Endgame

The charm of the weather is that, no matter how many brains are put to work trying to anticipate it, it often ends up doing exactly as it pleases! This time, however, it’s working in favor of the Trin’40 sailors. For several days, everyone had been watching a large windless bubble grow on their weather files, sitting precisely where the race committee had decided to place the final waypoint. But in the end, it was with a flow that, while slightly unstable, was very much real, that Guillaume Pirouelle (Sogestran – Seafrigo, 197) was able to glide through, round the Gironde waypoint first in the evening, and begin the upwind leg back toward La Trinité.

Leading since Penmarc’h on the second day of racing, the sailor from Le Havre continues to deliver a flawless performance, further extending his lead and now effectively securing a victory that is reaching out to him. Twelve miles astern, Corentin Douguet (SNSM, Faites un don, 209) could only agree: “Conditions are stable. We’ll be tacking upwind, but not in particularly complex situations, so unless there’s a technical issue on either side, it shouldn’t change much between Guillaume and me, or between me and the group behind. Of course, it’s still sailing—anything can happen—but for now it all looks a bit set in stone!”

The experienced sailor also pointed out that opportunities to catch up have been few and far between due to the scarcity of transition zones: “Guillaume hasn’t made many mistakes. At Penmarc’h I handed him the lead a bit when I had to stop and reverse to clear seaweed off my keel. And since then, he hasn’t made any mistakes!”

Battle for Third Place

Nothing is settled yet, however, in the fight for third place, where no fewer than five competitors are within five miles of each other, locked in a relentless battle. Making a strong comeback in recent hours with a boat launched just three weeks ago, Axel Tréhin (Affaire à faire, 214) described an intense duel with Fabien Delahaye (Legallais, 199) early in the night: “He tried to walk all over me! I would’ve done the same in his position, so I don’t blame him, but it wasn’t very pleasant! When I bore away, he luffed up again; when I luffed, he tried to bear away to roll over me. At one point we started pushing hard—there was too much wind to hold the gennakers—so I decided to stop watching him and just sail my own race!”

As a result, the sailor from Saint-Nazaire—recent runner-up in the Transat Café L’Or alongside a certain Corentin Douguet—was the first to tack. A strategic move he tried to explain with great clarity, albeit with a hint of fatigue: “Basically, on the left I’ll have wind coming more from the right than the guys on the right, who’ll have wind more from the left! If you need a diagram—basically I’m trying to slip underneath them and gain the upper hand, that’s my battle plan!” said the skipper, who admitted he “didn’t arrive as well-rested as he would have liked and is now paying the price.” “I’ll need to improve to catch the group ahead. As for the boat, I’m pretty happy—I had to do some quick fixes in the bay at the start, and more yesterday upwind, which was really the worst time for it since I lost quite a bit of ground. But the boat really flies—that’s now confirmed!”

“We’re incredibly tight—the fleet is compact!”

And confirmations have come thick and fast for all 29 solo sailors still racing, following Vincent Riou’s retirement on Monday due to headsail issues. “The race has been absolutely fantastic—the conditions have been really pleasant throughout, perfect for getting back into solo sailing,” summed up Luca Rosetti (Maccaferri Futura 212), currently battling for a top-10 finish after a race spent “constantly trying to catch up with the leaders.

Just ahead of him, the standout performer of the night was Keni Piperol Dampied (DREPACTION, 195): “I had no one left on AIS, so I didn’t know where the others were and I thought they were going faster—but actually, I’m the quickest, so I’m happy!” Sitting in 11th place and battling with Robin Follin (Solano, 213), the Guadeloupean skipper also tacked soon after the Gironde waypoint, showing his determination to push hard in this final stretch. “We’re incredibly close—the fleet is really compact. It’s exciting, motivating, stimulating, but also tiring! The upwind leg back will be fairly straightforward; where it’ll get tricky is in Quiberon Bay, where it’ll be stormy, with patches of calm, so we’ll have to stay focused right to the finish.”

For the DREPACTION skipper, whose main goal was to rediscover his rhythm on board after four years away from solo racing, “the balance has been just right: I haven’t broken any gear, I haven’t taken unnecessary risks. So far, everything’s going well!”

“I feel good at sea—I love it!”

That sense of satisfaction is shared further back by Benoît Sineau (Ekinox, 211), who rounded the Gironde mark late in the night in 23rd position, just edging out Thomas Lurton (Sireco, 166). For the former entrepreneur—an experienced amateur who has decided to return to racing—the reunion with solo sailing “is fantastic. I feel good at sea, I love it! Food-wise, it’s going really well, even better than usual actually—I’ve made a point of eating and drinking plenty, three meals a day with the right number of calories. Sleep, on the other hand, is a bit tougher, especially in these conditions; if you’re not fully on it, it gets complicated!”

Because it’s not only at the front that the battle is fierce in this Class40 fleet, where each competitor seems to be finding what they’re looking for: commitment, difficulty, but also the satisfaction of competing fairly—between sailors who respect and appreciate one another, yet give nothing away once out on the water.