The One-Design Transatlantic

Although it’s off the radar of almost all sailing fans in America, theTransat AG2R is, in this writer’s opinion, the single most competitive trans-Atlantic race of them all. It started March 6 at Concarneau, France, at the north end of the Bay of Biscay.

Pitting 15 one-design, 33-ft Beneteau Figaro II’s against one another, this edition of the AG2R has attracted many of the best sailors in the shorthanded racing world — almost all French — to race 3,890 nautical miles doublehanded from Brittany in France to St. Barth in the Caribbean. With five Vendée Globe vets, including the great Michel Desjoyeaux, sailing with and against a fleet of top young talent made up of Mini Transat winners, Figaro winners and Class 40 standouts, this Transat AG2R is unique to both the world of sailing and sport. It’s like seeing Michael Jordan and Lebron James team up with top college hoops stars to make an NCAA tournament run.

After the March 6 start, the fleet of 15 identical production-built racers negotiated a short coastal course before heading offshore into the leading edge of a classic Biscay low that brought heavy upwind conditions and big seas. Almost immediately, defending AG2R champions Gildas Morvan and Charlie Dalin on Cercle Verte dismasted after their port lower shroud failed and sent the rig over the starboard side of the boat. Battling for the lead when the démâtage occurred, the two sailors cut away the mast and motored for the beating heart of the French shorthanded ocean racing scene: Port La Forêt.

With the passage of the front, the remaining 14 boats flopped to starboard and reached south in westerlies that gradually backed to the traditional northerlies that create the Portuguese trades. The notorious Finisterre traffic separation scheme split the fleet in half, creating an opportunity for major gains and losses to be made, although the pack was quick to regroup. As is often the case in sailing, light air has become the great equalizer. After several days of solid VMG running during which several skippers explained that they had kept their spinnakers up in 35 knots, just waiting for the others to drop back, the fleet has nearly restarted at the mandatory turning mark at La Palma.

After more than eight days of racing, this twelfth edition of the AG2R continues to offer up the impossibly close racing that makes the Figaro circuit so great. At the front of the pack, a trio of Vendée Globe stars are battling for the lead, with the top three boats separated by less than four miles after more than 1,400 miles of racing. With four boats jibing northwest and the rest of the fleet headed south, a major tactical dilemma has again split the fleet in grand fashion. Posting results or places at this point in the race is pointless as the leaders are shuffling at an almost hourly rate. Check the event website (French only) and the tracker site to keep up to date on this biennial sailing classic!