Please select your home edition
Edition
Leaderboard FD July August September 2023

Transat Jacques Vabre: Huusela celebrates first Finnish

by Soazig Guého 15 Nov 2019 15:29 GMT 15 November 2019
Transat Jacques Vabre 2019 © Jean-Louis Carli

Ari Huusela became the first Finn and Scandinavian in an IMOCA to finish the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre on Friday as he and Irish co-skipper, Michael Ferguson, forced Ariel II across the finish line in the Bay of All Saints. There was no mistaking that it was them, because you could see Salvador through their mainsail.

"It feels great to be the first ever Scandinavian IMOCA sailor to finish the Transat Jacques Vabre, I'm proud of that," Huusela said. "Hopefully someone else from Scandinavia can follow in my footsteps now I've shown that it's possible, even if we're a bit far away. The Baltic Sea is good training for this."

On a tiny budget, Huusela was unable to buy a replacement mainsail and make a pit-stop en route as most other IMOCA teams in the race would, so he and Ferguson ploughed on.

Did he ever think he wouldn't make it? "No, no, my friend Tapio (Lehtinen), who raced in the Golden Globe Race (2018); he did it with three layers of barnacles on the bottom of his boat, 332 days," the 57-year-old Huusela, an A350 pilot for Finnair when not doing this, said. "I thought, even if it takes 50 days, I'm going to do it."

"I wasn't as keen," Ferguson added laughing.

The figures never tell the whole story of a race, but in this case they do not even come close. The official records will read:

Ari Huusela and Michael Ferguson, on their 60ft monohull, Ariel II, have finished twenty-sixth in the IMOCA class of the 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre after crossing the finish line in the Bay of All Saints in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 11:22:14 (UTC), 18 days, 23 hours 7 minutes and 14 seconds after leaving Le Havre, Normandy, France on Sunday, October 27 at 12:15 (UTC).

Ariel II covered the theoretical course of 4,350 nautical miles at an average speed of 9.56 knots but actually sailed 4,721.30 nautical miles at an average speed of 10.37 knots. It finished 5 days 10 hours 59 minutes and 14 seconds behind the winner, Apivia.

What they do not say is that from the first day of the race nearly three weeks ago, when they noticed a hole in the mainsail, it has been delaminating and unravelling.

"The mainsail went (on the first night) when we put a reef in off Guernsey and that's when the first hole went in, we noticed it," Ferguson said sieving the mainsail string in his hand. "It was a about the size of your fist. By the time we'd got to Ushant it was the size of a football and it got a lot worse from there."

It took some of the edge off Huusela's 57th birthday celebrations on October 28.

The double-handed, biennial Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre is the longest and toughest transatlantic race in the sailing calendar and it does not get much harder than the way Huusela and Ferguson did it.

"If you'd have told us two and a half weeks ago we'd be here, I'd have laughed, but here we are," Ferguson said.

And somehow they managed to keep one French boat behind them, Vers un monde sans SIDA, although they were almost caught as the wind dropped almost entirely for their finish. They crept past the black and white Barra lighthouse into the turquoise waters of Bay of All Saints, which were as smooth as a lake.

"The hardest thing has been dealing with the light winds," Ferguson said. The windy stuff has been fine, but as soon as it went light the wind just blows straight through the sails instead of helping."

29 IMOCA left Le Havre on October 27, and 27 have made it to Salvador (MACSF and Hugo Boss had to abandon), some lost a keel, some a foil and some their way, but few had to deal with the travails of Ariel II.

The unlikely became the incredible. "It was weird looking at the stars last night through the missing mainsail panels," Ferguson wrote on November 2. Huusela was increasingly poetic and he waxed lyrical with pictures of the moon blazing directly through their threadbare mainsail.

Read the story of their race here.

Class40

The last of the seven Class40, which were always in the lead group, are now safely in Salvador after Made in Midi crossed the line this morning.

