First solo race this season for Boris Herrmann

IMOCA – The Transat CIC

28th April

 

The 15th edition of The Transat CIC got off to a good start from Lorient (Morbihan) in Brittany with 48 boats in competition in the Class40, Vintage category and IMOCA class including Boris Herrmann from Yacht Club de Monaco. It is the first event of the season for the German skipper on Malizia-Seaexplorer, the 60-footer of Team Malizia founded by YCM Vice-President Pierre Casiraghi.

A fiendish course

Launched in 1960, this solo transatlantic race is a battle against prevailing winds and currents on a course between the European and North American continents. On the menu this year: 3,500 nautical miles from Lorient to New York which is hosting the arrival for the third time. It’s the only transatlantic race with a course this far north in the Atlantic, without a waypoint, which makes it a difficult challenge. Contestants are set to encounter depressions, strong winds and swell, and fronts as weather systems follow rapidly on from each other.

 

 

For those in the vanguard it will feel like a sprint across with the first boats expected on the finish line in around eight to ten days. For the 33 IMOCAs in the race, The Transat CIC offers a testing start to their 2024 season and a chance to pit themselves against each other before the big solo challenge, the Vendée Globe 2024 in which Boris Herrmann (Malizia-Seaexplorer) will be taking part starting 10th November 2024.