Solidaire du Chocolat concludes with arrival of last competitor

10:01 AM Mon 23 Nov 2009 GMT

'Global Ocean Race entry, Patrice Carpentier finishes La Solidaire du Chocolat - Photo Bruno Bouvry - Solidaire du Chocolat' La Solidaire du Chocolat

The last boat is now home in the Solidaire du Chocolat, a 5,000 mile double-handed race for Class40's. Oliver Dewar provides the wrap on the fifth week at sea.

During the fifth week at sea in La Solidaire du Chocolat, the closeness of the finishes within the second wave of boats became hectic while the trailing pack took separate options, splitting either side of Jamaica. With a few of the boats very short of fuel and water, finding stable breeze in the difficult Caribbean conditions became a priority. However, on Friday a total of five Class40s crossed the finish line in the space of 11 hours after 5,000 miles and 34 days of racing.

On the morning of Monday 16th November, taking 5th placed in La Solidaire du Chocolat, British yachtsman, Tim Wright, and his Australian co-skipper, Nicko Brennan, crossed the finish line off Progreso at 1447 GMT on Wright's two year-old Akilaria Class40, Sail4Cancer. After a phenomenal race, Wright and Brennnan - two ex-Global Challenge sailors - were the first non-professional team to cross the finish line. On Tuesday morning, the Chilean duo of Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva on Desafio Cabo de Hornos crossed the finish line off Progreso at 0418 GMT in 6th place and just four hours later at 0800 GMT, the British duo of Peter Harding and Miranda Merron in 7th on 40 Degrees followed the Chileans into port.

While festivities continued in Progreso, there was a large gap before the next arrival: In 8th place, Jacques Fournier and Jean-Edouard Criquioche on Groupe Picoty remained isolated in the Yucatan Basin with 180 miles remaining until they reached Cape Catoche on the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and were maintaining a 184 mile lead over Denis Lazat and Fr?d?ric Nouel in PLAN holding 9th place. The two groups in the trailing pack were now regrouping south of Cuba after the different options presented by Jamaica. Lazat and Nouel still led the group having left Jamaica to starboard with a 38 mile lead over Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany in 10th on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides who opted for the northern route. On Monday afternoon, Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource in the southern group briefly overtook Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides, but the British duo slipped back to 11th place overnight, although just 12 miles separated West and Worswick from Nigon and Jouany in terms of Distance to Finish.

Trailing Keysource by 46 miles having left Jamaica to starboard, the Franco-Mexican team of Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado in 12th on Cr?dit Maritime held a 77 mile lead over David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud on Adriatech who sailed very close to the northern coast of Jamaica in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, the breeze finally arrived for Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy on ORBIS, south-east of Jamaica. Card and Murphy remained stalled in light airs making averages of below three knots until the breeze finally arrived and the British duo set off on starboard gybe making slightly under ten knots having committed to the route south of Jamaica.

Throughout La Solidaire du Chocolat, there was intense drama in North Atlantic with a string of six, deep depressions sweeping through the fleet providing horrific, upwind conditions. Early on the morning of Wednesday 18th November, the action was closer to land with strong winds blasting through Progreso, tearing two boats from their moorings in the town's harbour. Both Initiatives-Novedia of race winners, Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy, and Sail4Cancer of Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan were washed up on the beach while the Chilean duo of Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva gave up the search for a RIB to transfer them to Desafio Cabo de Hornos and plunged into the huge waves, swimming 200 metres to their Class40 and motoring out of the harbour into open water.

While the race organisation and skippers recovered from the carnage in Progreso throughout Wednesday, the next Class40 was approaching and at 0238 GMT on Thursday morning, Jacques Fournier - the President of the Class40 Association - and Jean-Edouard Criquioche - Class40 Treasurer - crossed the finish line on Groupe Picoty taking 8th place. Meanwhile, with 131 miles to the finish, just 22 miles separated three boats rounding Cape Catoche with Denis Lazat and Fr?d?ric Nouel on PLAN leading the trio in 9th with Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides and the British duo of Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource in 10th and 11th place. A further 47 miles south-east into the Caribbean, Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado on Cr?dit Maritime kept a 45 mile lead over David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud on Adriatech in 13th, while just south-east of the Cayman Islands, Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy - the fleet's backmarkers on ORBIS - made good speed averages with 554 miles of the race remaining.