It is testimony to the endurance, can-do and know-how of Kito de Pavant in his 10th Route du Café that he made the start, let alone the finish.

His Class40, Made in Midi, suffered a broken mast during its stability test at the end of September. He rented Jean Galfione's boat at the last minute and then broke the boomsprit in delivery. But he and Achille Nebout pushed hard at the front and even lead briefly before the newer generation boats asserted themselves in the trade winds.

15 boats remain out there, with the tailenders still on the approach to Recife.

Overall Results: (top three in each class)

Class40
1 - Crédit Mutuel
2 - Leyton
3 - Aïna Enfance & Avenir

Multi50
1 - GROUPE GCA - MILLE ET UN SOURIRES
2 - Solidaires En Peloton - ARSEP
3 - PRIMONIAL

Imoca
1 - Apivia
2 - PRB
3 - Charal

Find out more at transatjacquesvabre.org/en

Related Articles

A more sustainable Transat Café L'OR edition
The race aims to be innovative and a driving force for the transitions taking place in ocean racing For the upcoming 17th edition, the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR Le Havre Normandie is stepping up its commitments to take better care of the earth's climate and the natural, living planet. Posted on 7 Jun
Francesca Clapcich names Will Harris as co-skipper
For Transat Café L'OR double-handed race across the Atlantic Italian-American pro offshore sailor, Francesca Clapcich, has chosen Will Harris (GBR) to join her as co-skipper for the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR Le Havre Normandie, the double-handed bi-annual race from Le Havre, France, to Martinique. Posted on 21 May
Transat Café L'OR Cap Pour Elles 2025 routes
Four classes, four courses, four winning duos means four times the emotion On Sunday October 26, the ULTIM, the Ocean Fifty, the IMOCA, and the Class40 divisions will start their TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR Le Havre Normandie at 15 minutes intervals. Posted on 13 Feb
Transat Café L'OR Cap Pour Elles 2025
Applications are now open Attention female sailors who wish to participate in their first competitive transatlantic race, the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR Le Havre Normandie is renewing its Cap pour Elles initiative. Posted on 24 Jan
Transat Jacques Vabre changes its name
Becoming the Transat Café L'OR le Havre Normandie On Sunday 26th October 2025, the most legendary double-handed transatlantic race will start with a new name: the TRANSAT CAFÉ L'OR Le Havre Normandie. Posted on 5 Dec 2024
4 fleets, 4 courses, 4 winners, 6 starts
77 boats finish Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre At the start in Le Havre in late October, a series of powerful low-pressure systems were sweeping across the Atlantic. Posted on 6 Dec 2023
Pamela Lee and Tiphaine Ragueneau complete the TJV
To take 29th place in Class 40 fleet Pam Lee and Tiphaine Ragueneau, the Irish-French duo, who raced the Atlantic under the Cap pour elles initiative, crossed the finish line of the Transat Jacques Vabre Posted on 27 Nov 2023
Italian boats dominate TJV Class Class40 podium
lberto Bona and Pablo Santurde del Arco cross the finish line in fourth place With Alberto Bona and Pablo Santurde del Arco on the Italian Mach 40.5 IBSA crossing the Class 40 finish line in fourth place on the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre this afternoon. Posted on 24 Nov 2023
Alla Grande Pirelli take first place in Class40
Ambrogio Beccaria and Nicolas Andrieu win the Transat Jacques Vabre Italian skipper Ambrogio Beccaria and French co-skipper Nicolas Andrieu sailing the all Italian Musa 40 Alla Grande PIRELLI took first place in the highly competitive Class40 race on the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Posted on 23 Nov 2023
16th Transat Jacques Vabre update
Britons Pip Hare and Nick Bubb on Medallia finish 12th IMOCA British duo Pip Hare and Nick Bubb on Medallia crossed the finish line of the 16th Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre at 22.12.56hrs this Monday evening off Fort de France, Martinique to secure 12th place in the IMOCA fleet. Posted on 22 Nov 2023