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Destination Coffee

History

Having existed now for fourteen years, the Transat Jacques Vabre has established a rhythm and a format, convinced racers and excited the public, while confirming its legitimacy and strengthening its alliances. The basic idea in the beginning was a simple one: a major race based around a historic route. Like a good coffee, a race is a delicate mixture of flavours, tastes and aromas. A winning formula for this transatlantic race... espresso!

Records for the route: record times for the Transat Jacques Vabre

Orma trimarans: Groupama (Franck Cammas & Franck Proffit) in 11 days 23 hours 10 minutes 41 seconds or in other words 16.49 knots
Imoca monohulls: Virbac-Paprec (Jean-Pierre Dick & Loïck Peyron) in 13 days 09 hours 19 minutes 02 seconds or in other words 13.51 knots
50-foot multihulls: Crêpes Whaou ! (Franck-Yves & Kevin Escoffier) in 12 days 06 hours 13 minutes 59 seconds or in other words 14.75 knots
50-foot monohulls: Gryphon Solo (Joe Harris & Josh Hall) in 19 days 09 hours 05 minutes 45 seconds or in other words 9.33 knots

• Previous editions:
• 1993
• 1995
• 1997
• 1999
• 2001
• 2003
• 2005

2005 edition - An Atlantic dash

The winners of the four classes taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre all improved considerably on the record times for this course between Le Havre and Salvador de Bahia. There were two reasons for this giant leap forward: some exceptionally favourable weather conditions after Portugal and such fierce competition that those taking part felt obliged to push their machines hard to get the most out of them.

At the start in Le Havre, the thirty-six duos lining up (on Saturday 5th November for the monohulls, and Sunday 6th November for the multihulls) knew full well that the first difficulty would be the way out of the Channel and the way through a very active low-pressure area off the Bay of Biscay. Something, which is quite normal at this time of year, especially as once out of the way, the low gave way to a strong north-westerly flow and then the north-easterly trades. The weather forecasts were reliable up to five days ahead. The aim of the racers was therefore to get in the right place at the front from the first few miles in order to tackle the rough weather as far south and west as possible to limit the crossing time and get away from the continental shelf, out to where the seas were less violent.

The low passed through the fleet fairly quickly causing some to experience damage (Brossard, Sodebo, Orange Project) and others to capsize (Foncia) among the Orma trimarans. We cannot but stress the extreme efficiency of the sea rescue services, who very quickly got involved on the scene. Most of the crews did however get through this rough weather without too much damage and only the Imoca monohull, Cheminées Poujoulat, the 50-foot trimaran Négocéane - Donneurs de vie - Branec and the 50-foot monohull Adecco-Etoile Horizon were forced to throw in the towel following severe technical difficulties. Nonetheless, some other duos were to experience problems later on (dismasting of the Acanthe Ingenierie trimaran, and the retirement of Défi Vendéen) but this seemed quite normal considering the weather conditions they had to face in comparison to other ocean races.

Several boats had to put in to port for repairs (Galileo, Gitana X, Groupama-2, Artforms) and managed to set sail again, in some cases after just a few hours and in others a few days later. On the other hand, when Groupama-2 capsized in the trades and TIM-Progetto Italia did so in the Doldrums, that reminded us that the Orma trimarans are extremely demanding craft, where there is absolutely no room for the slightest mistake at the helm or in setting the sails.

An intense pace with some close finishes

With the Azores high spreading out over the Atlantic, the Portuguese and then Canary trades had quite some strength - 30 knots and above, squalls, rough, choppy seas. The duos on board the boats could not ease off and had to time it just right to gybe off Portugal. By choosing to be the last to carry out this manoeuvre, in other words, the furthest west, the two Imoca monohulls Virbac-Paprec and Sill & Veolia made the break, whilst among the Orma multihulls it was Banque Populaire that got away. These three boats opted for a curved track around the Canary Islands, which allowed them to extend their lead, while those following on behind found themselves forced to gybe to get away from the calms: the gap between the boats was extended. For the 50-foot multihulls, Crêpes Whaou! was head and shoulders in front of the others, but could not manage to get back up with the fleet's 60-foot monohull leaders before the Equator, and in the 50-foot monohulls, Gryphon Solo acquired enough of a lead to carefully manage her trajectory towards the Doldrums.

A race, where it is all down to sheer speed, the Transat Jacques Vabre imposes a very fast pace on the duos, who become more and more tired and find few occasions to take a rest: a few cases of tiredness, a bit of damage, but nothing serious, a short loss of control… With the Doldrums remaining fairly compact, for those heading directly towards Bahia (50 and 60-foot monohulls, 50-foot multihulls), the race was almost won or lost as they left the Equator, but tension remained high right up to the finish with some ridiculously small differences in speed between the Imoca monohulls (0.03 knots!).

For the Orma trimarans, the hurdle of the Doldrums changed the pecking order for the three leaders: Banque Populaire was caught by Gitana 11 further east and by Géant further west. Even though they were not very active and not very developed, the Doldrums remained just as difficult as ever to get through on the African side, as the boats then had to make their way around Ascension Island, upwind 800 miles from the Equator! The order was established as they rounded this final course mark, but then, once again, with the trades disappearing for a while and a series of gybes becoming necessary to reach Brazil, the distances between the boats were reduced to next to nothing by Bahia...

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