Normandy Channel Race 2026 Start
by Sirius Events 31 May 18:08 BST
31 May 2026
Normandy Channel Race 2026 - Day 1 © Jean-Marie Liot / CIC NCR2026
The 22 Class40s of the 17th CIC Normandy Channel Race set off from the Caen/Ouistreham bay today at 2:00 PM with around ten knots of wind and under beautiful Norman weather, a gradient of gray and blue, with a sky nuanced by bursts of sunshine.
A truly impressionistic and familiar scene in this beautiful bay of the Seine. At the end of the coastal course, Fabien Delahaye and Pierre Leboucher on LEGALLAIS rounded the final mark in the lead before heading towards the Cotentin Peninsula.
Having passed the Saint Marcouf Island mark at the Cotentin Peninsula, the crews will begin their journey northwards along the Cotentin coast, then cross the English Channel to the Isle of Wight, which they should reach by the end of the night, hoping to catch favorable tides.
A modified course, agreed upon on Saturday, awaits the racers for the coming days. The beginning of this course will follow the classic pattern: Cotentin Peninsula, crossing the Channel, entering the Solent from the east and exiting from the west, then along the southwest coast of England to the tip of Land's End; all this in 20 to 25 knots of wind on a close reach, meaning already challenging conditions. But the Class40s will not be heading to Ireland to round the Tuskar Rock lighthouse at the entrance to the Bristol Channel, and then the Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
Indeed, the arrival of a low-pressure system with strong winds and very rough seas on Tuesday and Wednesday in Ireland, the Celtic Sea, and the Western English Channel makes the continuation of the classic course and the return to the legendary Tuskar Rock extremely difficult.
A modified course has been established, starting with a section in the Celtic Sea to round Lundy Island. Then a southward run towards the Portsall Rocks before rejoining the classic course with passage around Guernsey, then the Raz Blanchard and Barfleur. The final leg will include a passage in the Eastern English Channel to Dieppe, a first-ever foray into the Eastern English Channel, before returning to Ouistreham, probably on Thursday.
It's a smaller fleet than in 2025, due to a preference for solo sailing in this Route du Rhum year or projects that have since moved on to the GLOBE40 round-the-world race, but ultimately denser and probably better prepared for the well-known characteristics of the CIC Normandy Channel Race.
The level of competition makes identifying the potential winner very difficult; Among those mentioned are Fabien Delahaye and Pierre Leboucher (LEGALLAIS), Quentin Le Nabour and Thierry Chabagny (BLEU BLANC PLANETE LOCATION), MACCAFERRI FUTURA (Lucas Rosetti and Pierre Brasseur), Axel Trehin and Antoine Carpentier (CUSTOPOL), Guillaume Pirouelle and Jules Ducelier (SOGESTRAN - SEAFRIGO), Thimoté Pollet and Alexandre Demange (ZEISS), Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde (VSF SPORTS), Mikaël Mergui and Benoit Hantzperg (HIRSCH-CENTRAKOR), Robin Follin and Gaston Morvan (SOLANO), Vincent Riou and Gerald Veniard (PIERREVAL FONDATION GOOD PLANET), and many others who, in the various stages of this course, may find the right combination.
To follow the race: normandy-race.com/suivre-la-course