Transat Café L'or: ready to race... or racing!
by Transat Café L'OR 25 Oct 19:00 BST
25 October 2025
Transat Café L'or: ready to race © Vincent Curutchet
For all 64 duos who will start the 17th edition of the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR on Sunday afternoon off Le Havre, the watchword for the first night of the double handed race to Martinique is caution.
With strong NW'ly winds set to gust to 40 knots at times, all of the teams of two - from the giant 32m ULTIM tris to amateurs on their 40 ft Class40s - avoiding breaking anything on the first night is absolutely paramount.
Ocean 50s off and racing!
The same requirement applies to the ten Ocean 50 multihulls which advanced their start time by nearly 24 hours and left Le Havre this afternoon (Saturday), seeking to get out of the Channel before the biggest winds hit Sunday night.
The other classes are due to start from 1310hrs UTC Sunday afternoon with the four ULTIMS first away followed 20 minutes later by the 18 IMOCAs and then at 1350hrs UTC the 42 Class 40s. With between 20 and 25 knots for a fast reaching circuit another spectacular opening can be expected.
Courses
The ULTIMs sail a 6200 nautical miles course taking them into the Southern Hemisphere to a waypoint south of Ascension Island. They will cross the Doldrums twice.
The 10 Ocean 50s should sail a 4600 nautical miles course, the island of Sal in the Cape Verde islands turning right for Martinique. But this could be extended later in their race because they started earlier than scheduled and the intention is to have all classe leaders finish between the 5th and 7th November.
The 18 IMOCAs race a 4350 nautical miles track leaving the Canaries to their right whilst the Class40s sail 3750 turning west after the Azores.
Weather, it's complicated
The weather conditions for the first week of the race look complicated with multiple transitions and the prospect of only light trade winds south of the Canaries for the IMOCAs and Class40s. The ULTIMs should have a more direct, easier route south. Indeed for the IMOCAs racers the situation is not dissimilar to the very testing first section of last winter's Vendée Globe. There is a high pressure ridge on the Bay of Biscay meaning light wind zones followed by a 'cut off' Low pressure - a system which is detached from the westerly flow - which is hard to model, does not move much and can be quite violent as it does not lose energy easily. At the same time the low pressure activity coming in after it can push the high pressure south. This was seen in the last Vendée Globe when the leaders escaped and the high pressure ridge carried south with a section of the fleet.
Goodchild: "We'll try to do things right for Charlie."
Among the favourites to win the IMOCA class is British skipper Sam Goodchild who has taken up the reins of MACIF Santé Prévoyance due to Vendée Globe winner Charlie Dalin's illness. He sails with Lois Berrehar and is determined to not only win but continue Dalin's victory streak as a tribute to the Le Havre skipper who won this race in 2019.
Third in 2023 Goodchild said, "We'll have around twenty knots at the start, and the wind will pick up even more. In the Channel, caution is required with the strong current, the rocks, the cargo ships, and close competitors. The watchwords: stay in the lead, and don't break the boat! " Goodchild and Berrehar have been working with the British navigator, double round the world race wiiner Simon 'SiFi' Fisher, who advises on weather strategy advice pre-start.
"Sifi had already worked with Charlie, he knows the boat well," emphasizes Sam, " It's great to be able to work with him in advance. And being here in Le Havre, Charlie's hometown, has a special meaning. We'll be thinking of him as we leave and we'll try to do things right! "
Fisher meanwhile deciphers some of the weather keys for the next few days, he cautions, "The first night is going to be pretty windy. For the ULTIM's in particular you are looking at plenty of wind over current and plenty of sea state off the Cherbourg peninsula. So it will be quite tough for them. It will be full on. When the IMOCAs get to the Cherbourg peninsula they will be current against them. For all the fleet it will be managing performance against keeping things simple. And don't break anything on the first night!" The wind will go left from about midnight and then shift back to the right again as the next weather approaches. For the ULTIMs they will be able to use the left shift, for the IMOCA's there is the option to use the right shift as they try to get down to Ushant best." "For many the simple option is the further north you get then it is a cleaner track past the Channel Islands. There are some pretty strong gusts, in a strong NW'ly there is a the possibility of some big squalls, winds to 35 and gusts to 45.
Quotes:
Pam Lee (IRL) Class 40: #EmpowHer: "The start will be a great spectacle as it was in 2023. I am getting flashbacks from then. I won't be too surprised if a few Class40s don't make it through the first night. We just have to figure out where to hide and then it will be interesting to see how we deal with the big depression which is coming over us and we have to figure that out today, timing and decisions. And the other thing is that all these lows coming across are pushing all the trade winds quite far south. So I don't know it we will even find them or not."
Szabolcs Weöres (HUN) IMOCA New Europe: "I am excited. I am much confident than before. We have seen this before and been through it. It is safety first and we will push through, the boat is bullet proof. I think it will be fine."
