The Globe 5.80 Transat fleet will cross the Atlantic straight from Lagos, skipping Lanzarote altogether, after race founder Don McIntyre called off the qualifying leg to the Canaries on 4 November.
Speaking to Go Boating from Lagos a few hours after he had turned all six boats around, McIntyre said he hoped to start the 19-foot fleet on Saturday 14 November, weather permitting, and send it direct to the National Sailing Academy in Antigua. The 400 or so miles already sailed will stand as a shortened qualifier, and every boat is cleared to race.
His reason for pulling the plug was two Atlantic storms lining up across the course, and a coastline too close for comfort.
Two storms on the nose
The light airs that dogged the first four days had left the fleet well behind schedule. McIntyre told us the boats had averaged about 50 miles a day since leaving Lagos on 31 October, with more calms to come. At that rate they would still have been some 180 miles short of Lanzarote when the first system arrived late on 7 November.
It would have come in as a 15 to 25 knot southerly, right on the nose. By early on the 8th McIntyre expected 30 to 35 knots, gusting over 40 and possibly to 45, with seas of three to four metres building from the same direction. Boats this size cannot make ground to windward in that, he says, so the skippers would have had to turn and run, giving back 100 to 150 miles towards Portugal.
Behind it was a second system, which McIntyre described as "really nasty" and intense: a long band of weather from the south-west, set to cover the whole course with 30 knots gusting 35. Had the fleet come through both unscathed, his best estimate for a Lanzarote arrival was about 15 November, a day after the Transat was due to start from there.
He had been watching the first low since the day before. When he checked the models again at 8am on 4 November, the picture had firmed up.
"It was very clear at 8 o'clock this morning that if I was sitting there in Trekka, I would say forget it. It's unnecessary risk," he said. "It's a no-brainer."
Sea room, not seaworthiness
McIntyre is quick to point out that the boats themselves were never the worry. Mid-ocean, the same storm would barely have troubled him.
"If they met this storm halfway across the Atlantic, I more or less wouldn't be too worried at all," he said. "They've got storm tactics, they can do it ... They've got sea room."
Between Portugal and the Canaries they would have had no sea room to spare. "They've got Africa on the left, and there's no room to manoeuvre," he said. With barely enough breeze to get out of the way first, the fleet would have been "sitting ducks".
Each boat in the fleet is based on Janusz Maderski's design – a home-built plywood, epoxy and glass yacht that has already been around the world and through the Southern Ocean. Every skipper in this fleet has completed survival and medical training. "They're built really strong, really safe when you button them up," McIntyre said. "They're the best lifeboat you've got."
A Lagos start on 14 November
Saturday 14 November remains the target start date, but McIntyre will not send the fleet out into another blow. "We wouldn't start if it was another screaming southerly," he said. He wants a start window that lets the boats get well offshore before any bad weather reaches them.
Losing Lanzarote is a shame for the race. McIntyre described Marina Rubicón as a great stopover that has been very good to the event, but the fleet will now make the crossing in a single leg.
He has noticed, too, that this season's weather has been odd, both off Portugal and further south in the Golden Globe Race.
The qualifier still counts
The cancelled leg will be treated as a shortened qualifier of roughly 400 miles, counting the sail back to Lagos. McIntyre is satisfied that is enough. Every skipper has sailed their boat before, some a good deal more than others, and all passed safety inspections and pre-qualification before the start.
For the solo sailors with an eye on the 2029 Mini Globe Race, the Transat itself is the qualifier. "The qualifier for the Mini Globe Race is the transatlantic race," McIntyre said, so the crossing to Antigua will do the job.
He never saw the run to Lanzarote as a contest. "It's a voyage, it's not a race," he said, describing it as a chance to get the boats to the start safely and let everyone settle in.
A scam call and a broken Starlink
Not everyone took the news the same way.
Yi Qun Liu (Yves), who had led the qualifier on Trekka for most of its length, was relieved. He had been studying the same forecast and wondering how to deal with it.
Katherine Urpani was the last to turn. Capucinette's Starlink had a fault and was not in use, so she knew nothing of the cancellation until she called in.
Bruce Payne was a little disappointed. The Tasmanian had been looking forward to Lanzarote and had not seen the second system coming behind the first. He was still weighing up his tactics when Race Control overruled him and ordered the whole fleet back.
The best reaction came from Dean Frost on Origami. Race Control sent the message three ways, by WhatsApp, satellite phone and the YB3 tracker, and the WhatsApp arrived first. Frost was convinced it was a scam and wanted proof before he believed a word of it. Once it checked out, he was happy to turn for home.
One boat with lithium
Lithium house batteries are banned in the Globe 5.80 Transat unless the skipper is also a Mini Globe Race entrant. In this fleet that means Trekka alone.
She is McIntyre's old boat. He sailed her to third in the 2021 Transat, and she has since done another transatlantic race and a lap of the planet in the inaugural Mini Globe Race, where lithium is permitted. Yves is entered for the Mini 2029, so the batteries stay.
Everyone else runs AGM or gel. It is cheaper, McIntyre says, but simplicity is the real point. "We'd rather go on the safety aspect of keeping it simple and reliable at this stage."
News from mid-Atlantic
Starlink is allowed with only one restriction, weather routing, which must be made on board. Five of the six boats carry it, while Matthew Freestone on Inimini makes do with satellite phones.
There will be no scheduled broadcasts from the boats, as there are in the Golden Globe Race. The sailors post their own photos and video, the race shares them, and McIntyre's team publishes a tracker update most days.
McIntyre has also offered to set up WhatsApp calls between Go Boating and the skippers at sea. Viivi Moisio and the Origami crew are keen, and he expects the rest will be happy to talk. Bruce, he says, has a good story to tell. He is also the nearest thing this fleet has to a Kiwi, so Go Boating has already adopted him.
Meet the skippers
Read our profiles of Viivi Moisio and Flow, Yi Qun Liu (Yves) and Trekka, Katherine Urpani and Capucinette, Matthew Freestone and Inimini, Bruce Payne and Meraki, and Dean Frost, Lee McCarthy and Origami.
For the fleet's progress before the cancellation, read our Day 6 report. The Globe 5.80 Transat is a sister race to the Golden Globe Race, which Go Boating follows every day.
