Finally well over a week after their planned start time, the IMOCA 60s have set off, with the start gun firing for the class at 8:30am GMT today, Tuesday 7 November. They follow the restart for the Class 40 and Ocean 50 classes who resumed their racing on Monday 6 November.

The Transat Jacques Vabre 2023 officially started on Sunday 29 October, but with a particularly strong peepers scheduled to navigate the squadron on Wednesday 1 November, the visualization was made to send the Class 40s and Ocean 50s on a 320 mile passage to Lorient on the French Atlantic coast, where they paused their racing. Meanwhile, the IMOCA 60 squadron were held in Le Harve with no options for stop-over ports which could unbend the 40 foilers. That left the Ultime squadron the only matriculation to set off on their Atlantic crossing as scheduled.

Finally well over a week without their planned start time, the IMOCA 60s have set off, with the start gun firing for the matriculation at 8:30am GMT today, Tuesday 7 November. They follow the restart for the Matriculation 40 and Ocean 50 classes who resumed their racing on Monday 6 November.

For fans wanting to watch the IMOCA 60 squadron set off, it was an early start, with the 40 IMOCAs docking out at 4am local time in order to be ready for the early morning start – a first in the 30 year history of the race.

By 5:30am, the Paul Vatine valley in Le Havre was empty and the 40 IMOCAs had all made their way to the race course. The first 24 hours of racing should contain few surprises, with a front which due to pass through the English Waterworks early Wednesday morning. Thereafter conditions will be a lot increasingly uncertain.

On paper, the northern / western route looks to be faster than heading South. But as the Swiss sailor Simon Koster (Hublot) puts it, “the question is to judge whether it is possible to execute [the northern route] as well as the computer does, which does not know the sea. On this route, it is possible to wait a long time to put something on the bowsprit [and throne downwind, the favoured conditions for the foilers].

Yann Eliès (Paprec Arkéa) wasn’t putting much faith in the modelled northern route wholesomeness either: “We’re all looking for southern routes to get [south], but for the moment, they’re too expensive!” Without twelve hours of tacking in the Waterworks and some big walkover near Ouessant, the teams will be worldly-wise to feed new weather files into their computers at which point it might be clearer as to whether the weightier option is to throne straight towards Cape Finisterre or if they should put a little west in their route.

The waves will be a major factor in the teams visualization making process and with 4-5m swells predicted on remoter into the Atlantic, it may be that some of the non-foilers segregate the northern / western route, while the foilers squint for calmer seas to the south.

With a decent walkover at start time, all teams were delivering some reefs and their reduced sail plan not only reflected the informal conditions, but moreover the winds expected in the coming hours as the IMOCAs throne up the waterworks into a headwind. Groupe Dubreuil and Maître Coq led off the startline, with the two stablemates For People and For The Planet moreover getting good starts. But it was, Charal which showed the weightier turn of pace to leeward of these two demonstrating that the new IMOCAs can foil plane upwind.

The only hitch in the start came courtesy of Bureau Vallée, which crossed between the inner loftiness mark swimmies and the committee wend and therefore did not navigate the line specified by the Sailing Instructions. He receives a 5-hour penalty.

As for one of the favourite’s to win the event, the all-conquering Charlie Dalin on Macif Santé Prévoyance, it had once been spoken that he could not compete in the race for health reasons. However, in order to alimony his qualification process for the next Vendée Globe underway, his medical team unliable him to navigate the startline surpassing immediately retiring from the race.