The 11th Transat Jacques Vabre, four battles
The eleventh Transat Jaques Vabre musters four class with a total of 44 boats across Class 40, Multi 50, IMOCA Open 60’s and the MOD70 with a whole galaxy of top sailing talent mixed almost evenly through the race fleet. As the fleet sit at the docks around Le Havre’s Paul Vatine basin one week before the start, the public favourites may be evident and many of the duo’s will have a good idea in their own minds where they might rank among their peers, but it is never east to pick the possible podium places.
Class 40: quantity and quality
Class 40 contains 26 duos making ready to take the start next Sunday and predicting who will be the first three teams to finish into Itajai is a difficult task. Winner of five of the six Class 40 events leading in to the Transat Jacques Vabre is Sébastien Rogues sailing this race with Fabien Delahaye on GDF SUEZ, a very competitive Manuard design of the latest generation.
But Rogues is taking nothing for granted and thinks the competition will be close:”I reckon that 15 boats have the the potential to be on the podium. Duos like Jörg Riechers/Pierre Brasseur (Mare), Halvard Mabire/Miranda Merron (Campagne de France), Alex Pella/Pablo Santurde (Tales Santander 2014) or Ned Collier Wakefield/Sam Goodchild (Concise 8) need to be watched closely and will be tough to beat. And there are a whole raft of outsiders . Most of the fleet’s sailors are so well trained and have well prepared boats. The general level is up to a new high level again. Our great pre-race form puts gives us confidence. But this is different, it’s a transatlantic on a long course. And you need to preserve the hardware, to be a bit careful because some favorites will inevitably drop out of the race due to technical problems“.
Multi 50, six into three won’t go…
The fleet is made up of six Multi 50’s sailed by a bunch of very experienced sailors with competitive boats. Setting aside the possibility of technical failures there are four duos who might be expected to be in the final fight for victory Yves Le Blévec/Kito de Pavant (Actual), Lalou Roucayrol/Mayeul Riffet (Arkema – Aquitaine), Erwan Le Roux/Yann Elies (FenêtréA Cardinal) and Loïc Féquet/Loïc Escoffier (Maitre Jacques).
Loïc Fecquet suggests: ”I expect a big fight between the boats with very similar speed potential. For me Cardinal FenêtréA is probably the favourite: it is the most versatile and most successful to date. Actual are defending champions and will have the drive to hold on to their title. As for Arkema, the new boat was only launched last spring and makes their open ocean debut. By comparison Maitre Jacques was launched in 2005 and is the oldest of the group. But we are well optimised and can compete specially on a transatlantic. We are not always able to get 100 % of the potential. And for us, being two up makes a difference to us to keep a good speed over time. The fight will be intense in the Multi 50 class. We aim to be at least on the podium or the top four places.”
IMOCA Open 60, ten and five
Ten boats of all different generations form the IMOCA Open 60 class. Team Plastique is the oldest of this fleet, launched in 1998 somewhat older than the two newest, the 2011 launched Macif and Cheminées Poujoulat all of the generations of IMOCA in between are due to take part in this Transat Jacques Vabre most with goals which are appropriate to their boat’s vintage and their skills and experience. Most seasoned observers would consider that the win will be played for between four or maybe five boats, play four of five boats, Macif, Maitre Coq , Cheminées Poujoulat, PRB and Safran. Of this five, four are from the VPLP-Verdier partnership and Bernard Stamm’s Cheminées Poujoulat is by Juan Kouyoumdjian.
Michel Desjoyeaux who will sail on Macif with François Gabart, on what will be his seventh two handed transatlantic, has a clear view of the IMOCA battle “There are great sailors, even if the class is not that big, there is a lot of quality. Of the ten entrants four in particular are of interest to us because they have the outright speed potential that others won’t stay with. The four which I consider are Safran, Maitre Coq, Cheminées Poujoulat and PRB, which with Macif are the five boats that have trained at Port-La-Forêt and all sailed in the Fastnet. Our goal with François is to watch the arrival of the second team into Itajaí“.
MOD70 a match race in the open ocean
After the capsize of Virbac- Paprec 70 of Jean-Pierre Dick with Roland Jourdain during their training period there are two MOD70. And so for the big trimarans, the Transat Jacques Vabre has the appeal of a long match race across the Atlantic
“As America’s Cup showed we can do match racing in multihulls, we are going to do it out there!” Smiles Sidney Gavignet (Oman Air – Musandam). “We four are familiar with each other, Sébastien (Josse), Charles (Caudrelier), Damian (Foxall) and me. This will be a very good competition. In my opinion all the way to the finish it will about keeping permanent control of the opponent. Sebastien and Charles have a lot of experience, they know their boat, they work well together. Our strong point is that we push a little more I think. But the first part getting out channel should be highly charged… We’ll have to be determined but be a bit careful”.
Last minute
Due to strong wind tonight and tomorrow morning (SW’ly at over 60 knots), the village of the Transat Jacques Vabre will be closed to public tonight at 8:00 p.m until 2pm tomorrow.
Class 40′:
