After the return of Queen Mary 2 in Saint-Nazaire which was watched by crowds of a dozen thousands of people, the countdown has been launched before the Transat’s departure. The crowd is already at the “rendez-vous”, on the harbour’s dike. It is difficult to imagine a better cast for this race across the Northern Atlantic, Queen Mary 2 as well as four boats that are heading to New York and following the foot-steps of the first American landing in June 1917.
« D-Day » , a unique transatlantic match
D-Day is happening! First World War commemorations on the Atlantic façade have arrived with the Centenary Transat. The hour of the big ocean ride has come for the 345 meter long giant, specially chartered for this occasion and for the four trimarans, the world’s fastest yacht, ready to offer an Atlantic match with a high symbolic value that does not stop delivering surprises.
On the ocean liner’s bridge, the celebrities are invited to follow and comment the transat from the inside, SOBEDO ULTIME (Thomas Coville), MACIF (François Gabart), IDEC SPORT (Francis Joyon) and ACTUAL Yves Le Blévec), whose crew do not hide their impatience to finish their race journey across the Northern Atlantic. At 7PM the trioJean Le Cam, Alain Gautier and Bruno Peyron will give at 7 pm precisely the starting signal of THE BRIDGE, 100 years ago to this day that they first soldiers came across the Atlantic to defend liberty with our Allys on our coasts. The race will begin when the canon will be shot, a race of remembrance and fraternity. There will be lots of emotion all over the Loire’s estuary for this unique event.
The ocean liner's ocean liner
The wind will be low in Saint-Nazaire’s channel. The sea from the North-West and its low winds at 10 knots will not allow great flights… As soon as the Ultime trimarans will leave the Grand Charpentier lighthouse on its starboard side, a crucial choice will have to be made to go around the ridge of high pressure in the Gascogne golf and form a difficult to cross from the first 24 hours.
Dominic Vittet, the race’s metereologist
For this big day, all conditions are gathered for this party to be amazing and it will keep its promises under the generous sunshine and light airs. However, even though the postcard looks magnificent, the 22 sailors in the four crews will not have to work hard to get the best of these conditions. They will also have to be extra careful when sailing off and overtake on the starboard beam Queen Mary 2 which will sail at 6:15 pm to position herself on the line, before gradually accelerating to reach New York after 5 days and 19 hours of crossing. According to the last forecasts, the Ultimate trimarans, currently getting ready to deliver a unique battle, should be in between 36 and 48 hours behind the ocean liner.