Will Harris (GBR) IMOCA 11th Hour Racing: "I want us to trust ourselves with our own strategy and things like that. We work with Marcel van Triest and we have done a lot of racing with him and he gives us a really good insight. It will be a full on start, there is a coastal reaching race to start in 25 to 30kts which will be hard from the off, with 18 IMOCAs all on the start line, we want to get a good start but we need to keep the boat in good shape for the crossing. The first night will be windy and we just need to keep the boat in one piece, don't do anything stupid, there is no big gains to be had on the first night but you can lose a lot if you damage anything. We have to manage ourselves. It will be upwind and windy. After that it is a pretty open picture. Once across Biscay it is not very clear. This cut off low is changing position all the time and the models are not aligning. There can be big splits in the fleet. There is the ridge on Biscay and then secondly down by the Canary Islands some boats might sneak through and get into a a good trade wind whilst others get left behind. Being ahead will be more helpful."
Sanni Beucke (GER) Class 40 Alderan: "The tension is building up. The first night is going to be really, really strong with gusts up to 40 knots. We have not see than much wind together on our boat. The boat will slam upwind but if we can survive the first night we can be sure our boat is quite solid. And apart from that there will be some other fronts coming through but nothing as strong as the first night.
ULTIM preview - The speed kings
There will be four ULTIMS starting the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR taking on the longest course at 6200 nautical miles which they are expected to take around 12 days to cover. Their prescribed route to Martinque takes them into the Southern Hemisphere to a waypoint south of Ascension Island and crossing the Doldrums twice. They live up to their name as the biggest, fastest multihulls which continue to go faster each year.
For many different reasons their race programme each year is quite limited. Compared to the IMOCA or Class40, even the Ocean50 it is quite a closed, secretive world where technical advances or updates are not publicised. Only on pinnacle races like this one do advances become apparent.
These four ULTIMs which have been moored in the Eure basin are the most spectacular ocean racing machines ever designed. Their masts reach 45 meters high, and their foils, which lift the 15-ton platforms, mean they can cover more than 800 miles in 24 hours.
"High speed is a huge pleasure and a stressful experience," says five times race winner Franck Cammas. "You are constantly sailing on the edge."
The 52-year-old Cammas who actually originates from Aix-en-Provence is back at again. He has already won four Transat Jacques Vabre races, all aboard multihulls, including one in the ULTIM, in 2021 when he partnered Charles Caudrelier to win on Gitana. This time he's sailing alongside 27-year-old Tom Laperche, who is a remarkable talent in this class, indeed not dissimilar to a young Cammas who previously dominated the ORMA multihull division with his Groupamas.
SVR LAZARTIGUE
The Laperche-Cammas duo are impressive as is their SVR Lazartigue, the most aerodynamically advanced platform launched in 2021. Twice second in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the VPLP design, which has suffered periodic damages since it was launched, now seems to hav reached maturity. Laperche and Cammas won the Rolex Fastnet Race and the 24 Heures Ultimes, the only two trial races in 2025 for the large trimarans for whom the TRANSAT CAFE L'OR is THE big one this season.
SVR Lazartigue and Maxi Banque Populaire XI are favorites
This transatlantic race was won two years ago by the Maxi Banque Populaire XI. The Armel Le Cléac'h-Sébastien Josse duo are back to defend their title this year and many say look good for a double! Already very fast downwind, they overtook SVR Lazartigue two years ago in the South Atlantic to win in Fort-de-France, the VPLP design arrives in Le Havre with new foils designed to take off earlier and sail higher, in order to slam into the sea less and make up for their previous deficit upwind. "We have enormous experience on this boat, which we've really improved," says Armel Le Cléac'h. "I hope this will be our strength. It will come down to small things because the boats are being sailed better and better."
This versatility will be essential over the 6,200-mile course, with two Doldrums passages to be dealt with. Theirs is a comprehensive challenge which should allow the four competing duos to really test themselves.
Reputed to be a notch slower than the two big favorites, Sodebo ULTIM 3 is looking for a big victory, which Thomas Coville, partnered with Benjamin Schwartz, believes is possible: "We are strong in strong winds. Sodebo takes off a little later than the others, but it's very reliable, and we've risen to the level of the best in terms of hydro and aero," says the man who has done eight Cape Horns and accumulates a really exceptional experience in oceanic multihulls.
ACTUAL ULTIM 4
Actual Ultim 4 which won the 2021 race as Gitana 17 is now skippered by Anthony Marchand and Julien Villion. The Verdier designed boat first took the gamble of flying, foiling on all points of sail in 2017. Skippered at its peak by Charles Caudrelier, who won everything aboard it between 2020 and 2024, it hasn't changed in two years but remains a sure bet in the category. Anthony Marchand, who already has experience of a Transat Jacques Vabre and a Round the World Race in an Ultim, only took over in July and arrives in Le Havre with humility: "We're only just getting to know the boat," says the man who has joined forces with Julien Villion, a former crew member of the Gitana team, known for his weather expertise. A crew not to be underestimated, given that the routing ban could allow them to exploit the competition's slight inaccuracies on this long route to Martinique.