Normandy sailors Guillaume Pirouelle and Cedric Chateau snatched victory in the Class 40 division of the Transat Cafe L’Or Le Havre Normandie on Monday after one of the closest finishes in the race’s recent history.
The Seafrigo-Sogestran duo crossed the line off Martinique’s Fort-de-France at 15:57:43 local time (1957 GMT) after a 4,869-nautical-mile passage from Le Havre, France, via La Coruna, Spain.
Their win came by the slimmest of margins – seven minutes and 21 seconds ahead of Corentin Douguet and Axel Trehin on SNSM Faites un Don.
“They were the crew to beat. We’re thrilled to have raised our game and managed to take the win,” Chateau said. “About 10 days ago, we broke a sail and thought it would be a deal-breaker.”
Pirouelle was similarly thrilled. “We gave it everything right up until this morning, when we started to believe, even though we kept telling ourselves it would come down to minutes — and that’s exactly what happened. It’s an incredible scenario, but it shows just how fiercely contested this regatta is.”
The vanquished Douguet and Trehin had led for much of the race, including the first leg to La Coruna, where the fleet paused for a storm.
They opted for a northerly Atlantic route through heavy weather, while Pirouelle and Chateau gambled on a longer southern course to find steadier trade winds. At one point, the two groups were separated by nearly 900 miles, with Seafrigo-Sogestran lying 13th and 230 miles behind.
The Normandy pair surged ahead four days ago and held on despite a tense final stretch, their lead shrinking to just 4.5 miles as both boats sped toward Martinique at around 10 knots.
The win is a home triumph for Pirouelle, 31, a former 470 European champion, and Chateau, a veteran coach from Le Havre who recently steered Paprec to second at the TP52 Worlds.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
