François Gabart in Lorient.© B.STICHELBAUT
21.12.2011
Victory for François Gabart in the transat B to B
The MACIF skipper achieves a worthy victory in an incredibly tough regatta cut short for safety reason
The Transat B to B was launched in 2007 as a qualifying regatta for the Vendée Globe for the solo skippers having sailed a double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre and who had to get back to Europe ("Back to Brittany"). The second edition of the race this year saw a line-up of eight skippers with their eyes on next year's Sables d'Olonne. They were François Gabart, Armel Le Cléac’h, Vincent Riou, Mike Golding, Alex Thomson, Marc Guillemot, Jean-Pierre Dick and Louis Burton.
The regatta sets off from Saint Barts and crosses the Atlantic to Lorient in Brittany, France. 3,300 miles of theoretical racecourse during at a time of year when big storms brew in the North Atlantic.
After setting off on December 5th the whole fleet sailed a long reach to the North aiming to put the high pressure at the Azores to starboard and to reach the westerly breeze as early as possible. On board MACIF François Gabart was the first of the skippers to tack northeast and negotiated the trough line where the breeze changed to perfection, positioning himself as leader followed closely by Banque Populaire with Armel Le Cléac'h.
On the 14th of December with some ugly conditions forecasted in the Bay of Biscay with gusts of up to 60 knots expected as well as 8 metre waves, the race organisers took the decision to move the finishing line to between Galicia, in Northern Spain and the Azores.
François Gabart crossed the line in first place, taking 9 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes and 30 seconds to finish. Le Cléac'h came in second some three hours later and Vincent Riou finished in third three and a half hours later. Alex Thomson came in tied-fourth with Mike Golding, awaiting the resolution of a protest. Marc Guillemot came in fifth and Jean-Pierre Dick, who was considerably delayed by rig trouble finished in sixth place.
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