Francis Joyon shatters Mauritius Route record
Francis Joyon has just beaten his own record, set 10 years ago in this stretch of the Route to the Indies referred to as the Mauritius Route – and he made it all look so easy – 19 days, 18…
Offshore
News, race results plus editorial coverage from the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Vendée Globe, The Ocean Race, ARC, Fastnet, Transpac, Ocean Globe Race, Global Solo Challenge and Offshore Yachting from around the world.
Mini Transat: Leaders at the midway mark as Ferré excels
François Jambou (865 – Team BFR Marée Haute Jaune) and Ambrogio Beccaria (943 – Geomag), the respective leaders in the Prototype and Production boat category in this second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère 2019, are at the midway mark…
Jacques Vabre IMOCA podium battle heats up
After Groupe GCA – Mille et un sourires became the first boat to cross the line in the Bay of All Saints in the small hours of Friday morning under a magical moon, the second – Solidaires En Peloton –…
Francis Joyon smashes Mauritius Route record
Francis Joyon, the skipper of the IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran shattered the Mauritius Route record between Port Louis (Brittany) and Port Louis (Mauritius) at 0726hrs local time (0326hrs UTC) on Friday 8th November). He smashed the reference time he set in…
Brest Atlantiques – first gybes, first respite
After more than two days at sea, the four trimarans racing in the Brest Atlantiques are sailing almost at the latitude of the Canary Islands, heading south in average trade winds and a calming sea. And while the erratic nature…
Mini-Transat: Everyone in the trade winds… or almost. Bouroullec in turmoil with technical issues.
The trio of Jambou, Beccaria, Ferré is continuing its route leaving very little room for tactical error, the whole performance posted at a furious pace (an average of around 10 knots over the past 24 hours). In a favourable trade…
Transat weather analysis (#5): the Doldrums change everything
Following on from our weather analysis of the IMOCAS racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre, Christian Dumard today looks at how the boats coped with the Doldrums, the area of instability, which as is so often the case, was kind…
Transat Jacques Vabre – Charal loses 264 miles in two days in the Doldrums
Charal has lost 264 miles in the Doldrums over the last two days to the new leader Apivia, which crossed the Equator at 16:00 UTC and is speeding towards the finish line in Salvador de Bahia, less than 1,000 miles away….
Mini Transat: Jambou and Beccaria solid leaders, two sailors set to make a pit stop in the Cape Verde archipelago
Italians Matteo Sericano and Marco Buonanni have both broken a rudder and are making for Mindelo, in Cape Verde, where they’ll make a pit stop to effect repairs before, hopefully, returning to the racetrack. Since the start in Las Palmas…
The final stretch: Francis Joyon expected to finish in Mauritius on Friday
The gybe carried out yesterday evening by François Joyon to move away from the extraordinary low-pressure system that is typical of the Southern Ocean and which propelled him across the South Atlantic from west to east, means that he is…
Brest Atlantiques – flying at over 30 knots off Gibraltar
Thirty hours into racing and all four of the trimarans competing on the Brest Atlantiques race have already reached the latitudes of Gibraltar, most of them averaging around 30 knots with top speeds of at over 40. Ahead lies one…
Transat Jacques Vabre: Charal suffers in easy(!) Doldrums as Crédit Mutuel speeds on
An easy Doldrums? Tell that to Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt on Charal, who have watched their 100-mile lead turn into a 50-mile deficit after less than a day in the dreaded Doldrums. It was heartbreaking for Charal, but the air…
‘How Bizarre’ – a clean sweep in Melbourne to Stanley Race
Lord Jiminy has taken line honours in the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s (ORCV) Melbourne to Stanley Race, but the most outstanding result came from the Scott Robinson skippered Seaquest RP36, How Bizarre, which pulled off the rare triple of…
Mini-Transat: An epic run towards Martinique
After three days at sea, the fleet of 82 sailors in the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère is complete once again after Jean Lorre’s return to the racetrack at the start of the afternoon. The speeds are steady,…
Transat Jacques Vabre – an easy doldrums awaits
The route to victory for Charal and the IMOCA podium in the 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre may have just become lot simpler according to the official race meteorologist. Richard Silvani, from Météo France said…
IMOCA analysis: Charal setting the pace
It is patently obvious now to everyone that Charal is very fast and is setting an incredible pace at the front of the IMOCA fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Since passing the Cape Verde Islands, when they were tacking…
Cabbage Tree Island Race set to be the biggest yet
The Cabbage Tree Island Race is expected to have its largest fleet in history when the 67 yachts take to the start line for the fourth race of the CYCA's Blue Water Pointscore on Sydney Harbour this Friday night. The…
IDEC SPORT continues to speed along in the Southern Ocean
The huge improvement in the reference time between Port Louis (Brittany) and the Cape of Good Hope (2 days and 19 hours) achieved yesterday has not led Francis Joyon to ease off or modify the pace he has set since…
Mini-Transat: The Atlantic chessboard
A little over 48 hours after the start of the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/Le Marin), everyone is positioning their pawns. With little information and few tools at their disposal, the sailors are…
Alex Thomson cuts keel off Hugo Boss to save hull
Hugo Boss said today (Monday) that after exhausting all the options, they had decided to cut the keel off their 60ft monohull after damage forced them to withdraw from the 14 edition of the Transat Jacque Vabre Normandie Le Havre…
Brest Atlantiques – all set for an express crossing of the Bay of Biscay
After ten days in Brest, the four maxi-trimarans of the Ultim Class 32/23 are all set for the start of the double handed Brest Atlantiques race, leaving tomorrow at 11am. The 14,000-mile non-stop loop, or the equivalent of sailing halfway…
Mini-Transat: The southern expressway – off like a shot
This Sunday, a day on from the start of the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère, the 81 sailors out on the racetrack are benefiting from trade wind conditions that favour slipping along and long surfs: a fairly stable…
Thirty-seven candidates for the Vendée Globe 2020
Thirty-seven: this is the number of candidates who declared themselves officially and it is already a first record. Old-timers, podium candidates, rookies, foreigners, more women than ever and still as many adventurers, the 2020 vintage is likely to be outstanding….
