Foul Weather Hampers Atlantic Races
Both the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Mini Transat ocean races were forced to delay their starts due to uncharacteristically bad weather in the Atlantic.
Originally scheduled to start from Le Havre, France, last Sunday, the Transat Jacques Vabre — with 43 boats in four divisions (Class40, Multi50, IMOCA and MOD70) chomping at the bit to start — was postponed thanks to models predicting winds between 35 and 50 knots. Fortunately, the forecast improved and organizers plan to start the race Thursday at 1 p.m.
The race runs through the English Channel and then heads far south, landing the racers on the southeast coast of Brazil, in Itajai — a distance of over 5,000 miles. As a precaution, organizers have planned a weather stop for the Class40s and possibly the Multi50s in Roscoff, France. These relatively slower boats are more likely to be hit by an incoming weather system and may need to take shelter for a couple of days. The final details will be announced just prior to the start.
“The Race Directors have found a good solution for the Class 40 and Multi 50," says IMOCA Open 60 skipper Bernard Stamm (SUI, Cheminées Poujoulat). "Getting the boats to stay in one place while the nasty weather passes over is what any good sailor would want to do.”
About 500 miles to the southwest of Le Havre lies Sada, Spain, where the Mini Transat is now set to continue. Dangerous weather detoured the 84 singlehanded racers on their journey from Douarnenez, France to Lanzarote, Spain, forcing them to sail their Mini Transat 6.50s to either Gijon or Sada, Spain.
Regrouped in Sada, they’ve been in a holding pattern for 16 days waiting for the weather to improve. It was announced today that the start of this reconfigured leg to Guadaloupe’s Pointe-a-Pitre will begin on Tuesday, November 12. The 3,600-mile passage is the longest leg in the race’s history, and a gate off of Lanzarote will provide competitors an opportunity to stop at the Canaries. They’re planning to make landfall right around Thanksgiving.