The Transat New York Vendée- Les Sables d'Olonne is a solo transatlantic race aboard IMOCA 60 monohulls. It is part of the IMOCA Globe Series circuit. The 3,100 nautical miles route starts in New York City and finishes in Les Sables-d'Olonne, Vendée Region, France.[1]
This transatlantic, organised by SAEM Vendée, the organising company of the Vendée Globe. It is the last qualifying race for the solo tour around the world, without stopover and without assistance.
Its first edition in 2016 saw the victory of Frenchman Jérémie Beyou aboard Maître Coq.[2] A second edition will take place in May 2024.[3]
History
The race was created in 2015. One of the objectives is the internationalization of this type of race and to offer a final major test before the start of the Vendée Globe.[4]
There was a race scheduled for 2020[5] that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2016 race onboard reproters where allowed, as long as they do not participate in the race. Due to some disagreementsm, eventually, only Fabrice Amédéo (Newrest-Matmut), Tanguy de Lamotte (Initiatives-Coeur) and Conrad Colman (100% Natural Energy) left with a journalist on board.[6]
2016 Edition
The first edition of the transat brings together fourteen skippers, of which it is the last major confrontation before the start of the 2016-2017 Vendée Globe.[1] A fifteenth competitor, Finn Ari Huusela, could not make the start following the damage of Finnair on 13 May 2016 by Richard Tolkien, who was on board for The Transat.
The IMOCAs departed New York City on Sunday, May 29, 2016. The start of the U.S. coast race saw a number of competitors hit unknown floating objects. Five of them rerouted to Newport to repair: Yann Eliès (Quéguiner - Leukemia espoir), Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque populaire VIII), Morgan Lagravière (Safran), Jean-Pierre Dick (StMichel-Virbac) and Pieter Heerema (No Way Back). Tanguy de Lamotte on Initiatives-Coeur chose to continue despite the damage to the Sables-d'Olonne. There is a lot of debris on this busy coast.[7]
Jérémie Beyou (Maître Coq) won his first major victory in the IMOCA, ahead of Sébastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild) and Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss). The three boats were all equipped with foils.
