Amaury Dumortier and Geoffrey Thiriez take line honours Cap-Martinique

Amaury Dumortier and Geoffrey Thiriez take line honours in Cap-Martinique © Marc Marsillon / Cap-Martinique

Amaury Dumortier and Geoffrey Thiriez (Terre d’Enfants sur l’Atlantique) have taken line honours in the second edition of the Cap-Martinique, this Saturday 4 May at 22:41:59 hours local time.

The duo took 21 days 41 minutes and 59 seconds to cover the 3,800 miles between La Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan, Brittany) and Fort-de-France (Martinique) with a single compulsory passage mark of the Madeira archipelago. Originally from Lille, the two friends took control of the fleet more than 10 days ago and extended their lead from then on. They have posted a fabulous performance on this their very first transatlantic passage. The first to cross the finish line in elapsed time they take line honours, whilst their closest rivals, Gérard Quenot and Bertrand Daniels, are expected to make the finish at around 04:00 hours local time on Sunday morning. There is set to be a bunched finish in Fort-de-France since 10 boats are due to complete the race on 5 May. The first solo skipper, Ludovic Gérard, is on track to cross the finish line at around 21:00 hours local time on Sunday.

The Cap-Martinique is raced in line with the rules in corrected time. To guarantee the utmost fairness, each boat is allocated a rating according to her performance capabilities. This rating is applied to the race time and the winning boat is the one whose corrected time is the lowest. Due to their high rating and their race time, Amaury and Geoffrey will not take victory in corrected time but they may still secure a podium place. Final verdict: tomorrow.

"We didn’t get the impression that we were gaining on a daily basis. We were focused on getting the boat making headway. As far as Cape Finisterre, we weren’t receiving the ranking and it was only when we managed to get 4G reception at Cape Finisterre that we found out we were in sixth place and received encouragement from our loved ones.

It is our first transatlantic passage. Prior to the start, the field of possibility was wide open. We knew we had a boat that was capable of going quick, especially in elapsed time with a fairly high rating coefficient. What we wanted was to have fun and give our all. We said to ourselves that we would do our best to get to Fort-de-France and the result will be the result. There are two or three things we’d have liked to have done better but all in all it went well. We didn’t have any major glitches. Our biggest snag was losing the winch. That might seem trivial, but we only had one left after that and we couldn’t afford to lose it. We don’t know whether our performance is down to preparation or luck. I think both elements played a part.

Twenty days at sea is a revelation. We’d never spent more than 3-4 days in a row at sea. Moreover, on the fifth day, we reckoned that it was quite a bit more than we’d ever done before. It involves long-term management in terms of sleep and our pairing because we’re very different. We argued a bit at times, which is entirely normal. We’ve received loads of messages from the other teams and from our training partners who also prepare for races in Orlabay in La Trinité-sur-Mer (Brittany). A great club spirit has been forged there. That creates something quite strong, as we didn’t really know each other that well before.

We feel really proud to bring the club this line honours. Le Cercle de la Voile des Flandres is a tiny club on a lake and two of its members have done the Route du Rhum, two have done the Cap-Martinique, one crew competes in the World 470 Championships and we have taken line honours in the Cap-Martinique. That’s incredible for a tiny little inland body of water.”