20 years of the Transat Jacques Vabre Race!

The Transat Jacques Vabre is a yachting race that follows the historic routes followed for coffee trading between France and Brazil. It has become one of the most well-known races in the world since it began in 1993 and it takes place every second year.

The race’s starting point is Le Havre in France, and the end point is in Itajaí, Brazil. The route measures a total of 5,400 miles. There are no imposed waypoints, so the racers must choose what they consider to be the fastest route to their destination.

The route for the 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre race
The route for the 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre race

Le Havre has traditionally been, and remains to this day the leading coffee importing port in France.  This year, about 40 boats are expected to take part across all categories.

The Transat is a two-handed race, meaning that there are two sailors on each team. For the pair to be successful, they must have a complementary set of skills, and it’s also important that they get along well together too.

Both multihulls and monohulls from the following classes may participate in this race: 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). MaxSea’s advanced routing module is a very effective tool for calculating the fastest route from one point to another. It takes into account various factors such as wind speed/strength, waves and currents and has been used very successfully by famous racers such as Michel Desjoyeaux.

Racing vs Cruise Boat CTA

Important dates for the 2013 race:

  • October 26: Grand opening of public village Le Havre
  • October 26-27: Exhibition race in the basin of the Eure
  • November 3: Start of the Transat Jacques Vabre
  • November 18: Grand opening of village public Itajai
  • 3rd week of Nov: Estimated finish date of the first boats
  • November 30: Postlogue and first prizegiving in Itajai
  • December 7: Official Prizegiving in Itajai

Here are the current title defenders, who were successful in 2011:

Monohull 60′
Virbac-Paprec
Jean-Pierre DICK & Jérémie BEYOU
15days 18h 15min 54sec

Multihull 50′
Actual
Yves LE BLEVEC & Samuel MANUARD
17days 17h 7min 43sec

Class 40′
Aquarelle.com
Yannick BESTAVEN & Éric DROUGLAZET
21days 17h 59min 8sec

MaxSea proudly supports the Jacques Vabre Transat race by acting as a technical partner.

This video gives a nice overview of the race:

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: July 16 to 20

We end this week with 2 important chart updates (in Europe and in the Americas) and will start next one with more announcements concerning our software, we’ll keep you posted.

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Remember that you can view these wonderful images every day on our wall at MaxSea International Facebook Page.

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Have a great weekend!

Past weeks:

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 20th to 24th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: February 27th to March 2nd

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 5th to 9th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 12th to 16th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 19th to 23rd

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: March 26th to 30th

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: April 2 to 5 and 10 to 13

MaxSea’s picture of the day by Jacques Vapillon: April 16 to 20

Isabelle Joschke vise la Transat Jacques Vabre en Class40

En 2011, le groupe de ressources humaines Synergie qui soutient Isabelle Joschke depuis six ans, a décidé de réorienter sa communication et de mettre un terme à ses programmes de sponsoring sportif. La navigatrice franco-allemande, révélée en Mini 6.50 puis sur le circuit Figaro Bénéteau, recherche un nouveau partenaire qu’elle souhaite embarquer sur les voiles d’un monocoque de la Class40* (voiliers de 12,18m) avec pour premier grand défi : la Transat Jacques Vabre en octobre prochain.

Vers de nouveaux horizons

Basée à Lorient, la navigatrice poursuit actuellement ses entraînements en Figaro Bénéteau, sur ce support exigeant et ultra formateur à bord duquel elle régate depuis trois ans. Isabelle a également obtenu ses plus belles victoires à la barre de son Mini 6.50 et aime les classes dites « Open » alliant l’ouverture technologique à la liberté des grandes épreuves de large.

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