Postponed for one year due to confinement, the double-handed Transat Concarneau-Saint-Barthélemy (ex-Transat AG2R) was to start on Sunday May 9 at 3:30 p.m. from the bay of Concarneau (Finistère). But, on Saturday, the start was postponed due to the difficult weather conditions expected in the Bay of Biscay and around Cape Finisterre. While waiting for a new starting date to be set, a “prologue” was organized in the bay of Concarneau from 3.20 pm Sunday.
? The Prologue route ⛵️ At 3:25 pm, the 18 duos of # TED21 will set off for a 5 mile regatta in the bay… https://t.co/AfG7ULXcHx
– TransatEnDouble (@La Transat en Double Concarneau – Saint-Barthélemy)
For this 15e edition, deprived of departure village due to health restrictions, eighteen monohulls are entered: these Figaro 3, one-design boats equipped with foils (appendages making it possible to “fly” over water), will cross the Atlantic for the first time.
Faster than the previous generation, they could “Take a little less than eighteen days to reach Saint-Barth”, according to the race director, Francis le Goff. And bring down the 18-day 11-hour record of 2018? The field, which has three mixed crews, brings together the elite of figarists, with the exception of Xavier Macaire, one of the most brilliant solo sailors on the Figaro circuit.
The double-handed Transat remains a unique competition. Here, no arms race, no technological complexity or expensive on-board electronics. Simply two coxswain on a small offshore boat (9.75 m), strong canvas, low on the water and which gets very wet. Here, we come back to what was for a long time one of the symbols of ocean racing: the stainless steel tiller.
“Beautiful share in the instinctive intelligence of the sailor”
More, or less, used on the Imoca and Ultime classes – the automatic pilots having advantageously replaced the sailor’s hand -, “The bar becomes the tool of performance again, explains Tanguy Le Turquais, skipper of Quéguiner-Innoveo. As we take turns steering, in shifts of two hours over more or less twenty days, we can say, even if we have the navigation software on board, that the pride of place is given to the instinctive intelligence of the sailor, who is based on reading the body of water, clouds, squalls. “
Yann Eliès is one of the last representatives of this navigation “Instinctive”. And to add: “It’s a rewarding exercise, when you are in sight, to see that you are making a difference in speed. “ The three-time winner of the Figaro is the co-skipper of Martin Le Pape, skipper of Keep sight.
“It’s almost a feeling of the past, to still be at the helm”
The latter explains that“Considering the considerable progress made in autopilot, it’s almost a feeling of the past, to be still at the helm. In fact, it’s misleading, because this race, in which the gaps are always very small at the finish, is used to being played on sight. [avant que les grandes options soient prises au large du Portugal], explains the runner from Port-La Forêt. Where did I lose those 150 meters at the bar on so and so? When it took 20 seconds to put on my socks? These are questions that everyone will ask themselves upon arrival. “
It is in the outcome of the last twenty-four hours, when the roads will cross, that the highest lessons of helm are also given, advances Corentin Douguet, 46, co-skipper of Tanguy Le Turquais:
“It’s always a final that is contested with a knife. But before that, it will first be necessary to take a start that will be virile and selective. Which crew will endure the conditions of the first seventy-two hours? “
In 1994, 63 seconds separated the pair Jean Le Cam-Roland Jourdain from that of Bertrand de Broc and Marc Guillemot. Gildas Mahé, skipper of Breizh Cola, of which it is the fifth participation, had seen, in 2016, the first place to escape him “For 300 meters” after just over 3,800 miles.
For Pierre Leboucher, skipper of Pink Ribbon, to steer, it is also “To shudder” with the wave:
“On this type of boat, it’s the hand that makes the difference. It is she who draws the trajectory on this open book that is the Atlantic. Especially when it’s Thomas [Rouxel, son co-skippeur] who’s at the helm, because he’s a downwind coxswain. And that’s where the speed game will be played. “
“Overwork” of the boat worries the entire fleet
Before touching the trade winds, in about ten days, it will be appropriate, after having wiped the low pressure fronts in the Bay of Biscay, “To escape the unknown of the high pressure off Portugal which is redistributing the cards”, adds Fabien Delahaye, skipper of Gilbert Group, winner of the 2010 edition with Armel Le Cléac’h.
“A double-handed Transat is much more trying than solo sailing”
His co-skipper, on this 2021 edition, Anthony Marchand, underlines, him, “The hardness demanded by this boat which leaves no respite. A double-handed Transatlantic is much more trying than solo sailing, not because of the life of the couple, but because of the demands that the boat requires, which must be sailed at 100% of its speed potential. We end up exhausted. “What also worries Thomas Rouxel, like the entire fleet, is ” overwork “ Of the boat :
“ The reliability of the Figaro 3 [sorti de chantier en 2017] has never been experienced over such a long distance. We take a substantial tool kit. “
Who will be the team in charge of his work at the finish? Gildas Mahé (two places on the podium, in 2016 and 2018) and who is crewed with Tom Dolan, the Irish figarist from Concarneau, tries an answer:
“The history of doubles is the eternal question of the right team. Take the best in everything, but a real character that we will take the lead with when it comes to making a major strategic decision? No thanks. When I hear that such and such have chosen so and so for their qualities, I understand: for their faults too, I imagine? “
Elodie Bonafous, 25, skipper of Brittany-CMB Océane, hope of ocean racing, will cross the Atlantic for the first time. She chose Corentin Horeau, who has already taken part in this Transat. His goal ? “Arrive on the other side with the satisfaction of a sporting accomplishment. And if possible in the top ten. “