Francis Joyon rounds the Cape of Good Hope two days and 19 hours ahead of the record pace
Francis Joyon and the IDEC SPORT maxi trimaran crossed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, often referred to as the Cape of Storms, this morning at 0454hrs UTC, after 14 days, 19 hours and 48 minutes of sailing….
Brest Atlantiques – the media man, the third man
Is it double-handed or triple ? The addition of a third person on board has been the talk of those visiting the race village this week in Brest. The sailing instructions are clear: “The media man must not under any…
Hugo Boss out of Transat with keel damage after hitting UFO
Alex Thomson and Neal McDonald are working on the safest place to navigate their damaged 60ft monohull, Hugo Boss, after announcing their withdrawal from the 14thedition the Transat Jacque Vabre. Earlier in the day they informed the race office that they…
Mini Transat fleet ready to take the start line
On Saturday 2 November is the start of the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère was given at 14:33 UTC in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The fleet is bound for Le Marin, in Martinique. The race set sail…
Brest Atlantiques start scheduled for Tuesday
The start of the Brest Atlantiques race, which was postponed on Thursday due to stormy weather conditions in the Bay of Biscay, is now set to start on Tuesday at 11:00am. Since the announcement on Thursday of the delayed departure,…
Mini Transat: A very lively start – two returns to port
This Saturday at 14:33 UTC, 82 sailors took the start in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria of the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère in what proved to be a bracing introduction. The racers very quickly had to get…
Francis Joyon’s day full of contrast
While the figures from the past 48 hours led us to be euphoric, with 716 miles clocked up yesterday in 24 hours and a lead extended this morning to 707 miles in comparison to the pace set in 2009, out…
Green light for Mini-Transat La Boulangère second leg start
It’s tomorrow, Saturday 2 November at 14:08 UTC that the start of the second leg of the Mini-Transat La Boulangère will set sail from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria bound for Le Marin (Martinique). Following the withdrawal of Hendrik Witzmann…
Brest Atlantiques: Gearing up for Tuesday start
This weekend, the tip of Brittany and more broadly France’s Atlantic seaboard will be swept by the first big autumnal depression with winds bordering on 50 knots and very heavy seas. There is nothing exceptional about these conditions at this…
Brest Atlantiques – start postponed
After having studied the evolution of the weather situation over the past few days, the organisers of Brest Atlantiques, in agreement with the sailors and owners, have decided to make official this Thursday the postponement of the race, initially scheduled…
The IMOCA class lets the weather experts have their say (#2)
Each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the IMOCA class gives a chance for the weather analysts and onshore routers to tell us about how they see the race in the IMOCA category to allow us to understand the strategy adopted by…
Alex Thomson stitching south with one eye on the World Cup
As he beats his way down the North Atlantic in an increasingly unfavourable position, Britain’s Alex Thomson looked forward to England playing in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday morning with the good omen that he watched the last…
Joyon at full pelt heading towards the Cape of Good Hope
There’s no changing Francis. The skipper of the IDEC SPORT maxi-trimaran is at the age of 63 just as keen as ever to set new records and perform well, as we have been able to see over the past 24…
The IMOCA class lets some weather routers have their say
Routing is not allowed in the Transat Jacques Vabre for the skippers in the IMOCA class, but that does not mean to say that the weather experts are not watching the race and studying the charts… We therefore decided to…
Transat Jacques Vabre – Britain's two Sams challenge as fleet divides
Britain’s Samantha Davies and her French co-skipper, Paul Meilhat have sent a message at the start of this race and it rang out across the Bay of Biscay yesterday as they tacked south-west at Cape Finisterre in third place. They…
Transat Jacques Vabre – a high speed start for the IMOCAs
Since the start at 1215hrs UTC yesterday from Le Havre, the 29 IMOCAs have been sailing at high speed and quickly made their way out of the English Channel, even if three double-handed crews (Ruyant/Koch, Sorel/Le Brec and Joschke/Lagravière) suffered…
Brest Atlantiques: Top speeds for the MACIF trimaran?
Four boats will line up at the start of the Brest Atlantiques race; four Ultim 32/23 trimarans, so twelve hulls and the same number of crew. This long run is raced double-handed and the decision has been made to give…
