Galway sailmaker Yannick Lemnnier finished the Eurochef MinisTransat yesterday (Monday) in Saint-Francois, Guadeloupe at 20:37:47 UTC in 16th place in the Proto Division in his 2004-vintage Manuard design Port of Galway tracker here 

To achieve this, he overcame a dismasting in preliminary sailing off the coast of Brittany, and then survived being caught on the wrong wide of an exceptionally severe storm while rounding Finisterre in northwest Spain during Stage 1, to La Palme in the Canaries, where the fleet had to contend with the eruptions of the nearby volcano.

Despite being battered by storms and whales off northwest Spain, 87 boats of the originally 90-strong fleet which started from France in the Eurochef Minitransat 2021 completed the first stage to La Palma in the Canary Islands. There, life was going on as best it could despite the local volcano erupting, completely covering all in-harbour finishers with black ash. Franco-Irish sailmaker Yannick Lemonnier, racing Port of Galway, took 16th place in the Proto Class, and will be hoping to improve on that when the fleet resumes racing tomorrow (Friday) for the big one, the Transatlantic hop to the Caribbean.

However, hopes of record times are fading as the northeast trade winds have been slow to fill in with any significant strength. Thus the fleet may have to shape their course well to the south in anticipation of finding stronger breezes. Best times of 14 to 16 days are anticipated for the leaders

In a final twist to the Mini-Transat 2017 saga this afternoon at Le Marin in Martinique, Ireland’s Tom Dolan came within 21 minutes of grabbing a podium place writes W M Nixon.

After Erwan Le Draoulec’s clear win this morning, a complete setback approaching the finish stymied second-placed Clarisse Cremer, and the three pursuing boats – Benoit Sineau, Tanguy Bouroullec, and Tom Dolan – swept by to finish with 48 minutes between them, Dolan filling fourth place overall. Meanwhile Cremer is still shown in the tracker as being 1.5 NM from the finish, and registering 0 knots, so we await further detail on what has happened.

But the fact that Dolan is now safely in turns attention to the combined overall total times for Legs 1 and 2, which is how the final placings are determined.

At 12th in Leg 1, Dolan was within striking distance of all ahead of him except Leg 1 winner Valentin Gautier, who was seven hours clear. But Gautier is still 41.7 miles from the finish of Leg 2, and making just 6.8 knots, with a chance of further speed loss as he comes in under the land. Much will hinge on how things pan out over the next six hours.

Ireland’s Tom Dolan held on to third place over the weekend as the Mini-Transat Production Class leaders closed into the final third of the Transoceanic leg, with the northeast tradewinds providing difficult sailing in increasingly volatile conditions writes W M Nixon.

But with different areas of the ocean temporarily experiencing better winds, his ranking this morning by been displaced by Tanguy Bouroullec well to the south, and currently logging 11.0 knots to put him up to third, while Benoit Sineau is lying fourth in a position slightly to the north of Dolan, and sailing at 9.0 knots.

Dolan himself is currently on just 8.5, but all are within striking distance of each other in terms of placings, and all have closed slightly on second-placed Clarisse Cremer. But the “Enfant Terrible” of the Mini-Transat Production fleet, 20-year Erwan Le Draoulec, sails serenely at 10 knots on well clear of everyone, and all of 90 miles ahead of Cremer – and he has just 511 miles to go.

Further ahead, Proto-type leader Ian Lipinski in the “super-scow” Griffon.fr is now in a race of his own. With only 268 miles to sail, he has the finish at St Marin in Martinique in striking distance, sailing at 11.7 knots with 90 miles in hand on second-placed Jorg Riechers in Lillienthal.

Race Tracker here