Please select your home edition
Edition
Trinidad and Tobago - Sail Service Stay
Product Feature
Upffront.com - Facnor FX+2500 Continuous line furler
Upffront.com - Facnor FX+2500 Continuous line furler

The Transat CIC: perfect conditions promise a good start Sunday

by The Transat CIC 27 Apr 18:35 BST 28 April 2024
The Transat CIC village © Arnaud Pilpré

The morning before they will set off to race across the North Atlantic, the skippers met for a final briefing with Race Direction and weather advisers from Meteo Consult.

  • Conditions should be good with 12 to 15 knots of wind at start time.
  • The skippers will leave the pontoons between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. this Sunday local time
  • The start, which will take place at 1:30 p.m local time will be broadcast on the race YouTube Channel and the website in English between 1:00 and 2:00pm French time (11:00 to 12:00 UTC)

The best news is that the weather conditions promise to be ideal for racers and spectator craft alike - not too light and not too windy. But the modest winds are the precursor to a first depression coming to the IMOCAs on Tuesday.

The extremes do tend to prevail at Transat starts, ballistic gales or almost calm. But Sunday looks good. "Last week, we were looking at a rainy and windy Sunday. But it will be clear at times with sunshine and light winds," suggests Fabien Delahaye (LEGALLAIS). "We should have 10 to 15 knots of westerly wind," says the Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven (MAITRE COQ V). "It's a flying reaching start but it allows us to start gently," continues Swiss skipper Alan Roura (HUBLOT).

And so the fleet should route northwest and pass close to Ireland. "They will look for a first low pressure system which will be in the north of the British Isles and a wind shift which will give them to winds of around thirty knots and gusts around 40 knots," says Assistant Race Director Yann Chateau. He says, "It should be a quick race."

The mood was also lifted this morning as Jean Le Cam received a cake at the briefing as he is celebrating his 65th birthday this Saturday. But while he will start the race on cue, the veteran French skipper will not race to New York for personal, family reasons.

FOCUS ON... An "interesting, complex and demanding" course

This route, the Atlantic via the North face, is something of a paradox: it is shorter (3,500 miles in theory) than the traditional routes that lead to the Caribbean but much more complex

"With an open ocean across the Atlantic, it is the most complicated solo transatlantic because at the end of April - beginning of May, there is usually a series of low pressure systems over the North Atlantic generating headwinds," emphasizes Francis The Goff. He confirms that the sailors could encounter conditions similar to those of the Vendée Globe, sought out by the IMOCAs at seven months before their round the world race

"We will potentially have difficult conditions until the end," Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) said yesterday. "It's an interesting, complex and demanding course," says Jérémie Beyou (Charal). "There will be a lot of changes of pace, sails, a big constant pressure."

They said:

Alan Roura SUI (HUBLOT): "The conditions are not yet certain in terms of strength and angle but there will be no more than 15 knots on the line. We will then leave the island of Groix to starboard before going around a buoy offshore. We avoid sailing upwind alone. Afterwards, there will be the choice of whether or not to put a sail on the bowsprit. It gets us off to a gentle start even if it's a flying reaching start. Afterwards, there will be phases to manage, Tuesday, Thursday in particular. The sea is quite short so you will probably have to play it a little "safe". When reaching, in an established 30 knots, the boats go very fast and there is a possibility of getting hurt. Then we will see from when we start to".

See interviews with the favourites Charlie Dalin and Jeremie Beyou on the English website:

Related Articles

The Transat CIC After Movie
The brilliant return of a legendary race For the first time in eight years, the "mother of transatlantic races" returned to the ocean racing calendar. An event dear to the hearts of all sea lovers as The Transat CIC has made history. Posted on 25 Jul
Clarisse Crémer starts the New York Vendée Race
Taking her home to Les Sables d'Olonne Clarisse Crémer took the start of the New York Vendée transatlantic race. This race will take her to Les Sables d'Olonne, over a course of approximately 3100 nautical miles. Posted on 29 May
Clarisse Crémer finishes The Transat CIC
Completing the race in 20 days after a technical stopover in the Azores to repair her boat On May 19 at 20d 12h 38min, after 20 days since the start of The Transat CIC, Clarisse Crémer finally crossed the finish line of this legendary race. Posted on 19 May
Oliver Heer finishes 25th IMOCA in the Transat CIC
“I went through a nightmare” It was with a huge measure of relief that the Swiss German solo skipper Oliver Heer brought his Transat CIC solo race across the North Atlantic from Lorient to New York to a satisfactory conclusion Thursday at 22:19:32hrs UTC, finishing in 25th place. Posted on 17 May
Perseverance is Clarisse Crémer's middle name
Back racing hard in The Transat CIC and today is some 700 miles from the finish line After a strong, solid start to the Transat CIC, Clarisse Crémer suffered damage to the J3 bulkhead of her L'Occitaine en Provence on May 1st which required her to divert 500 miles to the Azores for five days whilst her technical team completed repairs. Posted on 14 May
The Transat CIC Prizegiving
Podium finishers honoured Competitors and invited guests honoured the IMOCA and Class40 podiums of the 15th edition of The Transat CIC at the prizegiving Sunday in New York. Posted on 13 May
The Transat CIC Update
New York offers finishers sunshine but still dark clouds over the Atlantic At 13 days since the fleet left Lorient just seven solo racers are still racing across the Atlantic on the 3,500 miles Transat CIC. Posted on 11 May
Ambrogio Beccaria wins The Transat CIC in Class40
Crossing the line of the historic race at 03:47:55 hrs this morning Italy's Ambrogio Beccaria on his all Italian designed and built Musa 40 Alla Grande Pirelli added the hugely prestigious Transat CIC Class 40 title to his steadily growing collection of solo and short handed ocean racing honours this morning. Posted on 10 May
The Transat CIC Update
Ambrogio Beccaria has Class 40 finish line and victory 'in sight' With less than 140 miles to go to the finish line of the Transat CIC solo race across the North Atlantic from Lorient to New York Italy's Ambrogio Beccaria appears to have dealt with the last weather hurdle earlier today. Posted on 9 May
Transat CIC: Le Turquais top daggerboard finisher
Half the IMOCA fleet in now in New York The top 13 finishers - that is to say half the IMOCA class on the Transat CIC solo race across the North Atlantic - are now either in New York or en route from the finish line which is 110 miles offshore. Posted on 8 May