Three of the four divisions in the 17th Transat Café L'Or Le Havre Normandie had settled their line honours by 7 November, producing a string of dominant performances alongside compelling stories from the fleet still working its way across the Atlantic.
The Ultim class went to SVR Lazartigue, skippered by Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas, who averaged close to 21 knots across 5,400 nautical miles to take a commanding victory. The Ocean Fifty division produced a tighter contest, with Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan sailing WeWise to the win after a week of close-quarters racing that kept Viabilis Oceans and Le Rire Médecin Lamotte in contention throughout.
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The IMOCA class delivered the most emotionally charged finish of the regatta. French veteran Jérémie Beyou had spent years chasing a result on this route, and sailing Charal 2 alongside co-skipper Morgan Lagravière, he finally secured one. The pair crossed the line at Fort-de-France just before dawn, completing the passage in 11 days 20 hours 30 minutes. For Lagravière it was a third consecutive win on this crossing, an unprecedented three-peat that cements the duo's dominance on the transatlantic run.
Charal 2 finished five hours clear of 11th Hour Racing, where Francesca Clapcich and Will Harris had briefly held the lead near the Canaries before conceding ground in the trades. Sam Goodchild and Loïs Berrehar rounded out the podium aboard Macif Santé Prévoyance, arriving just two hours further back.
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Tracking positions between 6 and 8 November tells its own story. Charal 2 closed nearly 750 nautical miles in two days, while 11th Hour Racing pegged back more than 100 in the same window. As the trade winds filled, the mid-fleet spread across the tropics. Teamwork–Team SNEF and Initiatives Cœur stayed within sight of each other, while MS IG Europe, skippered by Kiwi Conrad Colman with Frenchman Mathieu Blanchard, ticked down from roughly 2,200 nautical miles to go to around 1,800. At that pace, Colman sat firmly in mid-fleet and on track for a competitive, clean finish.
His campaign carries a distinction beyond position. MS IG Europe is making the Atlantic crossing without a drop of fuel, running entirely on power drawn from solar panels and hydro-generation. In his latest update, Colman captured what that freedom feels like from the water: "As long as you have sun you have power; as long as you have wind you have movement … we are not constrained by anything."
His social media updates echoed that sentiment.
“Wind + sun = absolute freedom.”
With the Class40 fleet continuing its push across the ocean, this edition of the Transat Café L'Or has shown that the future of offshore racing is faster, smarter, and increasingly sustainable.
