Arrival near in Transat Jacques Vabre

(November 22, 2021; Day 16, 19:36FR) – The first finishers in the 15th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre are near aw the Ocean Fifty multihull Primonial is expected to take line honours sometime in the night. The Ultime Maxi Edmond de Rothschild follows in their wake and will cross the line tomorrow morning.

Ocean Fifty: on the home straight
Primonial leads the arrivals with Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben’s trimaran expected to cross the line overnight. The pair have significantly increased their lead today to 65 miles – barring disaster, that should be unassailable.

“Yesterday evening we had the opportunity to push a little bit and try to seal the race and it went very well,” said Souben earlier today, though his partner is still being cautious. “There’s going to be traffic ahead, there’s going to be sargasso too,” reminds Rogues. “We want to preserve our trimaran, which already has 5,800 miles behind it. But most importantly we’re going to savor these last few hours at sea before coming ashore and meeting up with you all.”

Ultime: Maxi Edmond de Rothschild expected tomorrow
Following on from the leading trio of the Ocean Fifty, will come the winning Ultime. Caught up in light air this morning, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Franck Cammas & Charles Caudrelier) is making around twenty knots this evening. In second and third, Banque Populaire XI and SVR-Lazartigue are 150-200 miles further back and should reach Martinique tomorrow afternoon.

There remains a battle for fourth place. Sodebo Ultim 3, which has sailed a good part of the race with a damaged foil has chosen a more northerly route and is benefiting from better wind conditions than her opponent Actual Ultim 3, which is progressing 300 miles further south.

IMOCA: follow the leader
Whilst LinkedOut holds on to her 100 mile lead and is expected to finish early on November 25, there’s an intense duel for second place between Apivia and Charal. It’s a huge gap of 500 miles to fourth where Arkea-Paprec is being harassed by the chasing Sam Davies on Initiatives Coeur.

Most of the fleet have now rounded the Fernando de Noronha turning point and are focused on the climb back towards Martinique with all the gybing that involves. Corum L’Epargne has made a great comeback in recent days and now sits 6th.

Class40: enjoying the trade winds
All but three Class 40 boats have passed the Cape Verde islands. Still out in front are Redman (Carpentier & Santurde del Arco) and Volvo (Gerckens & Hantzperg). Currently in third place, and positioned much further north is the winner of the last race, Crédit Mutuel. Co-skipper Ian Lipinski has some solid plans, “In the next 24 hours, we’re going to try to follow the shift to the right and claw back some miles on the leading two. We’re pushing the boat to the max and we have finally found our groove.” Lipinski is suddenly looking good to defend his title.

Race details – YouTube – Facebook – Tracker

Leaderboard at 1800 CET:

Ultime
1. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild
2. Banque Populaire XI
3. SVR – Lazartigue

Ocean Fifty
1. Primonial
2. Koesio
3. Leyton

IMOCA
1. LinkedOut
2. Apivia
3. Charal

Class40
1. Redman
2. Volvo
3. Crédit Mutuel

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