The Transat

The Transat (also known as The Transat CIC or The English Transat)is a transatlantic yacht race first held in 2004 as a spin-off for professional sailors from the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race which is limited to amateurs since.

History
After the 2000 event, The Royal Western Yacht Club, organizer of the Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, decided to split the race into two separate events. As a result, in 2004 professional edition of the race featured a new title The Transat.

The professional event has been run as The Transat from 2004, while the race smaller boats is run as the OSTAR. Throughout its history, however, the essentials of the race have remained the same. It has also become known as a testbed for new innovations in yacht racing; many new ideas started out in "the STAR".

The Transat, 2004
The 2004 professional edition of the race featured a new title — The Transat — and a new finish, at Boston, Massachusetts. 37 boats entered, in four classes: ORMA 50 and 60 ft multihulls; and IMOCA 50 and 60 ft monohulls. Despite stormy conditions, all four classes of boats broke records; seven of the Open 60 monohulls broke the previous monohull record. Of the first four IMOCA Open 60's, Ecover, Pindar AlphaGraphics and Skandia (ex Kingfisher) were all designed by the British designers, Owen Clarke Design. This office also designed the first IMOCA 50, Artforms, which broke the 'Class 2' record. Several boats suffered damage, however.

The Artemis Transat, 2008
The 2008 Transat race was named after its sponsor, Artemis. On Thursday 15 May, Frenchman Michel Desdoyeaux (Foncia) had to retire from the race after a collision with a whale. Sebastien dosse (BT), who was leading, had to retire owing to damage to the mainsail carriage on Saturday 17 May, leaving Vincent Riou (PRB) take the lead on the Sunday morning. Loïck Peyron, on Gitana Eighty, caught up with Vincent Riou, who had to abandon the race due to serious keel damage after a collision with a basking shark on the night of Monday 12 / Tuesday 13 May. The race dury decided to grant two and a half hours of bonus time to Loïck Peyron after he rescued Vincent Riou. Starting on 11 May from Plymouth, Peyron spent 12 days, 11 hours, 15 mutes and 35 seconds (not including the time bonus) to cover the 2,992 miles of the race (averaging 8.7 knots), thus improving previous record of 12 days, 15 hours, 18 mutes and 8 seconds, which was held by Mike Golding (Ecover).

The Transat CIC 2020
The 2020 races were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Transat CIC 2024
The start of the 15th edition of the race is announced for the 28th of April 2024.

IMOCA 60, Class40 as well as a vintage sailboat category was announced to participate.