Pirouelle & Chateau win A nailbiting finale sees Seafrigo-Sogestran win by seven minutes

On a beautiful sunny Caribbean afternoon in moderate breezes Pirouelle and Château crossed the finish line off Fort de France at 15:57:43hrs local time (19:57:43Hrs UTC). When they did the timer started for a truly nail biting wait for the second placed Corentin Douguet and Axel Tréhin (SNSM Faites un don!) to appear from astern and cross the line. 

The SNSM duo Douguet and Tréhin had led the 42 strong fleet into La Coruña, Spain where the Class 40 race had to be halted to wait for a storm to pass through. Pirouelle and Château finished second into the Spanish haven, 21 minutes and 38 seconds behind. So when the Normandy pairing took the first place gun this afternoon, they knew the SNSM duo, Pirouelle and Château. had to cross within that time delta to win. The countdown clock was running. 

But time ran out for Douguet and Tréhin who had not only led much of the first leg but also this leg across the Atlantic from Spain. They chose to take a northerly course along with a dozen other duos, fighting through three big low pressure systems with strong, contrary winds and big seas to sail a shorter distance. PIrouelle and Château chose the longer, safer route to the south, looking for the trade winds along with the majority of the fleet which they led. 

SNSM Faites un Don crossed the line at 20:26:43hrs UTC 16:26:43 local time, 28 minutes and 59 seconds after Seafrigo. The Normandy duo win by 7 minutes and 21 seconds, sailing 4869 nautical miles to SNSM’s 4185. 

At one point the two leading boats in each group – SNSM in the north and Seafrigo-Sogerstran were separated laterally by nearly 900 miles and Pirouelle and Château were down in 13^th place with a deficit of 230 nautical miles.  

But Seafrigo-Sogestran’s option progressively came good and four days ago they took the lead. But even in the final hours that cushion was a very, very tenable 4.5 nautical miles when both were making around 10 knots!

It is a very pleasing win for Château duo who were both born in nearby Rouen and have always trained out of Le Havre. Château is a long time coach with the League there and also recently steered Paprec to second place in the Rolex TP52 world championship. It is another success for Normandy and Le Havre, the city which produced Charlie Dalin the Vendée Globe winner, and the victor of the most recent La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, Alexis Loison who is also Rouen born. 

Pirouelle and Château had their hopes of winning the 2023 race dashed at the first mark of the course when their boat was badly damaged in a collision. They fought a commando operation to have it fixed on time to restart but their chances of victory were certainly compromised. 

Correspondingly it was a frustrating finale for Douguet and Tréhin who won the three early season races for Class 40 in their new Lombard Lift 3 which was only launched this season and which has shown to be very fast. Pirouelle, 31, is a past 470 European Champion, winner of the 470 Junior Worlds, winner of the Tour de France à La Voile, and finished runner up in the 2022 La Solitaire du Figaro.