Italy’s Ambrogio Beccaria on his all-Italian designed and built Musa 40 Alla Grande Pirelli added the hugely prestigious Transat CIC Class 40 title to his steadily growing collection of solo and short handed ocean racing honours this morning when he crossed the line of the historic race at 03:47:55 hrs (CET/Italy. 23:47:55hrs local NYC) in first place, ending an incredible head to head, a battle of nerves and skill, with France’s Ian Lipinski (Crédit Mutuel) a greatly respected friend, rival and former co-skipper. His elapsed time is 11d 16h 17m 55s.

For the 32-year-old Milanese solo racer, victory on this iconic 3,900 nautical miles race across the North Atlantic from Lorient to New York is his third major Transatlantic success, adding to his formative 2019 MiniTransat win and last year’s Transat Jacques Vabre two-handed victory with French co-skipper Nicolas Andrieu. Speaking after the line he said, “It is not often you win two Transatlantic races in a row in six months and this is the first solo race that I have won on the boat, that is very, very important to me. And this is one of the best races I have ever done. A lot of the time it is about pain and suffering, this time I was very, very aware all the time of what I was doing and everything worked very, very well.”

All Italian

In his debut year with the slippery, powerful Gianluca Guelfi and Fabio D’Angeli design he finished second on the 2022 Route du Rhum and was only denied the win by Yoann Richomme, winner on Tuesday of the IMOCA class on this famous race which was first contested in 1960 as the Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. Beccaria’s Italian triumph follows the pioneering Class 40 success of Giovanni Soldini, who had an outstanding win in 2008.

But while Beccaria’s previous wins have been more the result of superior boat performance backed up by excellent strategy – witness the final third of last Autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre when Beccaria chose the south side of the course on the approach to Martinique to win – the Italian found his match on this ‘north face’ course in Lipinski with whom he won the 2022 Normandy Channel Race on the Frenchman’s boat as well as taking third overall on the Les Sables Horta race.

Early on after struggling with initial technical problems Beccaria was down in fourth and stayed there until emerging out of the first big low pressure. As the winds eased Beccaria took a more definitive lead. He worked that out to 74 miles over Lipinski before the leaders ran into light winds. But in the strong Gulf Stream currents and gentler winds the Italian – not knowing well the unpredictable strong currents – lost all of that again to Lipinksi.

But as they emerged out of the next front Beccaria’s strategy was better, getting south earlier, and he made the key gain which he grew to be just under 40 miles ahead of Lipinksi at the finish line some 110 miles off New York this morning.

While the IMOCA race leader Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) was still making more than 20 kts this evening, a nerve-racking slow down is still expected for the final miles to the finish of the Transat CIC solo race from Lorient to New York.

The winner of last Autumn’s solo race in the opposite direction, from Martinique to Lorient, Richomme may be on course to do the double on his first time ever sailing into New York, but in the light conditions forecast when a high-pressure ridge imposes itself across the route into the finish line, anything could happen.

The 40-year-old French ace has many times proven a level about his rivals – most recently on that Retour à la Base when he leveraged a small tactical hitch into a significant lead. But this time, at 330 miles to the finish, he can feel the hot breath of Germany’s Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer), who is just 16 miles behind (or just over an hour at current speeds), and Britain’s Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) who is a further 40 miles behind her German rival.

With it being likely that if the shutdown does occur overnight it will happen from the front, and the weather modelling is far from clear on this and the foiling IMOCAs will keep moving well in just 10 or 11 knots of breeze, then the international skippers Herrmann and Davies still have a fighting chance of victory, and one might add their names the last non-French winners on this race which was started in England in 1960, Ellen MacArthur who won at the age of 23 into Newport in 2000 and Mike Golding who won into Boston in 2004.

When it was last sailed in 2016, Armel Le Cléac'h won in 12 days and 2 hours. This evening, the timer is at 7 days and 3 hours, with the winner expected within 24 hours at the line, which is 110 miles offshore of New York.

“There is an anticyclone gradually filling in and is set to and taking up position between the finish line and the head of the fleet, with winds easing gradually," said Francis Le Goff, Race Director. This will prevent the skippers from sailing directly towards New York and will see them needing to gybe to find the best, making angles to the wind, which is weakening until the finish line."