7.Transat Quebec Saint-Malo 2008 - Oceanracing 2008

7.Transat Quebec Saint-Malo 2008
www.quebecsaintmalo.com - Übersicht

Sunday, 3rd august 2008
A Sunday in Saint-Malo... to the rhythm of the boats

Three 50-foot trimarans and two 40-foot monohulls are now moored at the foot of the ramparts in Saint-Malo. A very pleasant Sunday with boats finishing during the night and this morning and in spite of the dull weather, there was a lot of excitement at the finish. In the multihulls, following on from Crêpes Whaou! the runners-up in order were Imagine (Pierre Antoine) and Prince de Bretagne (Hervé Cléris), who crossed the finish line within three hours of each other. Shortly afterwards, it was time for the winning Class 40 boat, which arrived on the scene at daybreak. Halvard Mabire and his crew took line honours on board their Pogo Structures. Rather like a long coastal regatta until Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, then followed by the frenetic pace of the Atlantic dash from west to east in downwind conditions, the race enabled them to get the most out of their boat… and leave their imprint on this seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo!

At dawn, a little before 5h GMT this morning Pogo Structures crossed the finish line achieving a victory that will reindex in the annals of this seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo. With his two crewmen, Antoine Carpentier and Didier Le Vourch, Halvard Mabire, a leading light in ocean racing, could not hide the pleasure he felt winning a race, "which offered the same excitement and pleasure as a Tour de France sailing race, a Figaro Solo event and a Mini-Transat all rolled into one. » Nothing less than that!

Salty tales under the ramparts
But without any doubt, the index feature of this 2008 edition will reindex the impression left by the 40-foot boats, which have sailed or are still sailing in the same way as they would around the cans. At 8h30 GMT, it was time for Oliver Krauss and his mates, Maxime Paul and Vincent Jaricot to cross the finish on board Mistral Loisirs – Pole Santé Elior. This young trio with an average age of under thirty had a brilliant crossing and finish second in the Class 40 category.

With some exemplary sailing, they were really inspired and showed amazing confidence and attracted sincerest compliments from the class winner on board his Pogo 40. Halvard Mabire wanted to congratulate those chasing after him for the past two days: «Well done! If you hadn’t sailed so quickly, we wouldn’t have either. You did not make any mistakes and really made this transatlantic race an exciting one.»

Pierre ANTOINE / Imagine Foto: DR

Ankunft der Prince de Bretagne in Saint-Malo

The six men in the two crews relived their race on the pontoons in the Vauban Basin. And the tales resounding around the ramparts are not over yet, as all the sailors returning to dry land after such a tense race have plenty to tell. Oliver Krauss talked quite openly once he stepped ashore: « What an amazing transatlantic race since the start with light airs and the rest in a breeze! This was my third transatlantic race, the first over the North Atlantic and I can guarantee we never got bored, fighting all the way!»

Novedia Group grabs the lead
Meanwhile, everything is still to play for less than 100 miles from the finish. Which of the two teams of Tanguy Delamotte (Novedia Group) and Giovanni Soldini and the Italians (Telecom Italia) will complete the list of winners? For several days now these two crews have been fighting it out looking at each other in the rankings. The four men on board Novedia Group have gradually narrowed the gap on the Italians, handicapped and really suffering since the loss of their two spinnakers. In the middle of the day, the big news was that they had done it. The fourth-placed boat had moved into third place. Following in the wake of the two boats that have already completed the voyage, they thus become the new leader. Giovanni Soldini was not mistaken and willingly admits that having to do without the sails suited to the weather, there is very little left for him to do. Approaching the French coast, it is a bit like la Dolce Vita in the cockpit on Novedia Group. Unless there is a major problem or the weather changes drastically at the last minute, they are well on their way to a place up with the winners with an ETA this evening between 20h and 22h GMT.

Further back in the wake of the first Class 40 boats, the battle is just as exciting. While Prévoir Vie (Benoît Parnaudeau), 40 Degrees (Peter Harding) and Techneau (Gilles Dutoit) have sped along over the past 48 hours, Beluga Shipping (Boris Herrmann) and Appart City (Yvan Noblet), further north, have struggled in light airs and dropped back in the rankings. However, there are still between 400 and 500 miles left to sail before finishing in Saint-Malo. Anything is possible, particularly as the ridge of high pressure from the Azores is now likely to reindex in place for longer than initially forecast. Consequently, the leader of the group runs the risk of being slowed down and seeing his rivals draw ever nearer at the tip of Brittany.

Mission accomplished for the multihulls
As for the multihulls, the three winners were decided this morning. In the multihulls, following on from Crêpes Whaou!, the runners-up in order were Imagine (Pierre Antoine) and Prince de Bretagne (Hervé Cléris), who crossed the finish line within three hours of each other from the middle of the night to early this morning. Both crews could not hide their satisfaction at the end of this 2008 race, where they went from the unreliable waters of the Saint Lawrence to the huge Atlantic swell, passing through a wide range of conditions.

