Groupe Apicil finishes fourteenth in the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre IMOCA

Damien Seguin and Yoann Richomme, on their 60ft monohull, Groupe Apicil, have finished 1 th in the IMOCA class of the 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre after crossing the finish line in the Bay of All Saints in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on Monday, November 11, 2019 at 20:32:21 (UTC), 15 days, 8 hours 17 minutes and 21 seconds after leaving Le Havre, Normandy, France on Sunday, October 27 at 12:15 (UTC). 

Groupe Apicil covered the theoretical course of 4,350 nautical miles at an average speed of 11.81 knots but actually sailed 4,835.72 nautical miles at an average speed of 13.13 knots. It finished 1 day 20 hours 17 minutes and 21 seconds behind the winner, Apivia.

This was the third time Damien Seguin and Yoann Richomme had competed together in the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandy Le Havre and the first in an IMOCA (having done the 2007 and 2013 races in the Class40). Both their solo careers have continued to take flight since then. Born without a left hand, Seguin runs two campaigns simultaneously: one in Paralympic sailing, the other in ocean racing. A triple Paralympic medalist in 2.4 mR (gold in Athens 2004 and Rio 2016 and a silver medal in Beijing 2008) and a quadruple world champion he took sixth place in IMOCA in the 2018 Route du Rhum. In the same race, his friend Richomme won the Class40. Richomme won the much coveted Solitaire du Figaro in 2016 and joined an elite club by winning it again in 2018.

So, there was talent, desire, a lot of know-how and great friendship on board Groupe Apicil, and they needed all of it because on paper this 2006 Finot-Conq design with daggerboards could not compete with the newer boats. From Le Havre to the Doldrums, Seguin and Richomme were faultless. They showed excellent speed upwind, a controlled strategy, a smart passage through the ridge of high pressure around Gibraltar and they were incredibly always  in the lead pack, never lower than 10th place. With Banque Populaire and Corum L'Epargne, the race between the “daggerboard boats” was exciting and high level.

It was only when approaching the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, when Groupe Apicil shifted to the west, as theory and routing necessitated, that the trouble started. This year, the Doldrums needed to be passed to the east or it was going to be especially sticky. Entering in eighth neck-and-neck with Corum L'Epargne, Groupe Apicil came out 13th with a deficit of 70 miles. “There were clearly two races for us: before the doldrums, it was very interesting, but our passage through them was catastrophic, we lost as much as Charal!” Seguin said.
The end of the course – with its south-easterly trade wind reaching angles - was never likely to be favorable to the daggerboard boats and Groupe Apicil finally finished 14th in Salvador de Bahia. Third in the match between the 13 daggerboard IMOCAs, Seguin and Richomme also left three foilers behind them.