It has been an incredible race for the DMG MORI Sailing Academy. Young skippers, Alexandre Demange and Hajime Kokumai, set sail their first solo transatlantic race. The Boulangere Mini Transat on 21 September. While one of them, Hajime Kokumai, was forced to abandon the race, Alexandre Demange crossed the finish line in 3rd place of the protoypes fleet, in Saint-François, Guadeloupe, last Saturday.

Both are among the top ten in the first week of the race when Hajime triggers his distress beacon after discovering a leak. Rescued by a cargo ship in the Bay of Biscay, he is forced to abandon the race. Alexandre remained on the podium throughout the Mini Transat, demonstrating his talent and tenacity.

This leg promised a close battle to reach Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, the end of the first leg. But weather conditions forced the race organisers to cancel this leg. It turned into a convoy as Alexandre battled it out south of Portugal with his competitor Benoit Marie on the foiler Nicomatic. They were almost inseparable.

Leaving Las Palmas on 25 October in very light winds, the fleet is quickly led by Alexandre thanks to a very precise positioning strategy, which enabled him to achieve excellent speeds in very light winds. When passing the Las Palmas mark, he is even 12 hours ahead of Nicomatic.

Alexandre leads the fleet for several days after taking a south route. Only Nicomatic manages to regain the lead over 12 knots. Alexandre plays his strategy to the end and marks this second leg by remaining on the podium.

At the halfway point, he tries to break away from his most threatening opponent and plays his joker by shifting far south to seek a more stable trade wind. But, in the south of Cape Verde Islands, he is trapped by a colossal swarm of Sargassum seaweed. He is only able to get rid of it after four days.The option was bold but this incident prevented him from fully benefiting from this option.

Then it is hard to maintain his speed, it is not enough to catch up with the two northerners, Benoit Marie and Mathis Bourgnon. 72 hours before the finish, Alexandre is managing to regroup and close in on the two leaders. While Benoit encounters significant setbacks, Mathis continues on his path to the finish line. Alexandre finish the race, 9 hours, 56 minutes and 2 seconds after the winner.

Alexandre DEMANGE's words on arrival:

A nightmare:‘It was very hard, not at all what I expected. In the south of the Cape Verde Islands, I got stuck in a bank of Sargassum seaweed. It took four days of frantic work to extricate myself. I stopped thinking about the rankings. It was a nightmare. Yet my southern route was an interesting one.’

What he learned from this race: "I learned a lot about myself and my ability to push my physical limits, especially during those four days when I hardly slept and manoeuvred non-stop. And, three days before the finish, I hardly slept either, there were squalls, storms, I had never experienced such a situation before. I now know that I am capable of doing it."

Regrets: ‘I now know that I had the speed to win this transatlantic race. I fought as hard as I could after the halfway point, a bit on my own. I have no regrets. I gave it 100%.’

Pride: I'm really proud. I'm first among the nine sister ships, boats identical to mine, and I'm one of the only ones who had never raced this transatlantic race among these sister ships. I'm very, very happy.’

The winner, Mathis Bourgnon: ‘We didn't take the same strategic options, he's a good friend, I'm so happy for him.’

Jacques CARAES’s words, team manager: ‘We followed him and we are all very proud of him! Especially the members of the DMG MORI Sailing team who built Alex's Mini.’

3rd Proto (1048) DMG Mori

Arrival: 08 november 2025 18:20:47 UTC
race time: 14j 03h 20min 47s
From the winner: 09h 56min 02s
Number of milles and average speed: 3364.50 nm / 9.9 nds

Type of boat: proto

Design: RAISON
Construction: DMG MORI Sailing Team
Year of first launch: 2022
Flag: France

About the DMG MORI Sailing Team
Established in 2018, the DMG MORI Sailing Team is a professional offshore racing team based in Lorient, France. The Japanese Skipper Kojiro Shiraishi and the crew successfully mastered the Vendée Globe 2020, which is considered to be the toughest race in the world. With the DMG MORI Sailing Academy, founded in 2022, young talents are empowered to work in offshore sailing and to grow their skills by being part of the DMG MORI Sailing Team.

About DMG MORI
DMG MORI is a leading global manufacturer of high-precision machine tools and is represented in 44 countries - with 124 sales and service locations, including 17 production plants. In the "Global One Company", more than 13,500 employees drive the development of holistic solutions in the manufacturing environment.