11th Hour Racing finishes fifth in the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre IMOCA

America's Charlie Enright and French co-skipper Pascal Bidégorry, on their 60ft monohull,11th Hour Racing, have finished fifth 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 Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 18:25:23 (UTC), 14 days, 06 hours 10 minutes and 23 seconds after leaving Le Havre, Normandy, France on Sunday, October 27 at 12:15 (UTC). 

11th Hour Racing covered the theoretical course of 4,350 nautical miles at an average speed of 12.75 knots but actually sailed 5,183.89 nautical miles at an average speed of 15.15 knots. It finished 18 hours 2 minutes and 23 seconds behind the winner, Apivia. They finished just 14 minutes and 42 seconds behind fourth-placed Advens for Cybersecurity. 

Enright is the first rookie to finish in the IMOCA in this edition. 

A dark horse for many in Le Havre, the favourites had reasons to worried about 11th Hour Racing. The black and orange foiler is the former Hugo Boss, arguably the most advanced of the last generation foilers from 2015 and formidable downwind in the breeze. America’s Charlie Enright does not have the experience of sailing an IMOCA double-handed but has two Volvo Ocean Race under his belt. He left with a very different mission to his rivals; he is trying to work out how the IMOCA should be built for the Ocean Race so it can be pushed by a crew. It perhaps made for less pressure and he could count on one of the most talented skippers of his generation, Pascal Bidégorry who had won the the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre twice before in a multihull (ORMA and Ultime). 

On board, the official language is English and though Bidégorry has admitted to some semantic flutters in the hottest moments, the Franco-American entente is clearly working well. That success has been reflected on the water. 

Forced to put their race on hold for 1 hour 30 to pay a penalty following the breakage of one of their engine seals, they missed out on fourth place (and maybe more). They went south from the start and immediately established themselves in the lead group. They were elbow-to elbow with Apivia as they approached the Doldrums, and looked like they would take second in the north-east trades, but Apivia were faultless in their line. Choosing to take the penalty turn in the Doldrums perhaps cost 11th Hour Racing dearly, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Following Apivia’s track to the east of Charal, they did not fall into a Doldrums hole, but neither did they sweep through like Apivia. They overtook  Banque Populaire by the time they reached the north-east coast of Brazil, but they could not hold off the comeback of the two newer foilers, Charal and then Advens for Cybersecurity.