Here is some commentary from three previous race winners, taken from the TED21 webpage at
https://www.transatendouble.bzh/act...ain-et-de-pavant-loeil-des-anciens-vainqueurs as translated by Google. I've bolded a few key points, and added the current placement, the closest finish times, and the record finish time at the end:
Desjoyeaux, Jourdain and De Pavant: the eye of the former winners
They are part of the very closed circle of the winners of the Double Transat - Concarneau - Saint-Barthélemy. Michel Desjoyeaux, Roland Jourdain and Kito de Pavant, winners in 1992, 1994 and 1996 respectively, keep a keen eye on the progress of the skippers. For the three men of experience, one thing is certain: the current battle is undecided and will be for a long time to come. Explanations as the fleet is racing its 8th day of racing, 2000 miles from Saint-Barthélemy.
MICHEL DESJOYEAUX: "the tenors are in the place"
Forever the first. "Mich’ Desj "won in the first edition in 1992 with Jacques Caraës. "My memories of that victory are starting to go up a bit," he laughs. But that does not prevent him from following this edition and delivering a first analysis. Above all, he is delighted that “the tenors are all in the place”.
“It should be noted that all the boats are still racing. And it's great that the leading pairs are so close after 8 days of racing! "
In this fight for victory, the two-time Vendée Globe winner finds that
“GUYOT Environnement - Ruban Rose is well placed. The ranking favors the one in the North for the moment, but I think the South route will pay off more at the end ". He also salutes the good performance of Bretagne CMB - Performance who “was a good leader at the start and had a difficult time off the Iberian coast. Tom Laperche and Lois Berrehar had the ability to come back into the game and position themselves well. ". Finally, "Mich’desj" appreciates that the duos send videos, sounds and photos. "This is new compared to previous editions and it allows everyone to better understand what sailors live. "
ROLAND JOURDAIN: “everything remains open! "
He helped make the race a legend. It was 1993 and Roland Jourdain, with Jean Le Cam, crossed the finish line 63 seconds ahead of the duo Bertrand de Broc - Marc Guillemot. 28 years later, there are 18 of them trying to imitate them. "Bilou" follows the race, looks at what "his little comrades" are doing. He smiles: "I think we will have to take care of the condition of the buttocks on arrival! With the humidity, even downwind, there may be a lot of pimples. "
Behind the joke, the sailor insists on the “wearing” nature of the race: “on the Double Transat - Concarneau - Saint-Barthélemy, every day, every hour, every minute requires extreme concentration. You have to manage to keep your boat moving while having a fine reading of the weather ”. On the race, he admits "that there weren't really any options to get out of the pack", while praising "the very good overall level of the fleet". And he continues,
“At this point it's far too early to say who's going to win. Everything remains open! "
KITO DE PAVANT: "it will be undecided until the end"
Kito de Pavant also has a great history with the Double Transat - Concarneau - Saint-Barthélemy. He won there in 2006 alongside Pietro d'Ali. He, who will start in the fall in Class40 in the Transat Jacques Vabre, follows the race on a daily basis. “It looked very tight from the start. I don't know if it's because the options are lacking or if it's because the skippers don't really dare to take options so as not to lose contact with the front-runner ". He notes that "the average speeds in the leading group are very consistent". The skipper is betting on a scenario similar to his victory or the last finish, in 2018, when 14 duos had crossed the line in 24 hours.
“I think it's going to be undecided until the finish. It's not going to be played out much. You will have to always be on the lookout, take the wind shifts even when they are not clear ". Kito de Pavant would also like to add a point of clarification: "For a long time we thought that the trade winds were a steady wind when it is very unstable. And the hotter it is, the more unstable it is. The skippers must be extremely vigilant because a tilt of 20 to 30 degrees can waste a few handfuls of seconds which will be expensive at the finish. "
UPDATE ON THE RACE - The lateral gap is growing
After 8 days of racing, the uncertainty is therefore still great at 2000 miles from Saint-Barthélemy. The rest is Corentin Douguet, associated with Tanguy Le Turquais (Queguiner - Innovéo), who explains: “it's downwind under spinnaker - that's great - and battles with the Sargassum and it's less nice ”. And he continues: "the Sargassum was invited much earlier than expected and this is not good news". Corentin and Tanguy are part of
the 14 leading duos who are taking part in less than 50 miles on the orthodromy [Great Circle route, the shortest route from their current location to the finish].
On the other hand,
the lateral gap increases further and stands at more than 120 miles between Éric Péron and Miguel Danet (L'Egoïste - Cantina St Barth) who persist in the North and the duo Pierre Leboucher and Thomas Rouxel (GUYOT Environnement - Ruban Rose) which are located the most southerly. Today, we can also see that MonAtoutEnergie.fr (Arthur Hubert - Clément Commagnac) is back in the game among the leaders. Conditions for the next few hours should remain between 15 and 18 knots although the trade winds may be unstable. "Until the West Indian region, the situation is not clear, analyzes Tom Laperche (CMB - Bretagne Performance). The last week is going to be very open! "
Here are the placements as of Noon ET today, including the distance behind the lead boat:
- Région Normandie (Alexis Loison / Guillaume Pirouelle)
- Skipper Macif (Pierre Quiroga / Erwan Le Draoulec) à 2 nm
- (L’égoiste) - Cantina St Barth (Eric Péron / Miguel Danet) à 10,9 nm
- GUYOT Environnement – Ruban Rose (Pierre Leboucher / Thomas Rouxel) à 12,1 nm
- Bretagne – CMB Performance (Tom Laperche / Loïs Berrehar) à 13,8 nm
- DEVENIR (Violette dorange / Alan Roberts) à 19,5 nm
- Quéguiner - Innovéo (Tanguy Le Turquais / Corentin Douguet) à 23,5 nm
- CYBELE VACANCES TEAM PLAY TO B (Pep Costa / Will Harris) à 28,1 nm
- Teamwork (Nils Palmieri / Julien Villion) à 28,4 nm
- Groupe Gilbert (Fabien Delahaye / Anthony Marchand) à 32 nm
- Breizh Cola (Gildas Mahé / Tom Dolan) à 32,1 nm
- Gardons la vue (Martin Le Pape / Yann Eliès) à 33,6 nm
- Bretagne – CMB Océane (Elodie Bonafous / Corentin Horeau) à 41,5 nm
- MonAtoutEnergie.fr (Arthur HUBERT / Clément Commagnac) à 46,8 nm
- RLC Sailing (Estelle Greck / Laurent Givry) à 188,9 nm
- ERISMA GROUPE SODES – Fondation TARA OCEAN (Jérôme Samuel / Nicolas Salet) à 265,8 nm
- INTERACTION (Yannig Livory / Erwan Livory) à 387 nm
- KRISS-LAURE (Nicolas Bertho / Romuald Poirat) à 541,3 nm
The closest finish was in 2004, when the first and second place boats were seperated by 53 seconds.
- Jean Le Cam et Roland Jourdain sur Sill plein fruit - France III en 20 j 20 h 34 min 26 s
- Bertrand de Broc et Marc Guillemot sur Laiteries Le Gall en 20 j 20 h 35 min 29 s
The fastest finish time was in 2018.
Adrien Hardy et
Thomas Ruyant sur
AGIR Recouvrement en 18 j 11 h 48 min 22 s (8,77 nœuds)