Stretching legs in Transat Jacques Vabre

(November 12, 2021; Day 6, 19:33FR) – The Transat Jacques Vabre has a lead change in the Ocean Fifty as the Ultimes blast south. LinkedOut cements this morning’s lead in the IMOCA and provokes a duel behind her. Class 40 remain divided in two.

One of Britain’s most successful sailors and favorites of the race, Alex Thomson shares his favorites in his beloved IMOCA class. “Clearly Apivia is favorite but I’m pleasantly surprised how well Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagraviere are doing on LinkedOut so they’ve obviously made some good improvements, particularly downwind.

“Jérémie Beyou is always in the hunt as far as I’m concerned and it’s great to see Sam (Davies) and Nico (Lunven) sailing really smart on a boat that’s not supposed to be as fast as the other guys. Remember she’s getting a new boat so we’re going to see a very dangerous Sam Davies coming up.

“This race has been a bit marred by the two dismastings which are very surprising. I’ll be very interested to know why these masts have come down.”

Ultime : the battle of the 4
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, skippered by Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier continue to lead the Ultimes south. The other three stretch out across 100 miles behind the leaders. Closest are François Gabart and Tom Laperche on their new boat SVR-Lazartigue.

Ocean Fifty: lead change
Take a look at today’s tracker and watch class leader Koesio, co-skippered by Erwan Le Roux and Xavier Macaire, travel through the inside of the Canary Islands, to the east of Tenerife. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off. To the west of La Palma, Primonial took a more direct route and with it the lead.

IMOCA: the battle for second
LinkedOut has held on to the lead it snatched from Apivia this morning. Behind Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière, Apivia is playing cat and mouse with Charal. The old rivals are bow to bow about 20 miles behind the leader. Briton Sam Davies lies fourth but only ten miles behind.

Class 40: Project Rescue Ocean has stopped for repairs
The front of the Class40 fleet is taking advantage of twenty knots of wind to head south of the Portuguese coast. Project Rescue Ocean, one of the serious contenders, made a 4 hour stop in Cascais this afternoon to repair her damaged rudder. La Manche #EvidenceNautique is still leading the race.

Race details – YouTube – Facebook – Tracker

Standings as of 18:00 (French time):

Ultime
1. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Franck Cammas – Charles Caudrelier)
2. SVR – Lazartigue (François Gabart – Tom Laperche)
3. Banque Populaire XI (Armel Le Cléac’h – Kevin Escoffier)

Ocean Fifty
1. Primonial (Sébastien Rogues – Matthieu Souben)
2. Koesio (Erwan Le Roux – Xavier Macaire)
3. Solidaires en peloton – Arsep (Thibaut Vauchel-Camus – Frédéric Duthil)

IMOCA
1. LinkedOut (Thomas Ruyant – Morgan Lagravière)
2. Apivia (Charlie Dalin – Paul Meilhat)
3. Charal (Jérémie Beyou – Christopher Pratt)

Class40
1. La Manche #EvidenceNautique (Nicolas Jossier – Alexis Loison)
2. Edenred (Pierre Quiroga – Emmanuel Le Roch)
3. Banque du Léman (Simon Koster – Valentin Gautier)

The Transat Jacques Vabre is a double-handed race featuring four classes of boats starting November 7 from Le Havre, France. At nearly 30 years old, having first run in 1993 and every two years since, the 15th edition in 2021 attracted a record-breaking 79 boats: 5 Ultimes, 7 Ocean Fifty, 22 Imoca and 45 Class40s.

The course endures often brutal winter conditions, with a shift this year for the finish, moving from South America to Martinique in the Caribbean, in addition to various mid-Atlantic turning marks for the four classes.

Race Course:

Source: Transat Jacques Vabre