After a painfully slow final few miles passing through the lee of the island in the gentle winds of the night, young German duo Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink (Sign For Com) crossed the finish line of the second stage of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre off Fort-de-France at 02: 27:26hrs local time in Martinque, (06:267:26hrs UTC) to take 12th place on the second stage from Lorient to Martinique.
After finishing in 23rd on the first leg from Le Havre to Lorient where the fleet had to stop for a week to avoid a huge storm on Biscay, Burke, 24 and Fink, 21, made a great recovery on this second stage. They were down in 24th at seven days ago but found a great lane of strong breeze to the north of their rivals and clawed back 13 places and more than 300 miles on the fleet leaders.
They were up to 11th place at Diamond Rock which is just over 15 miles from the finish line but the overnight breeze shut down in the windshadow of the high land.
After having been almost ten miles clear of EdenRed – the French boat which is co-skippered by the youngest sailor in the race Basile Bourgnon, a few weeks younger than Fink – they were momentarily heading back towards their rivals, but the wind filled and they crossed 13th. Most recent time calculations aggregating the two legs puts them in a provisional 14th overall, 22hours 43mins behind the Class 40 winners.
“It was an amazing experience even if it was a bit frustrating at the end. We loved it out there and would go back and do it again right now. These are such cool boats.” Said Burke on the pontoon in Fort-de-France, “For me the experience of racing across the Atlantic is a big things, but we made some good decisions and I think sailed quite well.”
“It was a bit tough coming in like that, we would have liked to hold on to our gains but we are happy with our race.” Said Fink, “Basile and I are rivals from Mini class days so it was weird to be racing alongside him at the finish. I will get him next time.”