A Historic Sailing Achievement

After the first arrivals on Tuesday morning – in order: Arkéa-Handicap International (Multi 2000), Edenred (Ocean Fifty) and Ocean Breeze-Majorica (IRC crewed) – Anne-Claire Le Berre (Upwind by MerConcept) and Pierre Quiroga (Wewise) completed the Ocean Fifty podium in the afternoon (subject to the jury’s decision). The other fleets, expected mostly on Wednesday and Thursday, are still battling their way through light winds.

A historic achievement! For the first time in a solo Ocean Fifty race, a female sailor has made it onto the podium (pending the jury’s decision): Anne-Claire Le Berre, secured an impressive second place in the DRHEAM-CUP/GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE DE COURSE AU LARGE, finishing on Tuesday at 15:53 in Lorient, just over eight hours behind the winner, Basile Bourgnon (Edenred).

Eighth at the Fastnet, seventh at the DRHEAM-CUP virtual mark, the skipper of Upwind by MerConcept, a Romaric Neyhousser-designed boat launched in 2013, managed to come out on top on Monday in the transition zone off the coast of Brittany, with a northern route that allowed her to round the final mark at Rochebonne ahead of the competition, before holding off Pierre Quiroga (Wewise) and Baptiste Hulin (Viabilis Océans), who finished 5 and 27 minutes behind her in Lorient.

Enough to give her a legitimate feeling of satisfaction as she arrived on the pontoon: “It was a brilliant race, incredibly competitive. I’m very, very happy with the result for my first solo race; I never imagined I’d be here today – it’s a lovely surprise.” We worked really well with the shore-based team; I’d particularly like to thank Yann Eliès and Seb Soupey (in charge of route planning), who spent a lot of time at their computers. There were some twists, and we managed to be at the right place at the right time. It’s encouraging for the future; it shows that you can achieve great things on an old boat and that we’ve worked well.”

Pierre Quiroga, who was at the forefront of the race for the entire course, finished off the podium, commenting: “This third place has real value; the DRHEAM-CUP is a demanding race where you have to perform well all around: strategy, trimming, managing the boat and yourself. The way the race unfolded was exactly what we’d come for. I’ve been able to clock up miles in a variety of conditions, test out a lot of things on the boat and confirm the work carried out with the whole team.”

In the IRC Crewed class, after Ocean Breeze-Majorca (Alan Roura), who was the first to cross the finish line in Lorient, Le Cigare Rouge (Sidney Gavignet) crossed the line in second place. It now remains to be seen which boat will be the third to reach Lorient, with Maxitude (Xavier Bellouard) well placed to complete the podium this evening.

In the Multi 2000 class, Graine de Courage (Florian Guéguen) crossed the finish line in second place, nearly 11 hours behind the winner, Arkéa-Handicap International (Damien Seguin/Gérald Véniard), whilst the battle for third place remains very much up for grabs between the two Dazcat 1495s, Minor Swing (Didier Bouillard) and DMS Vinyl (David Summers), who passed the Rochebonne mark on Tuesday at around 17:00.

In the other classes, the IMOCA April Marine-Tahiti Déménage Tout (skippered by Arnaud Boissières) is expected to cross the finish line on Wednesday at midday, whilst the outcome in the Class40 will no doubt be known in the afternoon, with considerable uncertainty surrounding the names of the first skippers, given how spread out the fleet has been since Monday afternoon. The long transition zone between the DRHEAM-CUP mark and Rochebonne has, in fact, completely reshuffled the deck: a large part of the fleet – including, notably, the leaders up to that point – Corentin Douguet, Luca Rosetti and Guillaume Pirouelle – as well as Achille Nebout, Robin Follin and Pierre Leboucher – sailed north towards Sein and Audierne Bay, whilst others remained either on the most direct route (Quentin Le Nabour, William Mathelin-Moreaux, Pep Costa), or somewhere in between (Sophie Faguet, Alexis Thomas, Jules Bonnier), or completely south (Matteo Sericano, Keni Piperol), with 100 miles separating the latter from those further north!

Suffice to say that the race is far from over, and the same goes for the Vintage Multi class – Halvard Mabire (GDD) is in the lead this evening – the Vintage Mono class, where there’s a thrilling duel between Tanguy Caradec (Eurvad) and Titouan Pilliard (Use it Again for Youth), and the IRC Double-handed class, with the top four within 15 miles of each other. The suspense will finally be over for all these sailors on Wednesday and Thursday!