Early on Friday 20th November, after 32 days of racing and five days after the race leader completed the course, three yachts crossed the Progreso finish line within three hours of each other. First to arrive in 9th place, Denis Lazat and Fr?d?ric Nouel on PLAN finished under one and-a-half hours ahead of Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides in 10th. Under one hour later, the British duo of Mike West and Paul Worswick in 11th finished racing on Keysource. Then, seven hours later at 1044 GMT, Global Ocean Race 2011-12 entry, Patrice Carpentier and his co-skipper Victor Maldonado - the only Mexican sailor in the race - took 12th place on Cr?dit Maritime, chased across the line two hours later by Italian skipper David Consorte and his French co-skipper Aubry Arnaud on Adriatech in 13th place. By midday GMT on Friday, only one boat remained racing with the Anglo-Australian duo of Stephen Card and Nicko Brennan on ORBIS making a little under ten knots in the Yucatan Channel with 240 miles to the finish line. With a broken watermaker and minimal fuel, Card and Brennan reported that they had enough water for 24 hours and were forced to tilt their diesel tank to drain the last reserves of fuel. Finally, on Sunday morning at 0932 GMT, ORBIS crossed the finish line in 14th place after 34 days and 17 hours of racing.

So, after 5,000 miles and almost 35 days of racing, the entire fleet of Class40s are across the line. For the mix of professional and amateur crews involved, the inaugural transatlantic race solely for Class40s has been a gruelling and demanding event. There have been casualties through damage sustained in the relentless conveyor belt of Low Pressure systems the fleet encountered in the North Atlantic and ten of the original line up of 24 boats were forced to retire, representing a 43 percent attrition rate. Despite the alarming figure, the larger, double-handed boats currently racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre have incurred a 30 percent attrition rate in North Atlantic storms.

A further comparison between these two transatlantic races is the spread within the fleet, which is strikingly similar: at 0730 GMT this morning, Monday 23rd November, the IMOCA Open 60 leader in the Transat Jacques Vabre, Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier Br?nac on Safran are off the coast of Panama 199 miles from the finish in Costa Rica and hold a 1,355 mile lead over the fleet's back marker, Sam Davis and Sidney Gavignet on Artemis Ocean Racing. On 13th November, Class40 leaders in La Solidaire du Chocolat, Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy on Initiatives-Novedia, were east of Cape Catoche of the at the same distance to the finish line in Progreso with an almost identical lead of 1,305 miles over the Class40 backmarkers, Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado on Cr?dit Maritime.

Race Director of the Global Ocean Race 2011-12, Josh Hall, and his team were gripped by the action offshore. 'We have followed the Solidaire du Chocolat very closely and yet again a Class40 fleet has provided race viewers with exceptionally close racing and fascinating news delivered from the boats on a daily basis despite some incredibly adverse conditions,' says Hall. 'A huge 'bravo' to the skippers, sponsors and race organisers,' he adds. 'I think the only downside has been the rate of attrition which was higher than expected. Hindsight is a beautiful thing - of course - but for future editions of the event, some thought could perhaps be put to adding a 'gate' off the south of Portugal to keep the fleet out of the worst of the autumnal North Atlantic weather and more in a Trade Wind route. However, hats off to everyone for a fantastic event at every level. We have witnessed the birth of what we are sure will become a classic Class40 race.'

Felipe Cubillos (skipper Desafio Cabo de Hornos): 'As always, congratulations to the winners and it has been a privilege to share the race with Tanguy de Lamotte, Giovanni Soldini and Bernard Stamm. We don't want to just pay tribute to these giants of offshore sailing, but also to congratulate all the other boats in the race: all the boats still racing and the boats that fought hard, but have had to retire. Many of the boats still racing are already with very little food, tired, very tired, and some are frustrated and with little water..but they continue fighting.'

Erik Nigon (skipper Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides): 'In the middle of the night off Jamaica, a very powerful cigarette-type powerboat with three guys on board came very close alongside us to starboard and the men started to talk to us in a very urgent tone. They were all dressed in khaki and carried machine guns although there was no flag or official markings on their boat. There was no panic, but all sorts of grim scenarios flooded through our minds. They assured us they were with the coast guard and with their guns always pointed in our direction, they asked where we were going and what we were up to. We unrolled the Solidaire du Chocolat flag and when we gave our names, they checked them with the names painted on our coach house roof and seemed satisfied. After a bit more chat, they wished us good sailing and disappeared into the night giving us the chance to start breathing again.'

Shaun Murphy (co-skipper ORBIS): 'We've probably done 115 miles in the last 12 hours. Unfortunately, we still don't have enough breeze or enough speed. We've been monitoring the water, so as long as we get reasonable wind, we should be fine. We've probably got five days worth if we don't go too slowly. If we hit a light spot, the Cayman Islands look favourable. We can always just cut down our intake, which is more of an inconvenience than a hardship. We can always rehydrate the body with beer and tequila in Progreso!'

Jacques Fournier (skipper Groupe Picoty): 'This arrival is the end of a great adventure. I haven't encountered conditions that hard for a very long time and it has left me with some lasting memories. It is also a landmark in sporting terms. We have received an incredible reception here in Progreso. La Solidaire du Chocolat is an international event: the start from Nantes and St. Nazaire, the race and then the finish here in Mexico. It all fits perfectly with the overall philosophy of Class40.'