Transat Jacques Vabre starts tomorrow

A new course, new choices, new challenges

A new course for the ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre presents a whole new set of challenges for the 14 IMOCA Open 60 teams and the six Multi 50 crews who will start Sunday. The IMOCA Open 60 fleet leave the island of the Dominican Republic to starboard en route to the finish off Puerto Limon which sets them a theoretical course distance of 4730 miles, while the Multi 50 class sail an extra 370 miles, making a total of 5050 miles as they pass south of Barbados. The idea is that the monohulls and the multis should finish at around the same time.

This Transatlantic route appears much more of a direct, straight line route, removing the challenge of the Doldrums and the ‘corner' of Cape Finisterre but instead the final 12-1300 miles could, under certain circumstances, could offer their own Doldrums.

"In fact because we can pass the island of Dominican Republic on starboard side the game is very open, very wide."Suggests the reigning Transat Jacques Vabre winning skipper Michel Desjoyeaux of Foncia,

"In the beginning when I started to look at this race, I felt we would be in very light air at the finish. We can have light airs, but it is not the most common in Puerto Limon. The standard weather situation is a low pressure just west of Columbia, so we should have East or North East wind, maybe 15-20 knots to the finish line. That is the common wind, so perhaps a little more straightforward than going into Salvador. If this small low pressure moves to the west or north west, then we can have no wind, just the waves to push us along from the back."

"Arguably there are not that many options."Suggests Andrew Cape, weather advisor to Hugo's Boss Alex Thomson, "Traditionally it is a relatively straightforward route. Either you go south for the trade winds, or you just go a great circle route, working the weather patterns fronts as they traverse across the Atlantic. You sail upwind on the south westerly breeze til the front goes over, tack and go more towards the course. Once you are committed towards the great circle route, you are forced into a life of upwind and tight reaching. On the trade winds route you get south if the trade winds are strong and you get nice downwind sailing and you are happy. Typically that does not work and you are going against the shift to use the trade winds. It is usually best to work the fronts and get into the trades as you can, more in the west, in this case Dominican republic."

"The final bit is really the only bit which could go bad. If there is a ridge there, or behind a front if there is no wind. Then, a boat which worked the trades might be better off. But usually you pick your time, get down the trades and into the Caribbean."

"It is a more challenging route than to Salvador. That is no very much a stock standard, well travelled route, working mainly south in the trades but a little bit west to get through the Doldrums. On this one if you are sailing the great circle you can get some very windy upwind conditions at times."

"The start looks OK which is a relief, because you don't want to leave here in a very strong SW'ly which happens a lot at this time. So the boats might get away in a N'ly and wait for a day or two until the first front approaches."

This edition of the race, for the first time, offers the option for crews to use Stealth mode, or as the French are calling it ‘Furtive' mode. This self imposed blackout allows them 24 hours to do their own thing in secrecy. They must inform Race Direction before 0830hrs and then they disappear for 24 hours between the 1100hrs position reports.

The Multi 50 fleet are attracting great interest around the Paul Vatine basin. Today Yves Le Blevec and Jean Le Cam's new Actual was officially launched. Drawn with a blank sheet of paper approach by Guillame Verdier for Le Blevec, winner of the last Transat 6.50, the main foils – the central daggerboard and the rudders were made using the tooling from Safran and the Bonduelle trimaran. The other two new boats in the fleet are Franck-Yves Escoffier's Crepes Whaou ! , which is from Vincent Lauriot Prevost and built by CDK in Cherbourg, and Prince of Bretagne which is from Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret which has the rudders and foils on the floats.

More information on the event website.

What's to love, and what's not to on this Transat Jacques Vabre (from Mike Golding Yacht Racing)

A new course with a boat that has great potential and that Mike Golding still feels he has yet to fully realise. But there are many variables which will come into play even during the first days of this ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre.

Golding is objective about his prospects in the 14 boat IMOCA Open 60 fleet. Looking forward to the next Vendée Globe, he is very keen to prove that this boat has a good result in her. Along with Bruno Dubois, he led into the Doldrums despite the last edition being the first serious race with what was then, a brand new boat.

His relationship with the boat is on an even keel, but there is still plenty of room for improvement: "It is still not a great love affair but I live in hope."He grins, "It would take a win, nothing else. Well maybe a good performance, for me to truly love the boat, a good solid performance is what the boat needs to do."

"And I think it has it in it, for sure. I do think the boat has great potential. It is fundam entally a quick boat and we saw that in the Vendée, which was less than a year ago. A lot seems to have happened since then, but materially the boat should be even better than it was then."

Up against this high quality fleet, he finds it hard to fully evaluate the potential he and his co-skipper really have, not that it particularly bothers him. He firmly believes that his Owen Clarke design is a solid allrounder, devoid of obvious weaknesses, and with no outstanding single strength: "We have not sailed as much as some of the boats here. A lot was tactical in the Vendée and so it's hard to judge exactly against other boats and the boat is a polyvalent. It is not extremely quick in one thing or another. It is kind of good at everything and not bad at any one thing, that is quite a good way to be. When everyone is looking at the weather and it is windy, that is good for us, but then if it is light, then we are OK. So we have the same level of confiden ce in the boat across the wind range and directions. There is nothing which really spooks me. If we have a strength it is light airs downwind, which has go to be good for this race."

