Showtime ! What a finale! Four boats in 44 minutes

The Heist of the Century by the Underdogs

"For me, it's the most beautiful race," perfectly summed up Baptiste Hulin (Viabilis Océans), just having docked at the pontoon of honor. "You have the intensity of a solo sailor and you constantly share it with someone by your side." Once the trophy is presented by the race's godmother, astronaut Claudie Haigneré, and the coconuts have been enjoyed, the Champagne sipped, the two co-skippers seem to struggle to grasp what they have just accomplished.

"It's going to take some time to come down and understand," confides Baptiste Hulin, for whom the Coffee Route was a childhood dream. "It truly is the most beautiful transatlantic race, and I'm happy to add my name to it." 

Just a few hours earlier, the duo hadn't even imagined being on the top step of the podium. "When Baptiste told me we're going to cross the leaders it made me so me happy because this race was intense from start to finish," admits Thomas Rouxel, well known alumni from the ULTIM division. “We really gave it our all, we truly felt we sailed very well, it's so gratifying to feel that this is the reward for all the work we've put in.”

Seconds in

Seventeen minutes after Viabilis Océans, Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan crossed the finish line. Having been leading the fleet just a few hours earlier, they proudly waved their yellow and blue smoke flares, the boat's colors, even though this outcome, this end of the race wasn't exactly what they had hoped for. First things first first…top priority was loved ones, Pierre jumped from the boat to embrace his mother before reflecting on this epic finish. “As an athlete, you're bound to be frustrated to have missed first place by so little,” admitted La Solitaire du Figaro winnerPierre Quiroga. “This victory was within reach this morning,” but given the project's youth, “finishing second today is perfect.” His co-skipper, aspiring Vendée Globe racer, 27 year old Gaston Morvan, shared a similar smile: “When we arrived at Diamant, we weren't feeling too great. Seeing the Rock, catching up with the support boats, and experiencing the joy of Martinique and the finish line, we kind of forgot about that.” They are a duo that shone throughout the TRANSAT CAFÉ L’OR. “The secret to success on a Transatlantic race,” Pierre confessed, “is having a flawless partnership, a partnership you trust 100%.”

The icing on the cake

Just ten minutes after Wewise, that is to say probably a mile and a half….Rire Médecin - Lamotte completed the podium. They were so happy to have defied the odds. “Our goal from the start was to reach the other side,” announced Luke Berry whose rig snapped on the 2023 race, “we wanted to regain our confidence.” That confidence returned little by little as they got caught up in the excitement of the intense race against their friends. “The more we raced, the more we told ourselves: we want to finish in the top five,” continued the Anglo-French racer. “And when we snatched third place from the others, we thought, actually, we don’t want to lose this place.” 48 hours without sleep for a result beyond their expectations in Le Havre at the start. “A close-quarters race I think that’s the right word,” jokes a smiley Antoine Joubert. “This race really has a great taste of revenge. For us, the objective was to finish this race, and the icing on the cake is that we’re on the podium.”

A source of class pride

Fourth across the finish line, Solidaires en Peloton, skippered by 2023’s winner Thibaut Vauchel-Camus and double Vendée Globe skipper Damien Seguin, finishing just off the podium, only 44 minutes behind the winners. “The moral of this race, apparently, is that you have to be an outsider to win it!” Thibaut chuckled with a touch of irony, but above all, great pride for the class co-president. “I’m very happy with this podium finish, which makes up for the harshness and violence of the start of a race which saw the three capsizes,” commented Vauchel Camus before reflecting on the victory of a 2017 boat. “What does our class demonstrate? That you don’t need state-of-the-art boats to finish and win. I think that’s a very valuable lesson.”

Damien Seguin, beaming from ear to ear, seemed to have already forgotten his ranking, too happy with the spectacle on the water. “We had a great party planned for you today with all the boats bunched together. It's been a real battle on the Atlantic, these last few hours too "They're ahead of us, it's because they deserve it too."

In revenge mode

As night fell on Fort-de-France, the last multihull mast just passed Diamond Rock. Edenred 5 has finished this transatlantic race, "the most breathtaking of all the classes," as Basile Bourgnon aptly points out. The duo, who led the fleet from start to most of the way over the Atlantic, were overtaken by the competition in the final days after serious damage. "Having spent the last three years in the Figaro class, I felt like I was reliving all that on this transatlantic race," explains ‘Baz’ "looking for the tiniest detail, leaving nothing to chance in the maneuvers. We were very demanding of ourselves." A sentiment echoed by co-skipper Emmanuel Le Roch: "We didn't have much time." Neither of us listened to any music. I think I listened to three podcasts when there was no wind at the Canary Islands, and even then, not all the way through. We were so focused, we really did nothing but watch the boat.” Despite, or perhaps because of, their fifth-place finish, the two sailors are already ready to set off again and fight back. “I have a huge thirst for revenge,” Basile concludes. “I wouldn’t want to be my competitors next year because I’ll be coming back with a vengeance.”