Transat Jacques Vabre

The Transat Jacques Vabre is a yachting race that follows the historic coffee trading route between France and Brazil.

The course was drawn up back in 1993 to follow in the wake of the clippers transporting coffee from Brazil to France. The Transat Jacques Vabre is a major date on the calendar, taking place every other year in odd years. It is still a two-handed race and the pairs of sailors are formed according to their complementary skills, what they have in common and how they get on. Boats leave from Le Havre, France's leading coffee importing port, going to Salvador de Bahia, in Brazil, the world's leading coffee grower and exporter (4335 miles).

The event is open to multihulls and monohulls from the following classes: ORMA, IMOCA, Class 2 Monohulls, Open 50 Class and Class40. All kinds of navigational aids are allowed in particular for routing, except for the Class40 boats (as this is forbidden in their own rules).

Winners

1993

The first race took place between Le Havre and Cartagena (Colombia). 13 boats were at start.
* 1st multihull: Paul Vatine on "Région Haute-Normandie".
* 1st monohull: Yves Parlier on "Cacolac d'Aquitaine".

1995

A two-handed race between Le Havre and Cartagena.
* 1st multihull: Paul Vatine and Roland Jourdain on "Région Haute-Normandie".
* 2nd multihull: Francis Joyon and Jacques Vincent on "Banque Populaire".
* 1st monohull: Jean Maurel and Fred Dahirel on "Côte d'Or".

1997

Again a two-handed race between Le Havre and Cartagena.
* 1st multihull: Laurent and Yvan Bourgnon on "Primagaz".
* 2nd multihull: Paul Vatine and Jean-Luc Nélias on "Chauss'Europ".
* 1st monohull: Yves Parlier and Éric Tabarly on "Aquitaine Innovations".
* 2nd monohull: Marc Thiercelin and Dominique Wavre on "Somewhere".

1999

This year was marked by the disappearance of Paul Vatine, on board the "Groupe André".
* 1st multihull : Loïck Peyron and Franck Proffit on "Fujicolor".
* 1st monohull : Thomas Coville and Hervé Jan on "Sodebo".

2001

A two-handed race between Le Havre and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil). 3 categories of boats.
*1st multihull 60: Franck Cammas and Steve Ravussin on "Groupama".
*1st monohull 60: Roland Jourdain and Gaël Le Cléac'h on "Sill Pleint Fruit".
*1st monohull 50: Alex Bennett and Paul Larsen on "One Dream".

2003

From this year there have been 4 categories of boats and 38 competitors.
*1st multihull 60 : Franck Cammas and Franck Proffit on "Groupama".
*1st multihull 50 : Hobson (United Kingdom) and Andy Newman (United Kingdom) on "Mollymawk".
*1st monohull 60 : Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven on "Virbac. Ross".
*1st monohull 50 : Conrad Humphreys (United Kingdom) and Paul Larsen (Australia) on "Hellomoto".

2005

The start was November 5 for the monohulls and November 6 for the multihulls. 4340 miles (8037 km) (monohulls 50 and 60 feet) or 5190 miles (9600 km) to do this year. 34 boats were registered:

*1st multihull 60 feet (class 1): Pascal Bidégorry and Lionel Lemonchois (France)
*1st multihull 50 feet (class 2): Franck-Yves Escoffier and Kevin Escoffier on "Crêpes Whaou"
*1st monohull 60 feet (class 1): Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron on "Virbac Paprec"
*1st monohull 50 feet (class 2): Joe Harris and Josh Hall on "Gryphon Solo"

2007

The start was November 3 for the monohulls and November 4 for the multihulls from Le Havre. This year, 60 boats were registered.

*1st multihull 60: Franck Cammas and Steve Ravussin on "Groupama" 2 in 10 days, 38 minutes and 43 seconds: Record of the Race
*1st monohull 60: Michel Desjoyeaux and Emmanuel Le Borgne on "Foncia" in 17 days, 2 hours, 37 minutes and 5 seconds
*1st multihull 50: Franck-Yves Escoffier and Karine Fauconnier on "Crêpes Whaou" in 15 days, 22 hours, 27 minutes and 37 seconds
*1st monohull 40: Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d'Ali on "Telecom Italia" in 22 days, 13 hours, 2 minutes and 22 seconds

External links

* [http://www.jacques-vabre.com/en/s01_home/s01p01_home.php Official Transat Jacques Vabre website]
* [http://www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr Pascal Bidégorry website, 2005 winner]
* [http://www.cammas-groupama.com/en/index.jsp Franck Cammas website, 2001, 2003 and 2007 winner]