The Transat Café L'Or 2025 is in its decisive final hours, with racing across every division tightening by the hour. At midday Thursday New Zealand time, Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas were hammering through the last 300 nautical miles to Martinique aboard SVR Lazartigue, sustaining speeds above 25 knots. Fast, clean, and composed throughout, their campaign looks set to deliver Laperche his first Transatlantic victory and hand Cammas a record-breaking fifth title in the race.
The Ocean Fifty class is producing some of the sharpest racing of the event. The lead has swapped hands multiple times within a single 24-hour period, with Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan aboard Wewise holding a five-mile buffer over Viablis Océans, while Le Rire Médecin Lamotte sits close behind. Fewer than 25 miles cover the top three, meaning the outcome could hinge on a single gybe in the closing miles.
IMOCA: Charal leads, Colman steady
Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière have stretched their lead aboard Charal to roughly 75 miles over Macif Santé Prévoyance, crewed by Sam Goodchild and Antoine Berrehar, as the IMOCA 60s drive hard to the west in building trade winds. 11th Hour Racing, with Francesca Clapcich and Jack Harris on board, sits close behind, and all three are locked into a high-speed reaching contest that looks set to hold through to Saturday's finish.
New Zealand skipper Conrad Colman and co-skipper Mathieu Blanchard have been making steady progress aboard MSIG Europe further south. Over three days they worked their way up from 26th to 24th overall, keeping boat speed around 17 knots on a route that sits below the compressed mid-fleet traffic to the north. The southerly track delivers more consistent trade winds and cleaner angles, a calculated choice that trades early aggression for dependability. It is the kind of attrition-focused campaign that has run through Colman's offshore racing career, and as retirements accumulate elsewhere in the fleet, the approach continues to pay off.
“Every mile west feels earned,” Colman’s team noted in a brief update. “We’ve found our groove, trading helm time for rest, keeping the boat moving without stress.”
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Class 40: hard miles ahead
The Class 40 fleet is still grinding through thousands of miles of difficult water well behind the foiling machines at the front. Unstable lows and heavy upwind conditions have made for a punishing passage, with Corentin Douguet and Axel Tréhin on SNSM Faites un Don leading by around 20 miles from Legallais. Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde on VSF Sports faced additional pressure near the Azores, where structural damage forced them to carry out an assessment. Despite the attrition, the top six remain separated by no more than 150 miles, underlining how fiercely competitive this division has been throughout.
For New Zealand followers tracking the race, Colman's measured westward progress aboard MSIG Europe offers a solid thread to follow. His approach mirrors what he brought to his Vendée Globe campaigns: resilient, methodical, and quietly effective. With approximately 2,500 nautical miles still to run, the only Kiwi in the fleet keeps pushing toward the Caribbean, pace steady and purpose undiminished.
