But first let me tell you that there are 44 Class 40s competing, 6 fifties, 41 IMOCA 60s including some of the top names in offshore sailing, and 5 Ultim maxi multihulls, the ones over 100 feet. It’s a spectacular event going from Le Havre France to Martinique in the Caribbean.
So here’s the thing. That’s a fleet of 96 boats. More than your average Wednesday evening race, but what to do? This is what they did. They started the Class 40’s, 50’s, and Ultim maxi multihulls and they took off into projectile vomit conditions. I don’t care how much sailing you have done or how much ginger you have swallowed (to avoid seasickness) there is/was a bit of puking going on. They reckoned that the Ultim class would get south of the big winds before the big winds became really big winds. At last check, they were enjoying a brisk 20 knots on the starboard beam.
The Class 40’s will need to take a sharp left after they round Brest (love that name even though they spelled it wrong…:) and pull into Lorient to take shelter and hunker down. The tricky thing has been for the race organizers to find a marina where they can manage that many boats, but we will see.
Alla Grand Pirelli is leading the Class 40s – I was going to name the two co-skippers but that would take to much of my intellectual capacity (long French names) but they are just 70 miles short of the docks in Lorient. The Multim’s are rocketing south with SVR Lazarigu leading (that’s a mouthful) doing 35 knots at last check while the IMOCA’s remain tied to the dock in Le Havre waiting for a weather window before they can leave.
What do you do if you are an IMOCA skipper with time on your hands? I know a great bar just two streets back from the marina. I may or may not have enjoyed a pastis or two there.
That’s sailboat racing folks and it’s as good as it gets! – Brian Hancock.
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