{"id":611,"date":"2026-01-28T14:42:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=611"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:42:40","slug":"the-transat-cafe-lor-debrief-imocas-capsizes-and-a-surprise-second-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=611","title":{"rendered":"The Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or Debrief: IMOCAs, capsizes, and a surprise second place"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or last Autumn was a dramatic race featuring unexpected finishes, capsized boats, and speedy IMOCAs<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A
A fast start for Ultim Maxi Banque Populaire XI. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after 10.30 in the evening on Saturday, 25 October, French team mates Erwan Le Draoulec and Tanguy Le Turquais found themselves upside down in a capsized<\/a> trimaran<\/a> in 30-knot winds with the waters of the English Channel rising inside their boat.<\/p>\n

Though Le Turquais says there was no panic on board, fear did momentarily take hold as air inside their smashed Ocean Fifty became scarce, and the pair realised the aft hatch was blocked by bags.<\/p>\n

\"Class\n

Class 40s stream out from the Le Havre start. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt lasted five or 10 seconds maybe, but they felt like hours,\u201d recounted a shocked Le Turquais. \u201cI was thinking: we\u2019re going to drown here like a couple of idiots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, both were rescued safely, along with four more competitors, in a hectic few hours of incidents.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018A\n

\u2018A mean low pressure system was approaching Biscay\u2019. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or: The coffee route<\/h2>\n

If it\u2019s an odd-numbered year, the nights are drawing in and there are dramatic mid-Atlantic rescues of multihull sailors hitting the headlines, it must mean the race across the Atlantic which follows the \u2018coffee route\u2019 is underway.<\/p>\n

For its 17th edition the double-handed offshore classic switched its name from the Transat Jacques Vabre to become the Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or, thanks to the French coffee giant which supports the race from Normandy, northern France, to Martinique in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

\"Conditions\n

Conditions on the Class 40 Engie mid-race. Photo: Team Engie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Otherwise the blend has changed little. The docks in Le Havre welcomed four divisions: four Ultims; a record fleet of 10 Ocean Fifty trimarans; 18 IMOCAs (the reduced numbers reflecting the post-Vend\u00e9e Globe season); and 42 Class 40s of all vintages.<\/p>\n

The race organisers\u2019 plan was to try and ensure the winners of all four fleets finished within hours rather than days. So the Ultims raced around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, 600 miles north-east of Brazil, the IMOCA course took them to the Canaries, the Ocean Fiftys turned right at the Cape Verdes, while the Class 40 fleet had to be halted in La Coru\u00f1a to sit out a storm for three days, before passing south of a mark off the Azores.<\/p>\n

\"Skippers\n

Skippers Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxel took a last-gasp victory in the Ocean Fifty trimarans with Viabilis Oc\u00e9ans. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mouth-watering prospect<\/h2>\n

The line up in each division was fascinating. Sadly the launch of the highly anticipated Gitana 18 was delayed, but in the big Ultim fleet 2023 winners Armel Le Cl\u00e9ac\u2019h and Seb Josse were out to defend their titles with Banque Populaire XI, reported to be flying earlier and more smoothly with new foils.<\/p>\n

Franck Cammas joined as co-skipper to Tom Laperche on SVR Lazartigue. Thomas Coville hand-picked Benjamin Schwartz as a powerful ally and his co-skipper on the re-optimised Sodebo Ultim 3. And ex-Figaro ace Anthony Marchand has upgraded to a new boat with Actual Ultim 4, formerly Gitana 17.<\/p>\n

\"Skippers\n

Skippers Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxe. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Class 40 fleet ranged from five new 2025 launches, to a couple of 10- to 15-year-old boats raced by Corinthian teams. There were a clutch of international skippers, including Irish-US\/French pairing Pamela Lee and Jay Thompson on #EmpowHer, pro Italian and French teams, enthusiastic amateurs, and super-experienced hands, not least ocean racing legends Michel Desjoyeaux and Vincent Riou, to make for a wide-open competition.<\/p>\n

In the IMOCA class Britain\u2019s Sam Goodchild had been thrust into the media spotlight having just been announced as the skipper of the new Macif Sant\u00e9 Provence being built for the next Vend\u00e9e Globe, following Charlie Dalin\u2019s cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n

For the Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or Goodchild and his co-skipper Lois Berrehaar had been tipped as favourites, along with Yoann Richomme and Corentin Horeau on Paprec Ark\u00e9a, while J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou seized the availability of two-times race winner Morgan Lagravi\u00e8re to join him on Charal.<\/p>\n

