The immense and majestic St. Lawrence River is undoubtedly the central character of these early hours of the 10th Transat Québec Saint-Malo. Right from the start at 14:15 on Sunday June 30, after a slight delay due to the unexpected arrival of a violent thunderstorm on the line, it dictated the mood of the 23 Class40s competing. Nothing excessive in this case, insofar as the north-westerly wind, albeit irregular in strength, favored rather unbridled speeds from the very first tacks, favorable to gliding and direct courses. On the other hand, it proved to be a devilishly tricky wind, with its strong currents, numerous sandbanks and other spiky effects. At the end of the first night's racing, it was no surprise that the big VOR 70 Atlas Ocean Racing, thanks to a clever passage to the north of Ile aux lièvres, led the way, ahead of a still compact group of around fifteen Class40s. Achille Nebout and his Amarris have held on to the leadership of the 12.18 m monohulls ever since his thundering start. Meticulous trajectories, hyper-responsiveness to the slightest oscillations in the westerly wind, vigilance to traffic and other vagaries of the river will have kept the crews on their toes during these crucial first hours of racing.
What a start!
Dreaded by all, the start phase under the Plains of Abraham and in front of Saint Romuald lived up to its promise of spectacle and emotion for the many spectators massed around the port of Quebec. Alternating between big Spinnaker and gennaker, the Class40s took to the skies behind the storm, sucked in by a north-westerly flow strong enough to help them manage the reversal of strong currents just before Île d'Orléans. The whole fleet took advantage of a brief buffet stop to wind down and throw back the weather canvas, and the leaders resumed their course, still on port tack and in contact with each other. Jules Bonnier and his "pointu" Nestenn - Entrepreneurs pour la planète competed with Achille Nebout and the top-of-the-range crew of Amarris, Gildas Mahé and Alan Roberts, very inspired to place their Lombard plan in the right current veins. While the rounding of Orleans Island saw only Vincent Riou (Pierreval - Fondation GoodPlanète) attempt the devil via the north of the island, for a very relative gain, in the middle of the night, the île aux coudres offered the whole fleet the opportunity to opt for the latter. And it was the Franco-Italians on Alla Grande-Pirelli who made the most of their southerly route to temporarily outmaneuver Amarris. Since then, Amarris has been fighting hard to take the Class40 lead from Ambrogio Beccaria, Julien Villon and Bastian Oger.
Quebec !
As we approach Tadoussac, the majestic St. Lawrence stretches out over a width of almost 30 km, and begins to take on the allure of an arm of the sea, which would have inspired the 17th-century Norman sailors to utter the interjection "Qué bec!" - what a bay! Reversing currents continue to play on the nerves of the sailors, stretching and compressing the gaps as they make their way through the buffet stops, some of which, like Julia Virat (Femina Ocean Challenge), are set to last for long hours. "It was a very complicated first day, with a lot of small and very debilitating breakdowns," explained Julia in her overnight message. "We almost ran aground. Lots of maneuvering and no rest. We dropped anchor to let the current through." Now back on course, this all-female crew closes the gap over 60 miles from the leader.
tracker : SoluSport (oceantracking.fr)
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