Exclusive / I was on the start line of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2017!

I followed the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2017 as closely as possible to the boats during the first hour of the race. It was a beautiful moment of emotion, nicely greeted by a sky punctuated by clear skies.

Jean-Baptiste Ternon Published on November 5, 2017

13:35 : Top start of the transat Jacques Vabre 2017 ! The wind is established NW'ly between 15 and 20 knots. The sea is short and very rough with waves of up to 2m, not very comfortable for the sailors (and the companions who came to support them). The 37 duets set out on a meadow with one or two reefs in the direction of a gate positioned opposite Etretat.

Very playful, TeamWorks follows the passages of the buoy while waiting for 13:35.

Although a single start was given for the whole fleet, the line anchored off Le Havre was shared: to the left of the committee, the multihulls (Ultim and Multi 50) and to the right the monohulls (Class 40' and IMOCA).

St Michel Virbac led by Jean Pierre Dick and Yann Elies will take the best start in the IMOCA and IMERYS (Phil Sharp and Pablo Santurde) in the Class 40'. On the other side of the line Sodebo - which was very far from the line with the other Ultims during the pre-start phase - quickly came out to cross the start line first, followed by the whole fleet of trimarans. FenêtréA- Mix Buffet will lead the Multi 50's.

DÃ©part de la Transat Jacques Vabre 2017 — Start of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2017

After following the fleet for an hour, we let the sailors and their magnificent racing machines sail towards Brazil. The next few days will be tiring for the sailors who will have to plan a lot of manoeuvres. First of all, they will have to hoist all the sail to pass a ridge of high pressure before packing everything up in anticipation of the heavy weather that has set in off Brittany.

Score at the clearance buoy in front of Etretat :

ULTIM

Prince de Bretagne - Lionel Lemonchois & Bernard Stamm
Sodébo - Thomas Coville & Jean Luc Nélias
Edmond de Rotshild - Sébastien Josse & Thomas Rouxel

MULTI 50

FenêtréA - Erwan Le Roux & Vincent Riou
Réauté chocolate - Armel Tripon & Vincent Barnaud
Arkema - Lalou Roucayrol & Alex Pella

IMOCA

ADM - Paul Meilhat & Gwénolé Gahinet
Bastide Otio - Kito De Pavant & Yannick Bestaven
St Michel - Virbac - Jean-Pierre Dick & Yann Eliès

Class 40'

V&B - Maxime Sorel & Antoine Carpentier
Teamwork40 - Bertrand Delesne & Justine Mettraux
Normandy Region Junior Senior By Evernex - Olivier Cardin & Cédric Château