Transat Quebec-St Malo Race

Starts tommorow. The fleet mostly consists of Class 40 mono but the open division has two Multi 50's and a ORMA60 competing. You can see some video of the ORMA60 in the great multihull video thread.

Race website http://www.transatquebecstmalo.com/?set_language=en

The tracker is here:

http://transat.korem.com/course

Sail World article on the race:

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Transat-Quebec-Saint-Malo---Fleet-set-for-six-towns,-six-marks/99985

 

Article from Sail World on the start:

http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Transat-Quebec-Saint-Malo-promises-to-be-action-packed/100019

Erwan Le Roux on Fenêtré Cardinal has a good break on the fleet in his Multi 50.

 

Extract from the race news covering the multihulls.

Not surprisingly the trimaran FenêtreA Cardinal skippered by Erwan Le Roux, which crossed the start line with all entries, leads the fleet down the river. With nearly 170 miles covered, the trimaran, the most modern in the fleet of Multi50, passed La Malbaie course mark at 4 pm yesterday and is currently passing the next mark just off Rimouski. It seems for now that any chance of seeing a duel with the 60-foot trimaran, Défi Saint Malo Challenge has been nipped in the bud as it currently races 50 miles behind up against A World Without AIDS skippered by Erik Nigon.

Also a video of the start the Open class including the multis start at 2:10

http://vimeo.com/46190383

 

Erwan Le Roux on his Multi 50 Fenetre Cardinal has extended his lead over the field with Erik Nigon's much older design Multi50 his closest rival 47.5nm behind and Giles Lamirre's Defi Saint Malo Agglo 121nm behind. Looking forward to the big ORMA stretching it's legs now it is out of the river but Fenetre Cardinal has done a great job and has built a commanding lead. Looks like Mare is leading the Class 40 Mono fleet.

 

Overall leader FenêtréA Cardinal skippered by Erwan Le Roux at 17:45 yesterday rounded Saint Pierre, saluted by some hundreds fans who gathered on the island's coast despite the rain to watch the trimaran sail past. The Multi50 is holding a commanding lead from the open and monohull fleet. Their closest competition is Erik Nigons Multi50 at 157nm behind and Giles Lamirre's early ORMA60 at 232nm in arrears on the leader. Giles Lamirre's team suffered a serious setback when they missed one of the turning buoys and had to retrace their route in the vicinity of the mouth of the St Laurence River.

 

Erwan le Roux's Multi50 Fenetre Cardinal 3 has extended it's lead and is now over 400 miles ahead of Giles Lamirre's ORMA60. It looks like Erik Nigon's Multi 50 has retired and is heading back to shore no news though on what went wrong could be a tracker fault as well.

 

Fenetre Cardinal has extended their lead and have about 898nm to go till St Malo to win the open division. Erik Nigon on his Multi50 looks to be racing again can only guess that they had a breakage but a long way behind now. Giles Lamirre on Defi Quebec St Malo Agglo has dropped back to fourth place with the monohull Sardegna moving into third.

 

Fenetre Cardinal - from Course au Large.

 

How nice to see a modern 50' Tri going so well against the entire fleet including a 60' Tri. Thats what I call a serious horizon job on the opposition! Congratulations to the crew of Fenetre Cardinal.

 

Agreed Trimaraner, the Multi50's put on a great show, this year the Multi50 Actual came within a minute of smashing the record for the Round the Island Race in the UK held by the 100' G class trimaran IDECII. It looks like Giles Lamirre's ORMA60 has moved back into third place now in the Open division.

 

Extract from the latest news on the Quebec-St Malo race website:

Well ahead of the Class40 fleet the overall leader, Erwan Le Roux on FenêtréA Cardinal is quickly making ground towards the Fastnet, gibing regularly, while his two opponents in the multi Open Class have abandoned all hopes of a win and are duelling for the second place. Gilles Lamiré found good fuel to push his trimaran Défi Saint Malo Agglo closer to Erik Nigon's Vers un Monde sans Sida 30 miles north. The canadian MD Robert Patenaude and his crew of corinthians onboard Persévérance are some 360 miles behind the leader, the last of the 25 boats strong fleet heading for Saint Malo. Weather-wise to note that a new low pressure system is developing over the racing area, disrupting the Azores High and blocking the gradient on the boats' course. Erwan Le Roux is trying everything to stay in ahead of it, before rounding the Fastnet Rock and the predicted 30 plus knots while the rest of the monohull fleet is approaching this zone of high winds from the south.

 

The multihulls have to as part of the race round the Fastnet Rock (the monohulls go straight to St Malo) Fenetre Cardinal are approaching that area now. Giles Lamire and Erik Nigon are battling it out for second place their two boats are quite even in performance although the 60' has shown some higher speeds periodically.

 

Fenetre Cardinal

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Look how far forward the ama board is! Can't tell but it looks like it might have curved boards? Whups! my mistake-its the forward cross arm peaking out -no board in the ama.
Great Cardinal video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GSYj51aMRZU#!

 

Erwan Le Roux's Fenetre Cardinal only has 148nm to go. Giles Lamire's Defi Quebec St Malo Agglo have finally overhauled Erik Nigon's Multi50 Vers un Monde sans Sida and moved into second place. They both still have to head North and round the Fastnet. Not wanting to Jinx Fenetre Cardinal prior to the finish but congratulations to Erwan le Roux and crew on a fast and flawless race and an impressive win.

 

Extract from the Transat Quebec - St Malo website.

Arrival

Tuesday July 31 - 06h00 (Québec) 12h00 (France) - FenétréA Cardinal 3 will reach Saint-Malo 10PM (France time) - 4PM (Quebec time). ETA (estimated time of arrival) of Vento : Friday August 3, 4AM (France time). ETA of first Class40 : Friday August 3 août, 8PM (France time).