The first edition of the Transat CIC race since 2016 started with relatively benign, modest breezes for the fleet of 33 IMOCA solo skippers, 13 Class 40 singlehanded racers and two vintage craft.
For the very latest generation of IMOCAs there was enough wind to accelerate on to their foils for increasingly long periods.
Charlie Dalin on MACIF Santé Prévoyance made the sharpest, best timed start and led what will be a hotly contested race before being overtaken by the powerful Sam Manuard designed scow Charal sailed by Jéremie Beyou.
Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux (TeamWork Team SNEF) was in hot pursuit of the top trio which included Yoann Richomme (Paprec-Arkéa) winner of last year’s Rétour à La Base solo race from Marinique to Lorient.
Boris Herrmann was in the mix after a more conservative start, taking an offshore line. He has perhaps the best ‘non-French’ chance of making the podium.
And Class 40 put on another stunning display of close racing, pre race favourites Ambrogio Beccaria and Ian Lipinski duelling off the line under tightly sheeted Code sails on the close reach.
The Transat CIC has deep roots as the original Transatlantic race, contested first in 1960 and won by Francis Chichester before French ocean racing legend Eric Tabarly took a landmark French victory in 1964.
Its tough, uncompromising route across the North Atlantic is a great testing ground for both new and innovative ideas and for existing designs.
This has increasingly been the case over recent races as solo racers bound for the Vendée Globe take their IMOCA60s through the big winds and seas on a route which usually takes them further to the north than they race south on the solo race round the world.
There are two boats in the Vintage category: Patrick Isoard’s Uship pour Enfants du Mékong and Rémy Gérin’s FAIAOAHE.
Being quite different from each other is easy to expect they will do their own race but they have an important goal too, promote the Vintage class to have more and more boats celebrating the history of The Transat CIC in the future.
Related post . . .
Transat CIC 2024 heading to New York City in the footsteps of Francis Chichester
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