Transat Québec Saint-Malo - Last sighting of land before old continent

by Dominique Jobin on 15 Jul 2016 2016 Transat Québec Saint-Malo - As they glided their way past the fabled Cape Race at the southeastern tip of Newfoundland, the three inseparable trimarans leading the Multi50 race turned the page following the river and islands chapter—more than 800 nautical miles—of the Transat Québec Saint-Malo.

Now with 2,000 nautical miles of Atlantic Ocean ahead of their bows, the skippers of Arkema (Lalou Roucayrol), French Tech Rennes St-Malo (Gilles Lamiré), and Ciela Village (Thierry Bouchard) are dreaming of a fast lane that will whisk them across to old Europe in a straight line.

It’s not quite that simple, though. As well as having to steer clear of the gate marked by latitude 46 degrees north to avoid the minefield of sea ice and icebergs drifting in the area, these swift multihulls will have to navigate their way through a high-pressure area with little wind in the next few hours. Meanwhile, the Class40 fleet is racing full steam ahead toward Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which the leader is expected to reach by the end of the afternoon, French time. And that leader could be any one of the front-runners.

All bets are still off as the monohulls continue to jostle for position. Now’s a good time to point out the extreme lack of tolerance in this race for any hazardous positioning, which is subject to severe sanctioning with a downgrade in ranking. Case in point: the fleet leader Tales 2 (Gonzalo Botin) just paid the price, to the benefit of Black Pepper – Les P’tits Doudous by Moulin Roty (Armel Tripon) and Generali Horizon Mixité (Isabelle Joschke). Still grappling with the St. Lawrence leg of the race since sailing out of Quebec last night, both Ultimate Class boats, Musandam Oman Sail and Spindrift 2 continue to race side by side, each consistently taking turns to pull ahead of the other.

The middle of the day saw an interesting incident in the race as the leading group of six in the Class40 fleet—led by the ultra-fast Tales 2—skimmed their way below Newfoundland on track for Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The two most northerly boats, Tales 2 and Région Normandie (Benoit Charron), both of which were sailing a smooth northerly line as the crow flies, found the wind backing against them and, head to wind, were forced to tack and head due south at a 90-degree angle to the course to pick up the southerly wind again. It was a costly manoeuvre in terms of both time and distance that opened the door for Armel Tripon to snatch the lead, closely followed by Isabelle Joschke.

Phil Sharp (Imerys) took no time at all to slip his way back into the top three, while Benoit Charron and his Norman crew, now trailing more than 12 miles behind, began to feel the threat of Maxime Sorel closing in, whose Mach40 V and B is truly coming into its element on these broader reaches. The pack is now more compact than ever, with no fewer than 12 boats within thirty nautical miles. It’s a tight race as the Class40 sailors prepare to round the final mark off the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon this evening—the last time they’ll see land before Saint-Malo.

Here’s what the competitors had to say:

Thierry Bouchard – Ciela Village

“The nights are getting chilly! We passed by Saint Pierre at night, and it was cold and damp. The picture emerging for us after this first leg of the race is a mixed one. Our autopilot is down, so one of us always has to be at the helm. And with only three men on board, that just exacerbates the fatigue for the crew. We deliberately set out without a Code Zero, and that hybrid type of foresail has really come in handy for our rivals well. However, we do have two gennakers for the Atlantic, and those should serve us well. I think we’ve had it pretty rough. We still have a big hump to overcome, then it’s going to be a sprint to the finish in Brittany. We have high hopes of catching up with the leading duo.”

Thibaut Vauchel-Camus – Solidaires En Peloton – ARSEP

“We’ve been racing side by side right from the start, which is really exciting! The race never lets up. Tales 2 is superfast, but we’re keeping pace. It’s thrilling for us. With so many high-performance boats within our sights, it means we have to be more and more ruthless with the trim. Everything hinges on a tenth of a knot. You need to be crafty and not get greedy with your options. Right now we’re unleashed, on a close haul in a southerly wind, pushing 17 to 21 knots.

We’re starting to feel the Atlantic chop. Up until now the seas have been completely flat. We have to make sure we come out of Saint Pierre in the lead, since the first of us to catch the wind is going to fly ahead. It’s going to be a real stretch. We’re happy with how we started the race and rounded the first two marks in the lead. The mark at Gaspé gave us a harder time, but what a show that was, with the whales coming out to play beneath our hulls. Magic!”

Sidney Gavignet – Musandam Oman Sail

“We didn’t sleep last night. We crossed the starting line in some very unstable conditions, with some big thunderstorms that really shook things up and even killed the wind in places. It was shifting all over the place. Spindrift 2 caught the wind up high and fared better than we did. We pulled ahead for a while and we’ve been battling it out since Matane. We’re getting a little tired from all these manoeuvres, but we’re trying to bounce back so we can hold the pace until the end of the St. Lawrence.”

Morgan Launay – Cora - Moustache solidaire

“The wind is here and we’re all happy. Choosing the northern line didn’t pay off, but we weren’t penalized too much. The fight is on now in the second Class40 pack. We’re well organized here on board, and we’re really enjoying the scenery. Night time near Gaspé was unbelievable. All is well with the boat and the crew.”

All programming information and details on registered crews can be found online at event website.