Three skippers build on experience gained in The Ocean Race to fill the podium for the Transat CIC
Led by race winner Yoann Richomme, the top three finishers cut their teeth in The Ocean Race…
Yoann Richomme won the Transat CIC solo race on Paprec Arkéa in convincing fashion this week, putting him among the favourites for the upcoming Vendée Globe race this autumn.
Richomme was joined on the podium by Boris Herrmann who raced Team Malizia to its best ever result with a second place finish here and Sam Davies, who sailed an incredible race to claim third with Initiatives-Coeur.
All three sailors spent time in The Ocean Race, with Herrmann racing his IMOCA – a freshly commissioned new boat – around the world to a third place finish.
Richomme sailed with Team Holcim-PRB on the European legs of the around the world race in 2023 and skippered Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team to victory in The Ocean Race Europe in 2021.
Sam Davies meanwhile, took on the epic Southern Ocean leg of the last edition of The Ocean Race, sailing on board Biotherm with Paul Meilhat for the longest leg in the history of the race.
“It’s going to take time to sink in,” Richomme said of his transatlantic victory. “It proves that we’ve done the good work and we’re happy with what we’ve achieved… Seeing the level of the fleet, it feels like winning is almost unattainable… And the level of preparation we need, the reliability of the boats, it’s would have been very easy to break stuff and be out of the game.”
For Herrmann, the key was the speed, reliability and comfort of his boat, all optimised from lessons learned during 32,000 race miles of The Ocean Race.
“I think my boat is pretty good, it performs very well in these conditions where there’s a bit of breeze. Now I’ll have to convince my team not to change anything else on the boat! We have to make do with what we have, and ensure it’s as reliable as possible, so the boat will be like this for the Vendée Globe.”
Davies, now a veteran IMOCA racer, put all that experience to use in terms of strategy.
“Throughout the whole race, I was determined not to let the presence of the fleet make me stressed about performance, or making decisions or going the right way. I was not going to sail the way of somebody else, and instead do it how I think I should. Obviously I could not completely ignore everyone because it was a race, but sometimes the stress of worrying about being in the right place relative to the others, and whether you’ve done it right or not, can wear you out. And then you make mistakes because you’re tired. So I was determined to watch where I was, but not let that freak me out or burn me out, so that helped too.”
Other notable sailors from The Ocean Race have been in the mix for the Transat CIC including Justine Mettraux (7th), Damien Seguin (8th) and Seb Simon (10th).
Nico Lunven and Paul Meilhat – both big characters in the story of the last edition of The Ocean Race – have had to contend with damage to their boats that has slowed their approach to the finishing line off New York, and a similar fate has befallen Charlie Dalin, an early leader of this transat who slipped to fourth place.
DMG Mori skipper Kojiro Shiraishi, who confirmed his intent to participate in the next editions of The Ocean Race Europe (2025) and The Ocean Race (2027) earlier this year, is sitting 15th.
