First hours and already some struggles in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2023. Barely half a day after the departure from Le Havre, the Class40 Crédit Mutuel of Ian Lipinski and Antoine Carpentier dismasted off the coast of Guernsey, at precisely 1:21 a.m. Both skippers are well and have headed towards Cherbourg, according to the race direction.
This is obviously not the only crew to have experienced setbacks during the night. A collision with an unidentified floating object damaged the structure on Dékuple, the Class40 of William Mathelin and Pietro Luciani. The two skippers also took the road towards Cherbourg.
The Class40 Martinique Tchalian, led by Hervé Jean-Marie and Jean-Yves Aglaé, announced to the management of the Transat Jacques Vabre that they had a rudder problem. They diverted to Guernsey in order to take shelter to repair.
“No escape possible”
The start of the 16th edition of the Transat Jacques-Vabre, a famous double-handed race created in 1993, was given on Sunday off Le Havre in beautiful rough seas which forced half of the boats to stay at the dock.
Created in 1993, the double-handed transatlantic crossed its thirtieth anniversary in a tumultuous atmosphere. A very violent weather phenomenon forecast in the Bay of Biscay this Wednesday pushed the organizers to postpone the departure of almost half of the fleet at the last minute.
“A break in this system, with a boat that would no longer be maneuverable… There is no possible escape,” said Francis Le Goff, race director, at a press conference on Sunday morning.
“We have more than 8 m of low seas from Wednesday and 10 m on Thursday with gusts of nearly 120 km/h,” commented meteorologist Christian Dumard. The monohulls used in the Vendée Globe were therefore forced to stay at the dock.
