Transat Cafe L'Or - The Dramatic First Week
by Mark Jardine 2 Nov 01:33 PST
1 November 2025
Charal during the Transat Café L'OR © Yann Riou / polaRYSE
What has become the second leg for the Class 40 fleet started at 1300 hours local time on Saturday. The teams had taken an enforced break from racing in Spain after the organisers decided the conditions were set to be too rough for the smaller boats.
This has split their race into two parts, where the cumulative time from both races decides the overall winner.
After leaving the docks in La Coruña, the teams set off upwind in a brisk breeze on port tack, to exit the Bay of Biscay and start their Atlantic crossing towards the finish line in Martinique.
Enjoy the footage of the departure, then we take a look at the trackers to see how the race is unfolding in the Ultim, Ocean50, IMOCA and Class 40 fleets.
It was a week ago that we woke up to the dramatic news that three of the Ocean50 trimarans had capsized in the 12 hours after their start.
They'd set off last Saturday, a day earlier than the other three fleets, trying to avoid the worst of the conditions.
We've received incredible footage of the Lazare crew rescue, and also some video of Koesio being lifted off the beach in Guernsey, then righted with cranes, to be taken back to their home ports to assess the damage and make repairs.
We finish today's update with an update from Francesca Clapcich and Will Harris on the IMOCA 11th Hour Racing.
Find out more at www.transatcafelor.org and track the fleet here.