When Joe crosses the start line next Monday he will be among some very elite company. The competitors in The Transat are the top solo sailors in the world and the line-up this year is one of the best ever. Race veteran's like Canadian Mike Birch, who made his first appearance in 1976 aboard a tiny 31-foot trimaran named The Third Turtle, will be back with one of the rare unsponsored entries, a 50-foot trimaran named Nootka. Birch has seen the event go through extraordinary change from its inception in 1960 when Francis Chichester and seven other sailors took their places on the start line in Plymouth, to today when 17 multihulls and 22 monohulls will set out from England bound for Boston.
In the 1976 race Birch finished second, crossing the line a day after the legendary Eric Tabarly sailed to victory in a 72-foot yacht. Ironically he beat the largest boat in the fleet boat-for-boat. In those days there was no upper size limit and an ambitious Frenchman by the name of Alain Colas showed up on a 236-foot monohull named Club M閐iterran閑. Colas was later lost at sea, but his appearance in 1976 remains part of the rich history of the event.
Immediately following the 1976 race the upper size limit was set at 60 feet and the fleet is now split into four classes: Open 50 and 60 multihulls, and Open 50 and 60 monohulls. This year there is intense interest in the Open 60 monohull fleet. The Transat is used as a qualifying event for the tough Vendee Globe, a non-stop solo circumnavigation race that gets underway from France this November. The Transat is the last opportunity these skippers will have to qualify for the Vendee and the competition will be head-to-head and intense as the skippers prove to themselves and their competitors that they have what it takes to win not only The Transat, but the Vendee as well.
That's not to say that the competition in the Open 50 class will be any less intense. It only takes two boats to have a race and Joe will have his time cut out trying to beat any of the other boats in his class. Fellow American Kip Stone will be sailing his brand new Open 50 Artforms, and while the rest of the skippers may not be sailing new boats, they are being helmed by French sailors and everyone in the sailing business knows that the French have an uncanny ability to push their boats harder than anyone else. We will have to wait and see if Joe has what it takes to stay with the competition. In any event he will be following in the wake of some true sailing legends and once he crosses the finish line in Boston he will join a small but elite group of sailors who have "crossed the pond" alone. Stay tuned; the race starts in 6 days.
- Brian Hancock (great.circle@verizon.net)
