Up the St Lawrence

Quebec-St Malo gets underway

The fleet in the Transat Quebec-Saint Malo got off to a great start this afternoon on the great St Lawrence River, under the imposing shadow of Quebec's Chateau Frontenac.

The 19 fully crewed yachts crossed the start line off the Quebec Yacht Club in two starts: 1635 GMT for the Class 2 multihulls and 1650 GMT for the ORMA multihulls. 

Yves Parlier's radical catamaran Médiatis-Région Aquitaine got off to the best start among the ORMA multihulls. In Class 2, it was Franck-Yves Escoffier on Crêpes Whaou! who quickly took the lead of the 50 foot multihull fleet, followed by Luc Coquelin on Marina Fort Louis-Ile de Saint Martin in the 50 foot monohulls. 

The fleet set off under blue skies viewed by the thousands of spectators lining the banks of the river. A light 10-12 knot west-south-westerly wind forced the 19 yachts into a gybing battle for the first part of the course of the river which is expected to take the ORMA multihulls 1.5-2 days to complete. 

The reaching conditions and the current on the St Lawrence will play a big part in the proceedings until the fleet empty into the Atlantic and turn to starboard towards Newfoundland and the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon.

From the start the next leg of the course is 'Bouée de Matane' 200 milles from the start, and still 171 miles from the exit of the St Lawrence into the Atlantic.

Two 50 foot multihulls will not be officially taking the start of the Québec-St Malo, having failed to comply with the qualification procedures. These are Anne Caseneuve on Atlantic Nature and Philippe Bousquet on Aquaera.

The organisers of the Québec Saint Malo, Voile Internationale Québec, have nonetheless authorised the two crews to cross the start line one hour after all the participants, but their participation will be unofficial.

Among the ORMA fleet this time are two previous winners of this race.

Loick Peyron, the ex-skipper of Fujicolor II, who established the present record time of the race of 7 days, 20 hours 24 minutes when he won in 1996 is part of Thomas Coville's crew on Sodebo, along with round the world veteran Jacques Vincent and Martial Salvan, Stefan Fodor and American Cam Lewis...among others. 

Laurent Bourgnon, the former skipper of Primagaz, winner in 1992 is sailing with his former Swiss crewman, Stève Ravussin aboard Banque Covefi with Yvan Ravussin, Nicolas Pichelin, Thierry Douillard and Georges Wagner.

The ocean racing specialists are all there such as Hervé Jan and Vincent Riou, skipper of the Open 60 PRB and both sailing with Michel Desjoyeaux on board Geant. Franck Proffit and Jan Dekker are on board Franck Cammas' Groupama, Philippe Péché is on Foncia, Luc Poupon, Olivier Wroczynski, Nicolas Raynaud and Thierry Duprey are with Marc Guillemot on Gitana X, Damian Foxall, Ronan Le Goff, Brian Thompson and the only crew along with Mike Birch to have participated in all the editions of the Québec-Saint Malo, Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant on Sergio Tacchini; Lionel Lemonchois, Jacques Delorme, Thierry Brault with Philippe Monnet…

In addition to these are some Figaro specialists such as the winner of the last Solitaire du Figaro and the last Transat Ag2r, Armel Le Cléac'h, on board Alain Gautier's Foncia, and Sidney Gavignet on Banque Populaire.  There are also specialists from the Mini Transat like the 2001 winner, Yannick Bestaven, sailing with Yves Parlier. There are numerous sailors who have been or will be involved in the Olympics and the Tornado in particular like Fred Le Peutrec and Yann Guichard, both on Gitana 11, Thierry Douillard on Banque Covefi and Daniel Souben on Groupama and Star sailor Jean-Philippe Saliou on Géant.

America’s Cup sailors in the fleet include Le Defi's Pierre Mas on Banque Populaire, Julien Cressant on Foncia, Fred Brousse on Gitana 11 and Benoît Briand on Groupama.
"Things look to be shaping up well," commented Alain Gautier prior to the start. "Foncia is a boat which is progressing constantly and her crew is highly motivated. We have what it takes to win and we’ll be going all out to do just that. I like the Québec-St Malo a lot. It is the only transat that is raced from west to east, downwind, which enables us to really push our machines. It is also the only real crewed transat. A crew of five is the best choice for me. One man is 150 to 200 Kg more weight on board including the food and equipment. With the light conditions forecast for the first 48 hours of racing, that reduction in weight could make all the difference."

Laurent Bourgnon gave his impressions: "It’s a very rich race...both in human and sporting terms. We are lucky to be setting off and finishing from places where you really know how the words human kindness and conviviality mean! As regards the race, on the water, the St Lawrence has its sandbanks, its currents, the whales and tree trunks. In fact, if it rains a lot, the river level rises considerably and all the tree trunks along the river banks start drifting. In 1996, there were some huge storms and there were tree trunks everywhere. We spent the day slaloming between them but we couldn’t see them at night time, we’d had enough after touching just two or three little things but you have to permanently be on the look-out as that can really put your race in the balance. It was the same thing around the islands of Madeleine, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon… and then it’s often a great match right to the finish and ultimate victory!  Now everything depends on the various configurations and how the race goes but it is always a very interesting race from beginning to end!"