This year's summer cruise was based on being able to get to St. Nazaire in time for the start of the Transquadra 2014 first to Madeira, as Cherbourg friends Louis-Marie Dussere and Thierry Lacour are sailing 'Raging Bee' in the race; to qualify you have to be amateur and over forty, though the competition is nevertheless very strong, with a large number of JPKs and Sun Fast 3200s among the 61 starters, making a race within a race for both the Cherbourg boats.
The weather being kind meant I arrived in Pornichet on Thursday having left Weymouth on Sunday, stopping over in some favourite ports on the way down, and with some good opportunities to try out my symmetric spinnaker with a bit of sea room! There being no room in St Nazaire involved a last stage by bus, to spend the day with the Cherbourg team - 'Le McDo de Cherbourg', Bruno James' Sun Fast 3200, is also doing the race, with Hugues Dorriere. Bruno is another frequent visitor to Weymouth in the YCC Transmanche.
The start was programmed for 1730 on Sunday, so I drifted round from Pornichet in time to position myself where I could watch and take pictures without getting in the way. A shower cloud drifted across the estuary just as the 13 single-handers were getting under way, and they made slow progress with only the feeble beginnings of the ebb and a fickle breeze more or less on the nose.
Starting soon afterwards, the double-handers had the better of the breeze which settled to give a beat which then became a starboard fetch out of the estuary having rounded the light tower on the north side at the Pointe de l'Aguillon. As they came up from the start line off the port I watched 'Raging Bee' keep as far right as possible, to windward of the pack, and by the light tower Thierry had managed to get the boat into seventh position, while 'McDo' was a bit further back in the pack, having gone further out into the channel after the start. As I made my way back to Pornichet with a handful of other spectator boats, the line of competitors stretched almost out of sight into a grey evening over the Golfe de Gascogne...
Positions this morning (Monday) give 'Raging Bee' lying sixth, but going faster than most of the boats ahead. Follow on: http://www.transquadra.com/positions.php
Bonne mer, les gars!
Steve Fraser
Cruiser Class Captain