"I think we saw that Bruno and I got the boat into the groove in the last Jacques Vabre two years ago, and when we got into the groove, downwind in light airs, we went well. We were alongside Groupe Bel and just smoked them, and Bel is Safran and everyone says Safran is fast. So I figure that if we can do that against Bel and Safran then we can me be good. Foncia were there as well and we did well against them.

But the point just now for me is that some of them have been working very hard and so we will see. That does not mean that we have not done any development, because we have. We have got a new reaching configuration and have concentrated hard on that. We have a new reacher which replaces the one that broke the mast, that is now fractionally set. The idea is that if you have the type of conditions when you really want to press on it, then you can. And we have a new reaching strut which we saw at work on our qualifier, and it worked really well. It is like a jockey pole pushing the sail down and outboard. We took it to its limit on the qualification, doing 20 knots in 20 knots of breeze. It was pretty cool."

He is quietly pleased about the new course for this edition, and explains that it could play to the perceived strengths of his IMOCA Open 60:

"The big change on the course, Le Havre to Costa Ric a, is taking out the Doldrums element of. That was our downfall on the last edition. This time there is the transit through the islands and the Caribbean Sea. We did it before on the first race I did, when it went to Cartagena. So we have been through there before, predominantly downwind and so we could do alright.""The start and the first bit does tend to be a bit of a weakness for us, and so we have to come out of the blocks quickly, pushing a bit more. But then again Javier and I have not sailed together that much and so, as well, we need to find our feet and get the balance right. On the one hand I feel I want to come out the blocks sprinting, on the other hand let's not shoot the pooch, and break something early on."

Of the weather outlook, such as it is at more than 48 hours before the start he says: "The weather is really changeable day by day. At the beginning, a few days ago, we were thinking about routing down the Portuguese coast, latterly we are thinking about a more northerly track, getting over the High. So potentially, then, maybe a reachy start, pushing off to the west, staying as close to the rhumb line, then pushing south. The question is when to drop south, and after that you enter into the classical trade wind configuration. The routing may say north but it could still be quite divisive, and we could see a split into the north and the south. But, really, as well when you look at the boats and the sailors, then you think, well maybe not, maybe we will all go for the same option. But I do think that we need to make that commitment, whatever it is, quite early on. Because, from Ushant it is a straight line, there are no more corners. From Ushant onwards you are on the line. That changes things slightly. And if it is a heavy airs, upwind race then perhaps Artemis could well initially, as could Hugo Boss, we are not too worried about Foncia or Groupe Bel. It is just those heavier, more powerful boats, I'm not ne rvous about that and their gains, such as they might be, I think we can make back downwind. And hopefully there will be a prevalence of downwind over the whole length of the course."

Artemis Ocean Racing quietly prepare (from Artemis Ocean Racing)

Under grey skies and at times torrential rain, the Artemis Ocean Racing team is quietly going about their business... Ticking off the jobs list that is now relatively small, thanks to the great preparation the team did before arriving in Le Havre last week. Artemis co-skippers Samantha Davies and Sidney Gavignet are spending their final days ashore studying the weather, re-checking the technical details onboard, taking time for some sport and carrying out media interviews to satisfy the demands of the media gathered here for the start of the pinnacle event of the IMOCA 60 seasons that will see 14 IMOCA monohulls take on this new Transat Jacques Vabre course, starting on Sunday, 8th November at 14h30 local time.

The team have revealed their new giant spinnaker that can nearly cover two tennis courts! 485msq in total, 100msq larger than the average kite, Artemis Ocean Racing has the largest spinnaker in the IMOCA fleet to help gain an edge in speed on the downwind sections of the 4,730-mile race to Costa Rica: "We need this surface area to pull Artemis along downwind as she is a bit heavier than some of the others. It is somewhat daunting, looking at the picture, but in training Sidney and I managed to deal with the hundreds of square metres of cloth, even when it is pretty windy! Looking forward to putting it up in the race!" concluded Sam Davies.

On Wednesday Sam and Sidney attended the skippers briefing and now the focus of all the 28 skippers is firmly on the evolving weather situation which is looking slightly complex over the next few days. On Sunday the centre of the low pressure system should generate lights winds before a moderate Northerly breeze is expected to settle in the initial stages of the race.

Artemis Ocean Racing has undergone extensive refit work since May this year to improve her performance against the best speed machines in the fleet, and Sam and Sidney have put in as much training as possible since July to ensure they can eek out every last drop of speed. Nonetheless, it is going to be hard to get the edge on the pre-race favourites including Foncia (Michel Desjoyeaux/Jérémie Beyou) and BT (Sébastien Josse/Jean Francois Cuzon) and many in the top half of the fleet, who know their machines intimately and have spent more than two years refining their performance.

The Transat Jacques Vabre presents numerous challenges to its duos; Sam and Sidney must stay constantly alert through the busy shipping lanes close to land before contending with the famous Bay of Biscay, which can deal up brutal conditions in early autumn. In the 2007 edition of the TJV, Artemis Ocean Racing I was dismasted in rough seas just off Cape Finisterre. Team members Jonny Malbon and Graham Tourell were unhurt, but everyone will be hoping that this year’s fleet has a safe passage into the Atlantic. As they head south, the skippers next have to choose the right moment to head across the North Atlantic towards Central America. Should they take the most direct route, or dive further south to hook into the trade winds for a rapid express ride west? Getting this decision right is key, and the sailors will have to work together to plan their weather routing and tactics, all the while pushing their boat to full speed.