\"Sam\n

Sam Goodchild was one of the favourites, having taken the helm of Macif for the next IMOCA cycle. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the end the race organisers\u2019 ambitions to finish the four fleets together were thoroughly thwarted by the weather \u2013 SVR Lazartigue won the Ultim class on
\n5 November, while the winning Class 40 pairing (Guillaume Pirouelle and Cedric Ch\u00e2teau on Seafrigo-Sogestran) came in 12 days later.<\/p>\n

But within each fleet there was plenty of close competition \u2013 just 22 minutes separating the top two 40s, while the Ocean Fifty fleet was even closer.<\/p>\n

Minutes in it<\/h2>\n

This year\u2019s race saw the Ocean Fifty class come of age with 10 boats racing. The circuit is tightly controlled in terms of budgets and technology: there are a maximum of 11 boats allowed in the class, the boats have one-design C-foils and sail programmes have discrete limits. The newest launch this year was Edenred 5 of Emanuel Le Roch and Basile Bourgnon, which went into the water in July and started winning races straight off the bat.<\/p>\n

Late on the Friday afternoon, before the Sunday 26 October scheduled start, the Ocean Fifty class came to the race management team with a plea to start the following day, Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Seafrigo-Sogestran\n

Seafrigo-Sogestran was the winning Class 40, skippered by Guillaume Pirouelle and C\u00e9dric Chateau. Photo: Georgia Schofield\/TCO25<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With a mean low pressure system approaching Biscay in the early part of the week, the trimaran sailors wanted to have the best chance of being in front of it. Eventually the go-ahead was given and the Ocean Fifty fleet was set off from a low key start, with no spectator boat flotilla or live television coverage.<\/p>\n

They needn\u2019t have worried about their media profile. In gusts of up to 40 knots with big seas three Ocean Fifty trimarans capsized within a matter of hours. All three pairs were successively helicopter lifted off their stricken boats but the images and stories made headline news \u2013 even in Britain, after class stalwart Erwan Le Roux\u2019s Koesio upturned on a beach in Guernsey (see panel, right).<\/p>\n

But after that first night the Ocean Fifty fleet had a thrilling race. Victory seemed destined to go the way of Edenred. Basile Bourgnon, the youngest skipper in the race and son of the late Laurent (a past double winner), sailed an accomplished race with Le Roch. Two days from the finish they had a 30-mile lead, until their gennaker pole collapsed, damaging the rudder link bar. There was no way of matching their rivals\u2019 speed after that and Edenred dropped to fifth.<\/p>\n

\"Guillaume\n

Guillaume Pirouelle and C\u00e9dric Chateau. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli\/Alea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The fairytale dream of a family double was lost, as Basile\u2019s cousin Mathis won the Mini Transat the same week, 30 years after his own father.<\/p>\n

After 12 days and 5 hours of racing the class win was decided by just 18 minutes. Underdogs Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxel on Viablis Oc\u00e9ans, an older 2017 VPLP design, made a better approach from the south to pass Figaro talents Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan on WeWise at the very south-eastern corner of Martinque with less than 90 minutes to sail.<\/p>\n

Just 10 minutes later Luke Berry and Antoine Joubert clinched 3rd on Le Rire M\u00e9d\u00e9cin Lamotte, their best ever placing. Australian-born Berry lived in Macclesfield until he moved to Saint Malo with his family at 10, then studied at Southampton University. For him this result exorcised the ghosts of the 2023 race, when he and Joubert were capsized and dismasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting on the podium on a race like this, when there\u2019s never been as many Ocean Fiftys, with the oldest boat from 2009 \u2013 we are very, very happy,\u201d Berry said.<\/p>\n

\"Conditions\n

Conditions on the Class 40 Engie mid-race. Photo: Team Engie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always known that this boat\u2019s been quite fast downwind \u2013 at least as fast as you\u2019d ever want. I would put [the result] down to putting the boat at the right speed at the right time. At the beginning we accepted to be a bit slower and to be a bit behind to play the safety, knowing that potentially we\u2019d be able to catch up around the Canary Islands. Then after [it was] just trying to do our thing and make the right choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning we were quite affected [by all the capsizes], especially having broken our boat in two in the last race, but we really did our own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Three 50ft trimarans capsize in first night of Transat race: all skippers rescued\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
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The Transat Caf\u00e9 L\u2019Or \u2013 formerly known as the Transat Jacques Vabre \u2013 has got off to a dramatic start\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n