A HUGE 250 SAILBOATS TRANSAT: THE 2019 ARC

Neel 47

The ARC, bigger every year, is now subdivided in three, the ARC+ that stops in Cabo Verde with 66 yachts, the ARC, a direct course to Santa Lucia on the Caribbean with 185 sailboats and a smaller one that also stops in Cabo Verde with only 22 boats.

Only on the the ARC there is a racing division with twenty five monohulls competing but quite

incomprehensibly there is not a racing division for multihulls even if clearly some of the ones that are making the transat are racing.

Stadtship 54ac

The truth is that there is a classification and prizes also on the cruising division and many of them are racing too, in a more kind of relaxed way and the main difference is that while on the racing division the use of the engine for propulsion is not allowed, on the cruising division the engine hours are later transformed in a time penalty.

This is a kind of amateurish and friendly race and even the racing division is not a high profile race.

CNB Bordeaux 60

Every year I look at the boats that are making a faster Transat as a way to gather information, on the principle that a fast boat can be sailed slow but a slow boat cannot be sailed fast and therefore I am only interested on the fastest boats of each type.

I will not look at the smallest of the ARCs, the ARC + St Vincent that has not enough sailboats to provide interesting information.

Catana 50

Starting with the ARC+, where many have already reached their destination in Santa Lucia, the fastest was a relatively new and very interesting trimaran, the Neel 47, fastest than a Catana 65. Impressive!

The Neel proves one more time that their boats are very fast on a Transat. Some years ago they have showed that with a special 45, lighter than the standard model, that managed to be faster than the several bigger Outremer doing the ARC in that year.

Nigel Irens 78

We know that Catana are very fast catamarans and does not surprise that a 65 and a 50 have arrived in 4th and 5th but it comes as a surprise that a Stadtship 54 AC, a fast aluminium voyage boat, arrived  ahead of them as well as a very fast CNB Bordeaux 60 (2nd and 3rd)  and the same can be said of a little Pogo 36 that arrived not far from the two Catanas and just behind a well sailed and fast Jeanneau 51.

The 8th boat to arrive was another Neel trimaran, a  51, but already about 7 hours from the Pogo. All these boats have something in common: they are all contemporary designs.

                                                 JP54

Looking at the bigger ARC,where the first boats are almost finishing, and particularly to the bigger and faster boats, the 78ft Nigel Irens catamaran will arrive first after making a fast Transat but I would say that I am more impressed by the much smaller TS5 catamaran (51ft) that is very close and the JP54 that are not far and battling with a VOR65! and a 85ft Frers designed fast yacht.

Of course all these boats are extremely well sailed and do a lot high profile of racing but even so their performance is quite impressive as it is the  one of a smaller TS 42, the small sister of the TS5, that is fighting with a Mylius 60 (a very impressive performance for a luxury yacht) and both trying to keep behind a Swan 80!, a Swan 82s!, a Volvo 60 and a 60ft fast catamaran, an Outremer 5x.

Mylius 60

A bit behind a Shipman 63 and a Amel 64 are doing very well  both ahead of all Oysters including three 825 and one 725. Of course we will have to look at the end at how much fuel they wasted and see if that is a significant factor or not.

Also doing well a X55, a "cheap" More 55 and a Jeanneau 57 but most of all an Azuree 40 and a Pogo 12.50, a First 45  and the 48ft Scarlet Oyster and its very good racing crew (they make all great classics on the two sides of the Atlantic). 

TS42

Just to understand how fast these boats are sailing it is enough to say that they are sailing side by side with the second TS5 catamaran and a Swiss cat 55, also a performance catamaran.

Not far behind comes a First 40.7, a Grand Soleil 43. A bit behind a Hanse 420, another First 40.7 as well as a Hallberg Rassy 412, all going fast, as fast or faster than the second Outremer 51 and two big catamarans, a Sunreef 60 and a Graiger 60.

Azuree 40

Among the condocats that are going fast deserve mention, besides the ones mentioned above, a Lagoon 52S and a Bali 5.4 that go at about the same pace of the First 40.7 that I have mentioned above.

When they arrive and the fuel consumption is known I will post on the comments about any rectification those numbers will provide and you guys fell free to post any comment regarding any boat that you think that has done a fast Transat.

Pogo 12.50