Quebec-St Malo preview

Fully crewed return journey across the Atlantic for the 60ft tris and other assorted craft

Following the finish of The Transat, so the return race across the Atlantic sets sail this weekend.

This is the 20th anniversary of the fully crewed race from Quebec to St Malo, a classic 3,000 mile blast eastward across the top of the Atlantic with the prevailing winds that regularly sees competitors achieving break neck speeds.

The record to beat is that set in 1996 by Loïck Peyron aboard Fujicolor II of 7 days, 20 hours and 24 minutes. In the race four years ago the 60ft trimarans took their 24 hour pace into a new realm when perfect conditions allowed Yvon Bourgnon's Bayer en France (the old Primagaz) to cover 625.34 miles in a day (at the time Club Med's outright 24 hour record was 625.7 miles...)

The Quebec-St Malo course sees the boats negotiating 400 miles of the great St Lawrence River complete with the strong currents, rocks, whales and fog before they emerge into the Gulf of St Lawrence, pass through the Cabot Straight between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and cross the Grand Banks. Only then do they finally get out into the Atlantic and then immediately to the east of Newfoundland have the real prospect of encountering icebergs.

With the Vendee Globe starting in November, this year there are no Open 60s taking part in the race, although there is the full compliment of 60ft multihulls and 50ft monohulls and multihulls.

21 boats are due to take the start line this year. Among the 12 ORMA multihulls is Yves Parlier's revolutionary catamaran Médiatis-Région Aquitaine, looking to show off her potential downwind and Michel Desjoyeaux's Geant fresh from her win in The Transat.

Who are the race favourites it is as hard to say as ever in this class. While Geant is fast, Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini was showing the greatest speed potential earlier this year and is likely to be on the podium. Thomas Coville's Sodebo, the beamiest boat in the trimaran fleet, is also likely to excel. Our money would be on one of these three boats.

Among the 50ft multihulls the field has changed considerably from The Transat with Eric Bruneel having to return to work. Mike Birch is racing his Irens design, Nootka. Birch competed in the 1984 Quebec-St Malo aboard his 80ft catamaran Formule TAG (subsequently renamed ENZA New Zealand, Royal&Sun Alliance, etc) and during the race set a new 24 hour record of 524 miles.

Sunday in Quebec will see two starts. The first at 16h35 GMT for the Class 2 multihulls and monohulls. The second for the ORMA multihulls will be at 16h50 GMT.

The line-up:

	Boat	Skipper	Nat
	Multi 60 Orma
1	Groupama	Cammas Franck	FRA
2	Sodebo	Coville Thomas	FRA
3	Géant	Desjoyeaux Michel	FRA
4	Sergio Tacchini	Fauconnier Karine	FRA
5	Foncia	Gautier Alain	FRA
6	Gitana X	Guillemot Marc	FRA
7	Gitana 11	Le Peutrec Frédéric	FRA
8	Sopra Group	Monnet Philippe	FRA
9	Médiatis-Région Aquitaine	Parlier Yves	FRA
10	Banque Covefi	Ravussin Stève	SUI
11	Banque Populaire	Roucayrol Lalou	FRA
12	TIM Progetto Italia	Soldini Giovanni	ITA
	Multi 50
1	Nootka	Birch Mike	CAN
2	Aquaera	Bousquet Philippe	FRA
3	Atlantic Nature	Caseneuve Anne	FRA
4	GIFI	Demachy Dominique	FRA
5	Crêpes Whaou!	Escoffier Franck-Yves	FRA
6	Jean Stalaven	Quintin Pascal	FRA
	Mono 50
1	Marina Fort Louis Saint Martin	Coquelin Luc	FRA
2	Branec III	Langevin Roger	FRA
3	Ciment St-Laurent	Leblanc Georges	CA