In Fort-de-France
The pair Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and Quentin Vlamynck crossed the finish line of the Transat Jacques Vabre this Thursday evening in the Ocean Fifty category, these fifteen-meter multihulls. At 1:07:40 in the Caribbean night and under a tropical deluge, Solidaires en peloton completed its perfect crossing of the Atlantic in 11 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes and 27 seconds with a race flown from start to finish but in a decapitated class.
Three of the six boats at the start had abandoned before even having passed Cape Finisterre, after the second start given from Lorient, including Koesio and his mixed tandem Erwan Le Roux and Audry Ogereau (damaged linkage arm fairings), big favorites for victory. The podium was therefore a foregone conclusion. It remained to define the order. But the Vauchel-Camus – Vlamynck pair did not leave much room for suspense by being almost in the lead from start to finish.
Ex-Arkema, Solidaire en Peloton ticked all the boxes to win with an experienced crew and a new boat and since passing the Canaries, the duo has widened a gap which has never fallen below 100 miles Front Realités (Fabrice Cahierc and Aymeric Chapellier) and Viabili Océans by Pierre Quiroga and Ronan Treussart, who should, in order, get on the box.
In the Imoca category, the sailboats For People and Paprec Arkea, in the lead a little over 1000 miles from the finish line, took a slight lead on Thursday over the rest of the fleet chasing them, two days of arrival in Martinique.
At 11:00 p.m., the title holders Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière (For People) were only 10.5 miles ahead of Yoann Richomme and Yann Elies, 2nd. For the Planet (Sam Goodchild-Antoine Koch) were 65 miles behind in the final sprint.