All of the 90-boats fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre were kept safe and secure through Storm Ciarán, which ravaged the Brittany coast and the English Channel with gusts of over 80 knots on Wednesday night (1 November).
On Thursday morning (2 November) the winds eased off and as the tide dropped the seas around the docks in Lorient La Base, allowing skippers and technical teams from the Class 40s and Ocean Fifty classes there to be able to carry out a full check of boats and their mooring lines ahead of another storm expected Saturday (4 November).
In Le Havre, where the 40 IMOCAs are securely tied up in the Paul Vatine basin, a chop was whipped up to nearly a metre by the storm-force winds in the enclosed docks. The winds peaked in Le Havre at the end of the morning.
“We remained very vigilant especially when the dock gates opened between noon and 1.10pm, with a one-meter surge, which caused the pontoons to rise by that much. Fortunately, the wind dropped at the same time and there was no damage,” race director Francis Le Goff said.
All day, race direction continued to work on scenarios for a new start in collaboration with Christian Dumard, meteorologist for the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre.
Le Goff said: “The possibility mentioned yesterday of seeing the IMOCAs set off on Sunday is now no longer possible, in particular because of the strengthening of the westerly wind, which is going to impact heavily on the coast around Le Havre.”
Added to this is a time constraint with the gates of the Le Havre basins closing at 3.30pm for sunset at 5.30pm that day. So no start on Sunday.
The decision-making process was shared by the IMOCA class sports commission which represents the 40 duos entered in this class. The race direction team is working on a starting scenario, the first option at the moment being Tuesday 7 November at the very beginning of the morning, with an IMOCA exit out of the docks the morning open gate (from 5am to 6.15am). Other scenarios after this date are also studied. The preferred option for the course now is a direct route to Martinique.
“For the Class40 and Ocean Fifty, for which nothing was already considered possible before Monday, there is no change. The goal is always to go at the first opportunity, in collaboration with the classes, for next week,” Le Goff added.
