Gérard Quenot and Bertrand Daniels from La Rochelle crossed the finish line in the Cap-Martinique this morning at 04:16 hours local time after 20 days 19 hours and 16 minutes of racing. They arrived in Fort-de-France more than 5 hours after Amaury Dumortier and Geoffrey Thiriez but win the duo ranking in corrected time. The two men, familiar with transatlantic passages, managed to stave off their main competitors, Noël Racine and Ludovic Sénéchal from Le Havre. “Noël and Ludovic have the same boat as us so it is a real speed
reference. They didn’t have quite the same set-up as us but they are formidable. They are very fine racers, so we’re very happy to have beaten them (…) This transatlantic has a special flavour to it, one coloured by victory,” they beamed.

As day breaks in Fort-de-France, the two sailors proudly fly the flag of the OSE association, which fights neurofibromatosis. “We told them we were in it to win it so it’s mission accomplished,” they concluded, before heading off to welcome in their rivals.

Verbatim

Gérard: 
This transatlantic is a special one for us, one with the flavour of victory! I’m fortunate in that I’ve already won a transatlantic race: the Transquadra in 2012. After that, we competed against one another in 2018. We finished 3rd in 2018 and 3rd again in the last edition. Now we can boast a victory in the Cap-Martinique, which rounds off a great series of transatlantic races. Bertrand is all about performance, which means he’s someone who is never happy because he always wants to be going faster, so he’s constantly trimming. It’s fabulous to sail with him because we get on well. We share the same vision: we wanted to perform well and we were hungry for victory. We’re lucky to have made that happen.

Bertrand:
Gérard is a fount of knowledge. He prepared this boat very well and she’s perfectly suited to this race. He understands the electronics and mechanics, and he has Adrena, the GRIB files and the routing at his
fingertips… It’s a real pleasure to be able to rely on and count on the other person, each of us in our field. We’re highly complementary.

Gérard: 
It’s a victory for the team from La Rochelle bigtime! We toast the good health of our friends from La Rochelle and Cédric our coach. We’ll go and wait for our playmates now. At least one of them will be on the podium. It’s a fine victory for the team from La Rochelle to secure a podium in both the double-handed and single-handed category.