On their Class40 racing boat Seafrigo Sogestran, the Le Havre skippers will share their transatlantic by taking off on October 29th in Le Havre. On October 29, more than 100 boats and 190 sailors will set sail from the 16th Jacques Vabre between Le Havre and Martinique. A record for the 30 years of the transatlantic double. Among them, the brand new Class40 Seafrigo Sogestran!
Launched on July 20 in La Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan), the new generation scow sponsored by Edouard Philippe filled its skippers Cedric Castle and Guillaume Pirouelle with pride. "We are launching a beautiful boat that we hope will perform well. There are a lot of emotions and pride because it represents an investment on the part of many actors, all the partners but also the entire technical team" (groups Seafrigo, Sogestran, SIM Employment agencies (translation), Imagine for Margo – Children without Cancer and Smartappart *).
A high-performance boat dedicated to offshore racing
The 40-foot monohull was built by the JPS Production shipyard and designed by the architect and racer Sam Manuard (translation). With the design of its fitted hull, it combines power, comfort and speed in the breeze or the storm downwind. "It also offers a more protected cockpit which, thanks to very high freeboards at the back, allows the skippers to be less exposed". As in the previous edition, there will be different courses for the different classes of boats. The Class40, the smallest of the monohulls registered on this transatlantic, will have to cover 4,800 nautical miles between Le Havre and Fort-de-France and will not pass through the doldrums.
The duo aims for the top of the chart
Here they are finally reunited: in 2021, they participated in the race on two different boats. All hopes are high for these two sailing enthusiasts. With Jérémie Mion from Le Havre, the Sports Director of the Normandy Elite Team, Cedric Castle, had finished in 3rd place in the previous edition. His career is dizzyingly rich: 6 Spi Ouest victories on the TP52 Paprec, 2 victories on the sails of Saint Tropez, 11 amateur sailing tours of France including two victories in 2013 and 2014 and 23 participations in the French championships.
As for the engineer- navigator Guillaume Pirouelle, he is a young prodigy of the sailing world: world youth champion in 470 and qualification for the Olympic Games (2015), silver medalist of the European Championships in 470 (2017), victory of the Tour de France sailing in Diam 24 (2019), 2nd of the Solitaire du Figaro (2022), 1st of the Tour of Brittany Sailing (2023), 1st of the Solo Guy Cotten and 4th of the transat Paprec ( 2023). A 100% Havre duo to watch closely!
Anchored in Normandy
Co-organized by the Normandy Region (translation), the Transat Jacques Vabre is welcomed by the city of Le Havre since 1993. The course is very technical and the skippers will have to face the waters of the Bay of Biscay, the equator and the formidable doldrums before reaching Martinique Alongside Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre and Patricia Blanc, President of the Imagine For Margo association and their partners, the two skippers will christen their new boat on October 20 at the end of the afternoon at the dock of honor of the Transat village in Le Havre.
The village, open from October 20 to 29, 2023 will host many activities.
-(*)SMARTAPPART is technical partner of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandy-Le Havre
SMARTAPPART, the housing solution in the city of Le Havre
The two SMARTAPPART residential hotels are an economical alternative to hotels in the city of Le Havre. Rates are discounted starting from two nights. From studios to two-room apartments, the luxury furnished apartments are suited to any type of stay. An innovative online booking and payment system allows you to access the apartments in a self-service fashion.
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