Before the start of The Transat, Sébastien Josse, IMOCA designer, said in an interview: " If a hydrofoil boat wins The Transat, I'd say the die is cast. "Armel Le Cleac'h came out on top on Banque Populaire, an Imoca equipped with these famous foils. So has the mass been said? Do the old generation Imoca boats with straight daggerboards no longer have a chance of winning?
The second of this transatlantic race is PRB skippered by Vincent Riou. Precisely a boat that does not have these famous foils. If the winner took 12 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes and 39 seconds, Vinet Riou took 12 days, 4 hours, 50 minutes and 12 seconds (that is to say 2 hours 21 minutes 32 seconds behind the first). Only 2 hours difference over 12 days of racingâ?¦ Almost nothing.
This gap is all the more minimal as the skipper of PRB announced at the finish that he had lost two headsails shortly after the start:
" I lost two sails 36 hours after the start: my J0 and my J1 (medium and breeze genoa). It happened near Cape Finisterre. I wanted to anticipate a gybe that I was planning at the beginning of the night.
Before nightfall, I trimmed my sails. They were full of water, I moved them to leeward and strapped them to a stanchion. These are always complicated maneuvers and more dangerous at night. That's why I wanted to anticipate. Thirty minutes later, my pilot strayed and the boat went upwind. In this violent movement of the boat, the sails went into the waterâeuros¦ "
These two sails would have greatly helped the navigator in the last days of the race, which took place on the wind. Without redoing the whole race, the outcome would have been different.
Saint-Michel Virbac, third in The Transat is also equipped with foils...
What lessons can we learn from this for the next Vendée Globe?
It's hard to say, because the round the world race is largely downwind, not upwind like The Transat. But it is precisely in these points of sail that the Imoca foils have a gain in speed compared to the old boats. The only certainty resulting from Banque Populaire's victory is that these boats are now more reliable and that the battle is going to be fierce for our greatest pleasure.
