17th Transat Café L'or Day 6: Re-start for the IMOCA fleet after the Canaries shutdown
by Transat Café L'OR 31 Oct 17:52 GMT
31 October 2025
Aboard Actual Ultim 4 during the Transat Café L'OR © Actual Ultim 4
The compression at the Canary Island which the IMOCA leaders are experiencing because of very light winds was widely forecast pre-start last week before The TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR started.
Now the leaders are dealing with it. But first out into the trade winds will get a jump on the fleet. There is a new leader in the Ocean Fifty class. SVR Lazartigue has successfully repositioned with no loss and should extend ahead again in the ULTIM race and Class 40 are primed for tomorrow's restart out of La Coruña.
ULTIM - SVR reposition for the gains
Having passed north of the Cape Verde Islands and so avoiding the wind shadow, Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas (SVR Lazartigue) gave up some distance to their pursuers but this Friday afternoon the leading duo have got themselves nearly 200 nautical miles to the west of their nearest rivals, second placed Thomas Coville and Benjamin Schwarz (Sodebo Ultim 3), setting themselves up for a more optimum sprint down to the Doldrums which SVR should reach tomorrow.
Cammas, who is aiming for an all time record fifth win on this race, reported this morning, "For a few hours we're sailing across the route to get south, but anyway, you often have to position yourself quite far west around the Doldrums to pass at a narrow points. So, it's pretty much a classic route in the end. What's not been classic is having been to Africa, finding the trade winds off Mauritania like we did yesterday morning. These Ultim trimarans are so fast so we're always wondering how we're going to navigate between the Canaries, Madeira, and Cape Verde, and how we're going to get through all that. And though it's fast, every time we stop, if we get caught in the wind shadow of an island, we lose tens of miles very easily. So we're always trying to stay in a flow, and the airflows are quite unstable at the moment."
The co-skipper who dominated this race in the ORMA 60 days and won with Charles Caudrelier on Gitana 17, Cammas is loving the intensity of the racing and especially learning SVR, "Tom is doing really well, so it's pretty great to have him. This SVR boat is quite a special configuration, I'm used to it but I appreciate it more and more and it reacts well to trimming and that's what I like and then there is the competition. I think the level of performance has increased a lot for everyone, in pure performance the fleet is still quite even and at these speeds it allows for real tactics, a real game of chess with our body of water, with the weather which inevitably changes very quickly and intellectually it's a game that I enjoy."
OCEAN FIFTY - New leader
It is 2023's Ocean Fifty winner Thibault Vauchel Camus, sailing this time with Damien Seguin on Solidaires en Péloton who has taken over the lead from Basile Bourgnon and Manu Le Roch on Edenred5 this afternoon. They have chosen to angle west and potentially skirt closer to the light winds than Edenred 5 which remains in stronger breeze but now potentially with more distance to sail.
Making a relatively effortless 34 knots this morning Edenred's Bourgnon said this morning, "The competition is tough and they're not going to give anything up. So if we want to at least maintain our lead, we have to push a bit harder. We can still do it because the sea isn't too rough but we can't get carried away either, so we're being vigilant and keeping a close eye on the sheet all the time. And if there's any problem, we'll reef. But for now we're keeping up the pace and we're changing every hour with Manu, we are swapping positions to stay on it. And it is true we can still push a bit harder."
IMOCA - 11th Hour strategy pays
There is now just 29 miles straight line distance between the bow of ninth placed Louis Burton's Bureau Vallée and the IMOCA division leaders Frankie Clapcich and Will Harris on 11th Hour Racing. Clapcich and Harris have benefited from their initial position to the west of the fleet, trusting their strategy, and also the days this summer they have spent racing the IMOCA in very light winds on The Ocean Race Europe. As Harris and Malizia's skipper Boris Herrmann have both attested to before, the powerful VPLP design also goes well in the very light because of the pronounced rocker which means less wetted surface area dragging the in the water.
Harris said this afternoon, "It is obviously nice to be in the lead right now, it is light, but we have gone from 200 miles separating the first nine boats to something like 30. But I think, especially the last couple of day a nice job of sailing our own race and trust our own strategies and stick to them, not getting too fussed about what the other boats are doing but it is going to plan so far. Lots can happen. But we have spent a lot of time this year, especially on The Ocean Race Europe, sailing in light winds and very light winds and so we have had a lot of practice sailing around on the J0 which we are doing right now and how to get the boat moving and keep going and I think we are managing to do that even in this short handed mode. We are trying to get through this high pressure ridge which is being influenced by the low pressure to the north and that is what is giving us our passage through. We are lucky that when we started this a week ago there was no passage through, and that is what is giving us this little flow as the front interacts with the high pressure ridge giving us this gate into the Canaries. Once we get to the Canaries we see the ridge backs off and develops a more circular flow which gives generally more wind everywhere and re-establishes the trade winds east of the Canaries. For sure getting down there first is an advantage but there is not many miles in it. So I'm not sure that would be the race winning move but it is always good to be at the front and sticking to our plan and not getting too stressed about anything."
Some nine miles astern of the US flagged IMOCA, three duos are racing in sight of each other on this sixth day of the race from Le Havre to Martinique, Jérémie Béyou and Morgan Lagravière on Charal, Ambrogio Beccaria and Thomas Ruyant on Allagrande Mapei and Swiss skipper Justine Mettraux and her French counterpart Xavier Macaire on TeamWork Team-SNEF.
CLASS40 - Making ready...
La Coruña, Galicia has been a hive of activity today as Class40 makes ready to re-start Saturday at 1200hrs UTC on their second stage to Martinique. They will have two strategic options, staying north and sailing the more direct route - west almost directly at the Azores - or going a longer, more southerly, safer route which is potentially at least 200 miles more distance. After injuring her knee - tearing her ACL - on the first leg, Germany's Olympic medallist Sanni Beucke will race the second stage on Alderan with her French co-skipper Sacah Lanièce.
Find out more at www.transatcafelor.org and track the fleet here.