july12 1 sCOWES, England – A flurry of finishes in the past 36 hours have seen the three class champions, as well as the overall winner, crowned in the Transatlantic Race 2019.

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In IRC 2, Peter Bacon’s XP-44 Lucy Georgina scored a come-from-behind victory over Giles Redpath’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra to win the class by 47 minutes on IRC corrected time. The two boats finished under the cover of darkness last night, separated by a little more than eight minutes on elapsed time in what is one of the closest ever finishes in the history of the Transatlantic Race.

At one point last weekend, Lucy Georgina was more than 100 nautical miles astern of Pata Negra, but the leader fell becalmed off the coast of Ireland while the hunter rode strong southwesterly winds up from behind.

By the time the two crews reached Land’s End on the southwest corner of England, Lucy Georgina was within two nautical miles, and a match race ensued over the next 180 miles to the finish. They swapped positions on numerous occasions, always taking an opportunity to cover when it was there, but Lucy Georgina proved nimbler in the light winds experienced up the English Channel.

july11 teasing1 sCOWES, England — Laurent Pagès stood dockside in Cowes and let out a sigh. Ça va bien, merci, he answered, affirming that all was well after Teasing Machine finished the Transatlantic Race 2019. But it was his sigh that told the story of the crew's languid final days in the 2,970-nautical-mile race.

"The last five days were really tough. Being stuck in high pressure, which was moving with us, there was no way to deal with it," said Pagèsè, the project manager for Eric De Turckheim's Nivelt/Muratet 54-footer. "We had a great atmosphere on board. Teasing Machine is an awesome boat, and the spirit among the crew was very uplifting."

"We're physically fit, maybe mentally exhausted, but that's what it is after a long race. Everything is okay," said De Turckheim, the 68-year-old owner from Geneva, Switzerland. "It wasn't easy because the weather was not kind with us. All the way was really complex weather systems right from the start. I've done three trans-Atlantics and they were all totally unusual. I've never had a good race, downwind all the way."

Teasing Machine finished the Transatlantic Race today at 1335:34 UTC for an elapsed time of 15 days, 22 hours, 15 minutes and 34 seconds. Fourth in line honors, Teasing Machine is projected to place third in IRC 2. The Teasing Machine crew included Quentin Bouchacourt (Lorient, France), Tony Brochet (La Rochelle, France), Bertrand Castelnerac (Lorient, France), De Turckheim (Geneva, Switzerland), Laurent Mahy (Morbihan, France), Jean Baptiste Morin (La Rochelle, France), Jean Luc Nelias (Quimper, France), Gabriele Olivo (Belluno, Italy), Pagès (Sainte Marie de Re, France), Emmanuel Supiot (Saint Rogatien, France) and Jerome Teillet (Le Pradet, France).

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