Less than 24 hours until the start of the Transat CIC: tomorrow, Sunday, April 28, at 10:48 am Alberto Bona and the Class40 IBSA will cast off the moorings from the port of Lorient just before the start, set for 1:30 pm. It’s the eighth regatta for IBSA’s three-year project Sailing into the Future. Together.
This morning the weather briefing – the last official appointment on land before the start – took place in the auditorium of the Cité de la Voile Éric Tabarly. The skipper meeting revolutionised the start, somehow “reversing” the route of the boats with respect to the coast. The boats will in fact set sail towards the South, with two clearance buoys that will draw a complex course, which will immediately increase the difficulties for solo skippers, imposing sail changes already in the first hours of the race.
On the weather front, the latest bulletins highlight a more complex evolution than expected. While maintaining a start with an average wind (probably less than 15 knots), on Tuesday night solo sailors may find themselves facing very strong winds, very low temperatures and waves of up to six meters: essentially, the conditions that have made the route of this regatta legendary.
Today in Lorient – where the 60th anniversary of Éric Tabarly’s victory in the 1964 O’Star and the 65th anniversary of the great sailor Jean Le Cam’s participation in the Transat CIC in the IMOCA class were celebrated – also Giorgio Pisani, IBSA Group Vice President and project leader of Sailing into the future. Together, arrived to witness the start of the transoceanic: “We are ready for the start of this major regatta, certainly the most challenging of all; just consider that only 13 Class40s registered: the best. In my opinion, there are all the conditions for this regatta to become another of Alberto Bona’s many successes”.
