The Transat CIC: perfect conditions promise a good start Sunday
by The Transat CIC 27 Apr 10:35 PDT
28 April 2024
The Transat CIC village © Arnaud Pilpré
The morning before they will set off to race across the North Atlantic, the skippers met for a final briefing with Race Direction and weather advisers from Meteo Consult.
- Conditions should be good with 12 to 15 knots of wind at start time.
- The skippers will leave the pontoons between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. this Sunday local time
- The start, which will take place at 1:30 p.m local time will be broadcast on the race YouTube Channel and the website in English between 1:00 and 2:00pm French time (11:00 to 12:00 UTC)
The best news is that the weather conditions promise to be ideal for racers and spectator craft alike - not too light and not too windy. But the modest winds are the precursor to a first depression coming to the IMOCAs on Tuesday.
The extremes do tend to prevail at Transat starts, ballistic gales or almost calm. But Sunday looks good. "Last week, we were looking at a rainy and windy Sunday. But it will be clear at times with sunshine and light winds," suggests Fabien Delahaye (LEGALLAIS). "We should have 10 to 15 knots of westerly wind," says the Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven (MAITRE COQ V). "It's a flying reaching start but it allows us to start gently," continues Swiss skipper Alan Roura (HUBLOT).
And so the fleet should route northwest and pass close to Ireland. "They will look for a first low pressure system which will be in the north of the British Isles and a wind shift which will give them to winds of around thirty knots and gusts around 40 knots," says Assistant Race Director Yann Chateau. He says, "It should be a quick race."
The mood was also lifted this morning as Jean Le Cam received a cake at the briefing as he is celebrating his 65th birthday this Saturday. But while he will start the race on cue, the veteran French skipper will not race to New York for personal, family reasons.
FOCUS ON... An "interesting, complex and demanding" course
This route, the Atlantic via the North face, is something of a paradox: it is shorter (3,500 miles in theory) than the traditional routes that lead to the Caribbean but much more complex
"With an open ocean across the Atlantic, it is the most complicated solo transatlantic because at the end of April - beginning of May, there is usually a series of low pressure systems over the North Atlantic generating headwinds," emphasizes Francis The Goff. He confirms that the sailors could encounter conditions similar to those of the Vendée Globe, sought out by the IMOCAs at seven months before their round the world race
"We will potentially have difficult conditions until the end," Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) said yesterday. "It's an interesting, complex and demanding course," says Jérémie Beyou (Charal). "There will be a lot of changes of pace, sails, a big constant pressure."
They said:
Alan Roura SUI (HUBLOT): "The conditions are not yet certain in terms of strength and angle but there will be no more than 15 knots on the line. We will then leave the island of Groix to starboard before going around a buoy offshore. We avoid sailing upwind alone. Afterwards, there will be the choice of whether or not to put a sail on the bowsprit. It gets us off to a gentle start even if it's a flying reaching start. Afterwards, there will be phases to manage, Tuesday, Thursday in particular. The sea is quite short so you will probably have to play it a little "safe". When reaching, in an established 30 knots, the boats go very fast and there is a possibility of getting hurt. Then we will see from when we start to".
See interviews with the favourites Charlie Dalin and Jeremie Beyou on the English website: