Eighteen duos are competing in the IMOCA class on the TRANSAT CAFÉ L’OR, a healthy number for a post Vendée Globe year. The level is very high and includes two brand new boats - Association Petits Princes-Queguiner and Les P’tits Doudous - alongside 16 boats which raced on the last Vendée Globe. And of these 18 duos at least half can realistically hope to finish in the top five.

The weather forecast looks complicated with a tough, but largely manageable start out of the Channel, a high pressure ridge on the Bay of Biscay. There will be several tactical transitions to be dealt with, compressions and getaways. It is not going to be a boatspeed race in motorway conditions and the trade winds will be hard won. And the fleet includes the highest percentage of women in the TRANSAT CAFÉ L’OR Le Havre Normandie!

"A diverse field where results will be hard won." Swiss ace Justine Mettraux, eighth in the Vendée Globe, succinctly describes the IMOCA which is ready to race on the a 4,350-mile race across the Atlantic, heading for Fort-de-France via the Canary Islands, to be left to starboard.

Mettraux is sailing with Xavier Macaire on TeamWork - Team Snef, a 2018 design that's still very competitive, and is well aware of the demands of IMOCA racing. In this professional and high-tech class where the age of the boat and the teams' resources play a major role, the foiling revolution and its constant progress allow her to maintain her outsider status for those who stay up to date.

Like the Mettraux-Macaire tandem, there are many who can hope to challenge the best. These include Initiatives Coeur of Briton Sam Davies and Violette Dorange, 4CAD-La Mie Câline of Benjamin Dutreux and Arnaud Boissières, 11th Hour Racing, the former Malizia of Italian-American Francesca Clapchich and Brit Will Harris, and Bureau Vallée of Louis Burton and Christophe Commagnac.

But probably there are five boats which stand out, regularly tipped as favourites. They starting with Macif Santé Prévoyance, which has won every race it has entered since the Vendée Globe. Briton Sam Goodchild has taken over as skipper of Macif as Vendée Globe winner Charlie Dalin takes time out with his medical problems. And so without doubt this represents the best chance of a British skipper winning the class on this renowned race.

Goodchild was third in 2023. He sails with young Loïs Berrehar, forming a hit duo tandem will have to withstand the challenges from Charal (Jérémie Beyou-Morgan Lagravière), Paprec Arkéa (Yoann Richomme - Corentin Horeau), Allagrande Mapei (Ambrogio Beccaria-Thomas Ruyant), and Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner, Macif's sister ship launched this year. Bonafous sails with double winner Yann Eliès and at just 30 years old, makes no secret of her ambitions: "Getting on the podium would be a great victory!"

Two-thirds of the entries are foilers but the race for IMOCAs with daggerboards will also be fascinating. Maxime Sorel, who is sailing with Romain Attanasio on the Fortinet-Best Western foiler, believes: "If there are a lot of transitions and after the Canaries, the trade winds are full downwind, we'll have to be careful!" says the sailor-mountaineer.

The best of them is probably Café Joyeux (launched as 2012 Vendée Globe winner Macif then SMA) of Nicolas d'Estais and Simon Koster, as well as Louis Duc's Fives Group-Lantana Environnement, which includes the up and coming Vendée Globe aspirant Japanese Masa Suzuki, and the spirited Conrad Colman at MSIG Europe, partnered with ultra-trailer Mathieu Blanchard. And Hungary’s Szabolcs Weores bounces back from his Vendée Globe disappointment racing with Swiss rookie Berenice Charrez

Playing to one’s strengths

"We're sailing prototypes that all have their own strengths and idiosyncrasies, and each will have its fifteen minutes of glory depending on the weather and the speed," says Yoann Richomme, looking ahead to Sunday. The IMOCA is also the class with the most varied designs and style in the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR. The Verdier designs (Macif Santé Prévoyance, Association Petits Princes-Queguiner) are reputed to be unbeatable upwind in light and medium conditions, while the Koch Finot-Conq designs (Paprec Arkéa, Allagrande Mapei) are good in breezes and rough seas downwind. The Manuard designs (Charal, Initiatives Coeur, Bureau Vallée) are very versatile, not to mention the designs by the VPLP studio (TeamWork Team Snef, 11th Hour Racing), the latest of which, Les P’tits doudous, was just launched last summer. Unmissable in the Paul Vatine basin with its design by street artist Cyril Kongo, it is skippered by Armel Tripon and Tanguy Leglatin. It has the hull form of Malizia, with a lower freeboard and is significantly lighter, built from downgraded carbon from Airbus. This frugal yet sportingly ambitious project has been spearheaded by Armel Tripon since 2021, and his first big win is being here moored in the Paul Vatine basin!

Handover

After a difficult 2025 (structural problems in the Course des Caps, collision during The Ocean Race), Thomas Ruyant, the two-time defending champion, is setting out to win for a third consecutive time. Whilst Morgan Lagravière – who Ruyant won twice with – is with Beyou now, Ruyant races with the new owner of the IMOCA in something of a dream team. Ambrogio Beccaria is the charismatic Italian, who won in Class40 in 2023. He will take over their Koch Finot-Conq design next year. This partnership is a type of handover race as is also the case for three other IMOCAs, Paprec Arkéa going to Corentin Horeau, Fives Group Lantana Environnement going to Suzuki and Dutreux’s 4CAD - La Mie Câline going to Arnaud Boissières.

Don't expect the soon to be ex-owners to spare the horses.