Britain’s Pip Hare finishes 11th

Britain’s Pip Hare (Medallia) completed a strong finish to the 3,500 nautical miles Retour à La Base, the new solo Transatlantic race from Martinique to Lorient, this Monday afternoon securing 11th place.

At Cape Finisterre yesterday Hare said her aim was to stay ahead of French rival Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence) and remain in close contact with Romain Attanasio (Fortinet-Best Western). In the end she finished just 21 minutes behind Attanasio.

When she set off from Martinique on her first solo race on the updated Medallia which was fitted with new, bigger foils last winter, her main goal to was to learn and stay in the anticipated match with Isabelle Jocschke (MACSF), Attanasio and Crémer.

She crossed the finish line at 13:41:14hrs UTC for an elapsed time of 10d 21h 41m 14s, 1d 21h 37m 26s after winner Yoann Richomme and just 21m 10s after Attanasio who was tenth.

Eleventh is Hare’s best finish in the IMOCA class yet. She finished 13th in last summer’s Vendée Arctic, 12th in the Route du Rhum, 12th in the recent Transat Jacques Vabre.

She has enjoyed a close race with Attanasio almost all the way across the Atlantic, attacking on a northerly option but has moderated her approach when she needed to. She has dealt with two niggling technical problems, small leaks in Medallia’s hydraulic system and her foil down line broke twice, most recently last night when she chose to save time by not stopping replace it but instead to try to keep up her speed with no foil on that gybe.