2023-10-30 04:15:43
It’s a strange start for the 16th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. Blame it on the weather conditions and the threatening storm. The Ultimates are the only ones whose start to the race is not disrupted. The five sea giants took flight, with two sailors on board, off the coast of Le Havre at midday. Destination Fort-de-France, which the five maxi-catamarans of the “Ultim” class are supposed to reach in around two weeks.
After the cannon fired, the SVR Lazartigue, helmed by François Gabart and Tom Laperche, and the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, led by Charles Caudrelier and Erwan Israel, took the lead of the Ultim fleet, reaching at times more than 70 km/ h in two-meter waves.
At exactly 1:05 p.m., the first starters began their journey to Martinique under cloudy skies. They were followed very closely by two other categories of boats entered, the Ocean Fifty and Class40 categories. But the latter simply headed towards Lorient (Morbihan) where they will have to make a stopover for shelter due to a storm expected in the middle of the week on the Bay of Biscay.
And then, due to lack of shelter in Lorient in Brittany, the boats in the Imoca category, numbering 40 in this edition, remained at the dock in Le Havre, where they will wait in complete safety for the occurrence of a favorable weather window. Not for several more days in all likelihood. “We did not have the capacity to offer this format with a stopover in the Imoca class for reasons of space in the port,” explained Francis Le Goff, race director on Sunday.
The Ultimes, 32 m long sailboats, the fastest to set off off the coast of Normandy, are supposed to outrun the forecast depression. “If we don’t have a technical problem, there is a good chance that we will avoid a big depression,” explained Anthony Marchand, helmsman of the Ultim Actual on Saturday.
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