Always in the leading pack of the Solidaire du Chocolat, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon take 4th place. They crossed the finishing line of 16th November early this morning at 3 hours 41 minutes and 50 seconds, French time to be exact), after 28 days, 10 hours, 51 minutes and 55 seconds racing. The Nantes-based crew logs a fine result in what turned out to be an extremely tough race marked by virulent weather. 5th place goes to Brits Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan on Sail4Cancer who put on a fantastic performance. Finishing at 13h47 (Fr time), they are the first amateur boat to finish the 5 000 miles (9 260 km) long race across the Atlantic and the Caribbean.

Enthusiastic and motivated, Damien and Armel never left anything to chance and did everything they possibly could to finish among the top boats. Tried by the passage of six lows over the Atlantic passage, recurring energy problems on board forced the decision to make a pitstop in Saint Barts to repair the alternator belt. After the statutory minimum 3 hours (and 1 minute) stopover in the port of Gustavia, the crew of Cargill-MTTM set sail again having recharged their batteries in every sense of the term, determined to get onto the podium. Never the less, conditions that followed were such that little room was left for tactical tricks to juggle the rankings in the Caribbean. At an average speed of 7.33 knots, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon sailed a fine race indeed over the 5 000 nautical miles ((9 260 km) from France to Mexico.

Armel Tripon : Fancy a Rhum »

«  What pure joy it is to cross the finishing line… And what a welcome. It reminded me of my win in the Transat 6.50 in Salvador de Bahia. Damien and I were always in synch and I thoroughly enjoyed racing with someone of my age. We gave up counting the number of lows. Our aim was to sail fast and finish in the top five. No regrets about not having finished in the top three. Once we knew that we had to put into port, it was much more complicated altogether. We adopted an opportunist approach as far as Jamaica but there wasn’t really much else to be done. Conditions were not of hellish proportions and were always manageable. The Class 40 are seaworthy boats and we always felt safe. This class has got what it takes to grow in importance. We sailed a good race, with some exceptional surfs. Makes me want to race a Route du Rhum. »

Damien Seguin : « A good duo »

«  We’ve been looking forward to this finish. We sailed a real yachtsmen’s race. We finish pretty well placed and I’m satisfied that we handled things well on a day to day basis. This finish is a fantastic victory for us; we sailed a clean race and form a great team! It’s no mean feat racing two-handed for a month. On this Solidaire, it was just great fun ! Armel has the quality of ocean racing yachtsmen in that he never gets that worked up about anything, without losing an ounce of the will to win. We never let up ; we fought like dogs. All of that in a super state of mind and putting up with difficult conditions with maximum fun ! »

Five boats in 40 miles

Further downfield, south of the Dominican Republic, the next series of finishers is not played out. The remaining 1 000 miles to finish the Solidaire du Chocolat are going to be full of surprises. Squalls and unstable conditions kicked up by a stormy formation have brought the fleet together. Five boats - from Plan, les enfants changeront le monde (Lazat-Nouel) to Crédit Maritime (Carpentier-Maldonado), with Adriatech (Consorte-Aubry), Orbis (Card, Murphy) and Keysource (West-Worswirck) in between – are within 40 miles of one another. After a major ocean crossing, this next series has the makings of a great coastal yacht race finish.

Tim Wright : « A tough last week »

« It’s a relief to finish. It feels good when it stops. It was a very tough and very long race. The passage of the saint Bart’s gate was a rather special moment. Pleasant in a way but hard to realize that there were still 1 500 miles to go. Unsteady winds in terms of speed and direction made the last week hard, particularly on the nerves! But we are pleased to have sailed this race which we found really trying. At the instant when we crossed the line, I am not sure that I would want to go through that again. Conditions did nothing to spare us and we just sailed our race without ever running into another boat. »

Two other boats expected into Progreso

Looks like we’re in for a lively evening in Progreso, with the arrival of Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva on Desafio Cabo de Hornos. The Chileans would cross the line between 18 and 19h local time (2 and 3 in the morning French time). Shortly afterwards, it is the turn of 40 Degrees to set foot ashore in the Yucatan. The Class 40 driven by Brits Peter Harding and Miranda Merron is following in 7th position 30 miles astern. This pair should cross the finishing line around 20h and 22h, local time (between 3 and 5 h tomorrow morning French time).

Quote / unquote

Miranda Merron (40 Degrees) : « After the horrible night we went through last night, the wind returned just before dawn and we were treated to a brilliant day of Caribbean sailing. We’re crossing the Yucatan canal in a 2.5 knot current. 30 miles from now, we’ll be at the north-east tip of land with just 150 miles to go before Progreso. This morning, we’re 2300 miles from the finishing line of a 5 000 mile long transatlantic yacht race which was not easy, not at all. That’s what sailing about though! »

Felipe Cubillos (skipper Desafio Cabo de Hornos) : « It’s dawn and we have the coast of Yucatan to leeward and the breeze stayed with us overnight. We’ve reduced the distance of Sail4Cancer ahead of us and have increased our lead over 40 Degrees behind us.  As always, congratulations to the winners and it has been a privilege to share the race with Tanguy de Lamotte, Giovanni Soldini and Bernard Stamm. We don’t want to just pay tribute to these giants of offshore sailing, but also to congratulate all the other boats in the race: all the boats still racing and the boats that fought hard, but have had to retire. Many of the boats still racing are already with very little food, tired, very tired,  and some are frustrated and with little water….but they continue fighting. They do not surrender and they are giving everything to get to the finish line, even though some of them may be five days from Progreso. In a society where the important thing is often success and victory with a culture of winner-takes-all, we want to pay tribute to the teams still fighting who don’t care about fame or recognition and for whom the finishing of the race is fulfilling and of prime importance. »

Stephen Card (skipper ORBIS): « We just don’t have any wind. We got about six hours of light breeze last night, which has now turned into flat calm. We had a look at the water situation yesterday and if the wind picks-up, we should be OK to sail straight to Progreso. If we have anymore weather like we have at the moment, we will probably have to stick our heads into Grand Cayman. Apart from the water, everything is OK. All our group arrived in Progreso last night and they will leave on the 24th. The GRIBs are showing 9-12 knots of breeze and we’ve got just two knots. Watching everyone else sail away from you is not good. Adriatech, the nearest boat to us is 140 miles ahead now. »

First 5 boats in the 16h rankings (French time)

Rank   Boat                                Skippers                                     Finish

See Class 40 images:

Last Updated ( Monday, 16 November 2009 )