Of course, these two trimarans from the previous generation did not have the means to rival the latest Open 50 boat and did not dream of doing so. However, their result is just as impressive, as they really got the most out of their multihull. Both fulfilled their goals, as Hervé Cléris, 3rd on board Prince de Bretagne explained, as they approached the finish line: «We’re doing between 18 and 20 knots. We each have a sheet in our hands and an eye on the fleet. This crossing was both exciting and tough. However, for us, who set out on a new project just a few months ago, the goal was to be up in the first three and we have achieved that!» More than that, the 50-foot multihulls from Crêpes Whaou! to Prince de Bretagne have shown to what extent they can show their potential on major ocean racing challenges. Let’s just hope that new boats will soon be joining their ranks at the start of major races. We shall see…

What they said
Tanguy De Lamotte, Novedia Group - SET : « Everything is great. Even yesterday we were catching up the Italians. This morning, when we saw the positions, we realised that we were only 15 miles behind and now we have just gone by them. We weren’t close enough to be in sight of each other however, and so we talked on the VHF. We found out that they didn’t have their large spinnaker and they suggested we might like to hoist our small spinnaker instead to be fair. When I talked about it with the crew, they said they would rather be supping a beer at the finish (laughs)!"

Giovanni Soldini (Telecom Italia) : " Early on in the night, it wasn’t too bad, as the wind was blowing at about 18 knots, which allowed us to make good headway. Then, it dropped off and it got a little tougher for us with just the small storm spinnaker. It’s a pity, as the boat isn’t able to show 100% of her potential. We’re doing our best to get her moving, but let there be no illusions. We made a mistake and now we’re paying for it. Tanguy has just overtaken us. We’re right next to each other. He is sailing faster than us with his light spinnaker, but it doesn’t look like he’s getting away too quickly. We shall see, but I don’t have many tactical tricks up my sleeve, as we are truly handicapped, unless the wind gets up, which it is not forecast to do.»

Pascal Quintin (Forget Formation) : «Everything is fine on board, even if it is starting to feel a bit long. We can’t wait to see the ramparts in Saint-Malo. For the moment, it’s drizzle and fog, which is a bit depressing. In any case, it’s difficult to work out an ETA, as there are a lot of unknowns. At one point we can be doing very well, but then we get stopped. The final few miles are not going to be easy. The weather pattern looks very unstable with lots of light winds. Luckily, we know the coast between Ushant and Saint-Malo, as it is after all our playground, so that should make things a bit easier.»

Eric Galmard (Khat 7) : «We’re dead tired! It’s not easy keeping up the pace, especially as we’re spending all our time changing sails. We hoisted the spinnaker and we’re trying to close the gap on the two boats ahead of us. We’re pleased, because we saw this morning that we had extended our lead over those coming along behind. Currently, we’ve got quite a lot of wind between 18 and 20 knots, but we need to pay attention not to go over.»

Christophe Coatnoan (Groupe Partouche) : « In comparison to previous days, the big news is that we’re making headway. Yesterday at noon, we picked up the low, which is enabling us to get on track. At the moment, we have between 20 and 25 knots of wind, but it is forecast to strengthen later today. We should manage to cover quite a few miles! The idea is we want to claw back as many as we can from our rivals up ahead. Some are quite close to us, so it looks like being a great battle. It’s still far from over.»

Miranda Merron (40 Degrees) : «We’re trying to sail as quickly as possible. I took a look to see whether it was worth moving off northwards a little, but in the end, I decided that it would be too far and we were right not to attempt that. Now, we’re making headway at 15 knots. Everything is getting very wet. Unfortunately, in a few hours the wind is likely to drop right off. It is forecast to veer from south west to west, then north west before easing off. Then, a ridge of high pressure will swallow us up. The problem is that the boats further back will be sticking with the wind all the time. We need to keep going whatever happens and keep an eye out, as there is still a long way to go. Our opponents have plenty of time to catch us up!»

Summary of the the situation concerning the first boats to finish in the seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo Theoretical distance: 2855 miles (5287 km) (All times GMT)

Class 50’ Open
1 - Crêpes Whaou ! (Franck-Yves Escoffier) : finished on Thursday 31st July at 18h 49mins 14 secs, after 11d 3h 19 mins and 14 secs of racing, at an average speed of 10.68 knots
2 - Imagine (Pierre Antoine) : finished Sunday 3rd Aug at 01h 43 mins 10 secs, after 13d 10h 13 mins and 10 secs of racing
3 - Prince de Bretagne (Hervé Cléris) : finished Sunday 3rd Aug at 04h 32 mn 41 sec, after 13d 13 h 02 mins and 41 secs of racing

Class 40
1 - Pogo Structures (Halvard Mabire) : finished on Sunday 3rd Aug at 04h 50 mins 43 secs, after 13d 13h 50 mins and 43 secs of racing, at an average speed of 8.76 knots
2 - Mistral Loisirs – Pole Santé ELIOR (Oliver Krauss) : finished on 3rd Aug at 08h 30 mins 36 secs, after 13d 17h 30 mins and 36 secs of racing at an average speed of 8.66 knots.

In short
The first FICO monohull due tomorrow (Monday) afternoon
At 13h30 today (Sunday), Christophe Bullens’s An Ocean of Smiles was sailing 160 miles from the finish at 9.5 knots. He expects to finish sometime after lunch tomorrow, but if the wind eases off, as forecast, it may well take a few hours longer. The first FICO monohull is likely to reach the Vauban Basin in Saint-Malo tomorrow afternoon.
As for the 60-foot IMOCA, Cervin ENR, she was sailing 578 miles from Saint-Malo. Yannick Bestaven and his crew were achieving a good speed averaging around 13 knots and their ETA, although subject to caution, is now set for Tuesday morning…