Transat Québec Saint-Malo - Can the record be broken?

by Transat Québec Saint-Malo on 31 Jul 2012 The new and powerful low pressure system is affecting the eighth Transat Québec Saint-Malo fleet and is quickly pushing them towards the finish line.

Overall leader, Erwan Le Roux's trimaran FenêtréA Cardinal 3, despite having to round the Fastnet Rock, is expected to reach Saint Malo as early as Wednesday night.

The top group in the Class40 could also get to Brittany soon, on Friday night or Saturday morning while the rest of the fleet, still very close after eight days and more than 1,800 miles racing is predicted to cross the line between the sixth and the 8th August. The bets are on for who, among the 'band of four' Class40 who have a huge margin on the rest of the fleet, can be crowned winner of the classic west to east transatlantic race. The most favoured team still seems to be Halvard Mabire's Campagne de France that leads on Eole Generation – GDF SUEZ skippered by Sébastien Rogues, on Fabrice Amedeo's Geodis and Germany's Jörg Riechers on Mare.

Back in 2008, French skipper Franck-Yves Escoffier won the Transat Québec-Saint Malo in the Multi50 division establishing the new record in 11 days, 3 hours and 19 minutes and beating this record is precisely Erwan Leroux's target. To do so FenêtréA Cardinal 3 needs to cross the line before Thursday August 2nd at 20:34:14 CEST. The latest ETA put the trimaran well ahead of this timing as Le Roux and his crew keep on sailing fast in a strong south-westerly breeze recording an average speed of 14,6 knots and an excellent VMG.

They have been gibing constantly towards the southern tip of Ireland as the wind is expected to increase to 25 knots in the Celtic Sea, later shifting more south. Behind the overall leader the duel for second place is becoming more and more intense between Erik Nigon's Multi50 Vers un Monde sans Sida and the bigger 60' Défi Saint-Malo Agglo skippered by Gilles Lamiré, separated now by just 16 miles. The fist monohull in the Open Class, Vento Di Sardegna skippered by Italian Andrea Mura has a comfortable lead on the 40 footer fleet and a huge advantage on his direct opponent Georges Leblanc's VOR 65 Océan Phénix.

24, 62, 74... these are not the latest lottery draws but the distances between the first four Class40 of the Transat Québec Saint-Malo.

Four teams can still hope for a win, while behind them the battle is fierce in the chasing pack. Aurélien Ducroz on Latitude Neige – Longitude Mer, is in fifth at 129 miles from the leader and Christophe Coatnoan on Partouche, is in fourteenth at 168,3 miles. The fleet is closely packed and nine boats are fighting hard to make some gains and jump up some positions.

In this group also Aloys Le Claquin on Jack in the Box (131,1 miles), Belgian Michel Kleinjans on Roaring Forty 2 (135,4 miles), Thierry Bouchard on Comiris-Elior (140,8 miles), Stéphane Le Diraison on IX Blue (141,8 miles), German Mathias Blumencron on Red (146,4 miles), David Augeix on EDF Energies Nouvelles (147,7 miles), Jean-Edouard Criquioche and his international crew on Sevenstar Yachttransport (155,2 milles) and Jacques Fournier on Groupe Picoty (162,5 miles). The boats are spread on a North-South line and are all making steady progress in a good breeze towards France.

According to the latest position report, it's EDF Energies Nouvelles that scored the best progression, with 54,2 miles in four hours. All cards are then on Halvard Mabire on Campagne de France, Sébastien Rogues on Eole Generation GDF SUEZ, Fabrice Amedeo on Geodis and Jörg Riechers on Mare for the final victory but the four boats still need to pass unscathed through the low pressure that is starting to move towards them.

Top positions report on July 29th at 13:40 GMT

Class40
1 – Halvard Mabire – Campagne de France – Distance to finish 1185,7 nm
2 – Sèbastien Rogues - Eole Generation - GDF SUEZ– 22,5 nm to leader
3 - Fabrice Amedeo – Geodis – 59,2 nm to leader
4 - Jorg Riechers – Mare– 69,6 nm to leader

Open Class
1 - Erwan Le Roux - FenêtréA Cardinal 3 – Distance to finish 529,4 nm
2 - Erik Nigon - Vers un Monde sans SIDA – 519,8 nm to leader
3 - Gilles Lamiré - Défi Saint-Malo Agglo – 535,3 nm to leader
4 - Andrea Mura – Vento di Sardegna – Distance to finish 1106,7 nm (First Monohull)

Latest positions here
Event website here