Experts on the Ultimes circuit
Of the four classes in this year's Transat Jacques Vabre, only the Ultimates class will have no rookies. The four giant trimarans will be sailed by ocean racing experts, some of whom are former winners of the Transat, such as Roland Jourdain in 1995, Thomas Coville in 1999, Pascale Bidégorry in 2005 and Yves Le Blévec in 2011.
More than half of the Class40s are rookies
In Class40, more than half of the boats will be newcomers. Of the 14 crews in Class 40, 18 sailors will be new to the circuit. This gives 8 boats that will be led by "rookies": Club 103 (Alan Roura and Juliette Petres), Concise 2 (Philippa Hutton-Squire and Pip Hare), Creno Moustache Solidaire (Thibault Hector and Morgan Launay), Setin Group (Manuel Cousin and Gérald Quéouron), Team Concise (Jackson Bouttel and Gildas Mahé), SNBSM Espoir Competition (Valentin Lemarchand and Arthur Hubert), Teamwork40 (Bertrand Delesne and Nils Palmieri) and finally the Brazilian boat Zetra (Eduardo Penido and Renato Araujo).
These 8 boats will be driven by men and women with different profiles: amateurs, professional skippers, used to coastal regattas, or used to offshore sailing. The youngest of the race will be Alan Roura, 22 years old and the oldest, Eduardo Penido, 55 years old.
On board Bretagne âeuros Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel, experienced sailor Corentin Horeau, young talent on the Figaro circuit, who will participate for the first time in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Finally, Maxime Sorel will start on a brand new boat designed by Sam Manuard, who will start with him as co-skipper, after two participations in the double-handed transatlantic race.
Two newcomers in Multi50
In the Multi50 class, Erwan Le Roux, the last winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre, is taking Giancarlo Pedote with him. The two men have pooled their sponsors to build a project on FenêtréA Prysmian . The Italian is not a novice in the field of ocean racing since he started in the Mini class and then spent a year on the Figaro circuit, but this is the first time he will be sailing the double-handed transatlantic race.
On Arkema erwan Le Roux's formidable competitor, Lalou Roucayrol, will also start with a rookie, since he will be taking his master sailmaker on board. For this 8th participation, the skipper based in the Médoc has played it safe by choosing someone who knows the boat inside out.
Many Figaro racers discover the Imoca
In the Imoca category, there are many Figaro sailors. No less than seven sailors from the Figaro Bénéteau circuit will be competing in the Imoca class. Adrien Hardy will be on board the Breath of the North skippered by Thomas Ruyant. Charlie Dalin is Yann Eliès' lucky choice on Leucémie Espoir . Erwan Tabarly will be Armel Le Cléac'h's partner on board Banque Populaire VIII . Romain Attanasio is living a dream by co-skippering the Valley Office by Louis Burton. On Safran morgan Lagravière and Nicolas Lunven will discover Imoca sailing at the same time as the Transat Jacques Vabre. Finally, Paul Meilhat, former Macif skipper of the Figaro circuit, remains one of the luckiest rookies: on his Imoca SMA he hired the services of Michel Desjoyeaux.
We will also find former Ministers such as Nicolas Boidevezi who has done his training on the Mini 6.50 circuit in prototype and who will start alongside Ryan Breymaier, another rookie of the race, but who has a good experience in Imoca (5th in the Barcelona World Race 2010/11).
Finally, there will also be those from other offshore sailing areas such as Eric Bellion, skipper of the Finot-Conq plan As one man which has chosen the Englishman Sam Goodchild, whose third participation in the race will be his own. Canadians Eric Holden and Morgen Watson, who have a good record of success on the other side of the Atlantic, will be competing in their first Transat Jacques Vabre.
