris Herrmann's former navigator Nico "The Brain" Lunven crossed the finish line on Wednesday evening. With a broken bowsprit, the "Holcim - PRB" skipper limped across the line 110 nautical miles from New York in 14th place, one place ahead of the "Biotherm" soloist Paul Meilhat, who had also started strongly. Both had demonstrated in the first half of the Transat that they have what it takes to do better. Both sailed at eye level with the top boats at the start of the Transat CIC. Boris Herrmann rated both of them as having a chance of winning. But both had to finish their race with tough handicaps after breakages on board.

Nico Lunven said after crossing the finish line late on the evening of 8 May: "I had a pretty promising start to the race. I think I was pretty good in the race. I might have needed a bit of time to find the right set-up, but I was pretty good from the start. Until the moment of the damage, which happened in quite difficult conditions." The 'Holcim - PRB' skipper had to inform his team on the third night of the Transat CIC that his bowsprit had broken. The fitting, which was torn off in heavy weather and used to lash sails to the deck, had demolished the bowsprit by hitting it several times. The boat was in fifth place when the nose broke.

It is a great adventure to have crossed the North Atlantic on this boat" (Nico Lunven)

"From that moment on," says Nico Lunven, "the race took a different course." No longer able to use his downwind sails, Lunven was still challenged in sometimes difficult conditions. "The conditions were not easy to cope with. But it was interesting to sail in these conditions for several days in a row in order to discover any small opportunities for improvement. There don't seem to be many. That's the big plus in our balance sheet." It is typical of the reserved skipper to express his delight about the overall strong boat in this way.

Of course, he was a little frustrated that he couldn't compete in the entire race in regatta mode. That was disappointing. At the same time, he was happy to have arrived in New York. Nico Lunven said after his final race in the Transat CIC: "It's a great adventure to have crossed the North Atlantic in this boat. It's not exactly easy."

Isabelle Joschke "super satisfied"

A good six hours after Nico Lunven, another top Imoca class performer limped to the finish line: Paul Meilhat brought his "Biotherm" across the line well ahead of New York in 15th place. Meilhat's first conclusion: "It feels strange. We're out at sea, all alone, but we've just crossed the finish line in 15th place with 'Biotherm'. Of course, that's not the result we had hoped for, but the shock came at the halfway point of the race: the damaged foil and the water ingress."

Of course, it was nice to have reached the finish line five days later anyway. The little time he was able to ride with the starboard foil still intact and in good condition gave him a lot of pleasure, he said. "I was in a good rhythm and had a lot of fun," said Meilhat. He then lost some of his fun after the collision and the damage to his port foil and slot. Paul Meilhat was in third place in the Imoca fleet on the morning of 3 May, within striking distance of the eventual winner Yoann Richomme, when the collision slowed him down considerably.

I am thrilled that I took part in this race" (Isabelle Joschke)

Isabelle Joschke finished twelfth ahead of the two top sailors who were beaten. The "Macsf" skipper said she was "super happy" with her race. Inspired by her successful last-minute overtaking of Alan Roura from Switzerland on "Hublot", who had been ahead of her for a long time and whom she was able to beat to 13th place with a quarter of an hour to go after a strong final spurt, Isabelle Joschke said: "Of course I'm happy with the finish and I'm delighted that I was able to make up a place on Alan in the end. Even though I was happy for him that he drove such a good race. Overall, I stuck to my intentions of not getting into the red zone, being careful and especially not ruining my sails."

Alan Roura with delaminated foil at the finish line

Isabelle Joschke was satisfied after her happy ending: "I managed to do it all without overexerting myself, sail cleanly and have a good race. I am happy with myself. I can see that I can do it. It was an instructive race because I encountered weather conditions that were very different from other transatlantic races. I learnt a lot of things about how to deal with the cold. I am thrilled to have competed in this race." Alan Roura also put in a strong fighting performance, as the Swiss sailor had reported a badly delaminated port foil after a week at sea, but still reached the finish line in 13th place.

Hardly anyone was further away from declarations of love à la Joschke in the Transat CIC on 9 May than the Swiss Oliver Heer, whose Imoca suffered a serious knockdown on the night of 5 May. His autopilot had previously failed in 40 knots and more of wind. The boat was pushed onto its side. "It was well over 90 degrees," reported Oliver Heer. During his struggle to regain control of his boat, some of the sails were damaged. The skipper also received a heavy blow to his left arm and later described the accident as "terrible".

The lonely struggle of Oliver Heer

Since then, Oliver Heer has been struggling with the total power failure on board, far behind the field that had lost the lead. With 880 nautical miles to go to the finish, the blackout continued to keep the skipper busy at midday on 9 May. Immediately after the blackout, he was initially only able to work with traditional paper charts and outdated weather information. Communication with his team on land was irregular on the satellite phone because the signal was weak.

In the meantime, Oliver Heer has managed to rewire his electrical system so that it bypasses the battery management system. With the help of the solar cells, he was able to restore a limited power supply. According to his team, this enabled Oliver Heer to operate the watermaker again, recharge his communication systems and the on-board computer, download weather data, check his position and also activate the autopilot, which now works in phases. At night, however, Heer has to steer by hand because his on-board energy is not sufficient to operate the autopilot without daylight.

The Oliver Heer Ocean Racing team last reported on Wednesday: "After a tough night battling through a weather front at up to 40 knots by hand steering, Ollie emerged in a bank of freezing fog and no wind at all! He is now about six hours behind European time and is waiting for the sun to break through the fog and power the solar panels again. In the meantime, he's trying to make as much progress as possible, using the time to write a to-do list for his arrival ashore, make a shopping list for his technical team and hopefully catch up on some sleep."

Class 40 final ahead

At the same time, the leaders of the Class 40 are sleeplessly on course for New York, where the gripping duel between the leader Ambrogio Beccaria on "Alla Grande Pirelli" and his extremely stubborn pursuer Ian Lipinski on "Crédit Mutuel" continues. 23 nautical miles separated the Italian and the Frenchman on the morning of 9 May. Beccaria still had around 170 nautical miles to go to the finish. Both were travelling at a speed of around eight knots and were engaged in a gybing duel. The decision is expected to be made in less than 24 hours.

Click here for the tracker, results and interim results.

"A week like this gives you a good feeling for what's to come ...", says Boris Herrmann. Here is a look back at the strong performance of the "Malizia - Seaexplorer" skipper and second place in the Transat CIC, which the team is celebrating in New York these days: