Sailing-French duo Beyou and Lagraviere tame Atlantic to win Transat
Sailing - Vendee Globe - Les Sables-d'Olonne, France - November 10, 2024 France's Jeremie Beyou before the race REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
French sailors Jeremie Beyou and Morgan Lagraviere sailed their powerful IMOCA monohull Charal to victory in the Transat CAFE L’OR Le Havre Normandie 2025, crossing the Martinique finish line at dawn on Friday after dominating from start to finish.
The duo, who led the fleet since departing Le Havre on October 26, completed their transatlantic journey in 11 days, 19 hours and 45 minutes, covering 5,467 nautical miles at an average speed of 19.27 knots.
They crossed the finish line in Fort-de-France bay at 5:15 a.m. local time. Beyou, 49, and Lagraviere, 38, made few mistakes while maximising their monohull's potential, which had been lightened and boosted by new rudders.
"Right up to the final night, we wanted to keep pushing hard, and it was pure joy from start to finish," Beyou said.
After facing pressure for much of the race from Italian-British duo Francesca Clapcich-Will Harris's 11th Hour Racing and British-French pairing Sam Goodchild-Lois Berrehar's Macif, they unleashed their full speed in the trade winds to pull decisively ahead.
Their closest rivals finished more than 110 miles (203 km) behind, the pair securing a commanding victory that marked the second Transat CAFE L'OR win for Beyou, who previously triumphed in 2011 with Jean-Pierre Dick.
For Lagraviere, it represents a third consecutive victory in the event, having won twice before with Thomas Ruyant as the two-time defending champion.
"Every victory is a different adventure," Lagraviere said. "Each course has its own particularities — and so does each partnership. This was the start of a new story with Jeremie, and it’s wonderful to experience it together. I’m happy to have taken part in this race and to share in the great momentum within the Charal team."
FIRST MAJOR VICTORY FOR LATEST VERSION OF CHARAL
The triumph represents the first major victory for the latest version of Charal, launched in July 2022.
Despite impressive recent finishes including fourth place in the last Vendee Globe and third in the 2022 Route du Rhum, this marks Beyou's first major victory since 2020 in the Vendee Arctique Les Sables d'Olonne.
"It’s true, I’d been circling around a win for a while, but I knew it would come back. The stars just had to align — the right boat, the right teammate — and that’s exactly what happened. I knew it was within me, within the team, and we never gave up. This victory really is a beautiful one.”
Earlier, Baptiste Hulin and Thomas Rouxel snatched a dramatic victory in the Ocean Fifty division, emerging from one of the tightest finishes in the race’s recent history.
The duo completed the race in 12 days, five hours, 24 minutes and 30 seconds. Just 24 hours earlier, they had trailed leaders Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan by more than 20 miles, but a bold southerly gamble in fresher breeze carried them past as their rivals slowed near the coast.
The win capped a remarkable comeback for Hulin, 28, and Rouxel, 42, who were forced to make an early pitstop in Roscoff to repair a damaged mainsail.
The Transat CAFÉ L’OR is a biennial Atlantic showdown that attracts the world’s leading offshore sailors across four divisions. At the cutting edge are the high-speed multihulls ULTIMs — that class was won on Thursday by French pair Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas.
The powerhouse IMOCA fleet, the rising Ocean Fifty class, and the ever-competitive Class40s make up the four fleets which together showcase the full spectrum of modern ocean racing skill and technology.
