Across four fleets, champions emerge
By 7 November, three of the four divisions in the 17th Transat Café L’Or Le Havre Normandie had decided their line honours.
In the Ultim class, SVR Lazartigue – skippered by Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas – delivered a commanding win, averaging almost 21 knots over 5,400 nautical miles.
The Ocean Fifty fleet followed suit, with Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan taking victory aboard WeWise, edging Viabilis Oceans and Le Rire Médecin Lamotte after a week of close-quarters racing.
In the IMOCA class, French veteran Jérémie Beyou finally claimed the result he’d been chasing for years.
Sailing Charal 2 with co-skipper Morgan Lagravière, Beyou crossed the line just before dawn in Fort-de-France after 11 days 20 hours 30 minutes of racing.
It’s Lagravière’s third straight win on this route – an unprecedented “three-peat” that cements the duo’s dominance.
They finished five hours ahead of 11th Hour Racing’s Francesca Clapcich and Will Harris, who led briefly near the Canaries before conceding in the trades.
Sam Goodchild and Loïs Berrehar completed the podium aboard Macif Santé Prévoyance, just two hours further back.
The fleet spreads out
Comparing positions from 6 to 8 November shows just how rapidly fortunes changed.
Charal 2 closed nearly 750 nautical miles in two days; 11th Hour Racing erased more than 100.
Meanwhile, the mid-fleet stretched into the tropics as the trade winds filled.
Teamwork–Team SNEF and Initiatives Cœur stayed within sight of each other, while MS IG Europe – skippered by Kiwi Conrad Colman with Frenchman Mathieu Blanchard – advanced from roughly 2,200 to 1,800 nautical miles to go.
At that pace, Colman remained firmly mid-fleet and on track for a competitive, clean finish.
Freedom, wind, and sunlight
Colman’s race is remarkable for another reason: he’s crossing the Atlantic without a drop of fuel. Powered solely by solar panels and hydro-generation, MS IG Europe proves that modern IMOCA yachts can race hard without fossil energy.
In his latest update he wrote, “As long as you have sun you have power; as long as you have wind you have movement … we are not constrained by anything.”
His social feed echoed the same message:
“Wind + sun = absolute freedom.”
That combination of performance and principle embodies the Transat Café L’Or’s spirit — innovation, endurance, and respect for the ocean.
As Class40s continue their push across the Atlantic, the message from this year’s leaders is clear: the future of offshore racing is faster, smarter, and increasingly sustainable.
