2019 Transat Jacques Vabre - The final analysis

2019 Transat Jacques Vabre winners © Jean-Louis Carli

The new flying foilers; ten days of festivities, sailing baptisms, eco-installations and the #NoPlasticChallenge around the Bassin Paul Vatine; a lost bet in the west; Hugo Boss cutting their keel.

Charal in the Doldrums. A Le Havre local boy living his dream. Ari's threadbare mainsail. The glorious arrivals in Salvador de Bahia's Bay of All Saints. The spatulated bow of the winning scow.

The 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre will live long in the memory. The world's longest and toughest two-handed transatlantic race is the always the first and best showcase of the latest technology and projects in short-handed offshore sailing. And because this biennial race is double-handed it allows teams to push their polars.

The action started before the start, with several boats suffering breakages in final training and even delivery to Le Havre. A favourite in the IMOCA60 class, Arkea - Paprec (Sébastien Simon / Vincent Riou), one of the five latest generation flying foilers, broke the port foil as they approached Le Havre.

More drama was to follow as a fire during the night of October 21 on the IMOCA Fortil forced them to abandon before the start.

That meant 59 boats (27 Class40, 3 Multi50 and 29 IMOCA) were left. At 13:15 (French time) on Sunday, October 27 the starting horn was sounded and the 118 skippers in the 59-boat fleet of many colours weaved across the start line in front of Cape de la Hève, beating into 12-14 knots of north-easterly wind.

IMOCA: Local boy makes good after Doldrums strike

Key moment: The Doldrums: Charal park up, Apivia drive by.
Did not finish: Hugo Boss; MACSF

Podium:

1st Apivia - Charlie Dalin and Yann Eliès
Finished: Sunday, November 10, 2017 at 00:23:00 (UTC)
Race time: 13 days 12 hours 8 minutes and 0 seconds
Miles traveled: 5,061.85 nautical miles, average speed 15.62 knots.

2nd PRB - Kévin Escoffier and Nicolas Lunven
Finished: Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 16:04:42 (UTC)
Race time: 14 days, 03 hours 49 minutes and 42 seconds
Miles traveled: 5,035.27 nautical miles, average speed of 14.82 knots.
Distance to winner: 15 hours 41 minutes and 42 seconds

3rd Charal - Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt
Finished: Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 16:11:00 (UTC)
Race time: 14 days, 3 hours 56 minutes and 0 seconds
Miles traveled: 5,116.17 nautical miles, average speed of 15.05 knots.
Distance to winner: 15 hours 48 minutes and 0 seconds

Class40: Crédit Mutuel wins by more than a nose

Key moment: Crédit Mutuel powers away at 24-hour record pace.
Did not finish: Entraide Marine-Adosm, SOS Mediterranée; Lamotte - Module Creation; Kiho; Beijaflore

Podium:

1st Crédit Mutuel - Ian Lipinsky and Adrien Hardy
Finished: Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 04:36:23 (UTC)
Race time: 17 days, 16 hours 21 minutes and 23 seconds
Miles travelled: 4,714.35 nautical miles, average speed 11.11 knots.

2nd Leyton - Sam Goodchild and Fabien Delahaye
Finished: Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 12:58:11 (UTC)
Race time: 18 days, 0 hours 43 minutes and 11 seconds
Miles travelled: 4,663.32 nautical miles, average speed of 10.78 knots.
Distance to winner: 8 hours 21 minutes and 48 seconds

3rd Aïna Enfance & Avenir - Aymeric Chappellier and Pierre Leboucher
Finished: Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 16:21:45 (UTC)
Race time: 18 days, 4 hours 6 minutes and 45 seconds
Miles travelled: 4,656.22 nautical miles, average speed of 10.68 knots.
Distance to winner: 11 hours 45 minutes and 22 seconds

Multi50: Lamiré and Carpentier find gold in the west

Key moment: Groupe GCA - Mille et un sourires find fifth day western trajectory

Podium:

1st Groupe GCA - Mille et un sourires - Gilles Lamiré and Antoine Carpentier
Finished: Friday, November 8, 2019 at 04:49:41 (UTC)
Race time: 11 days 16 hours 34 minutes and 41 seconds
Miles travelled: 4,926 nautical miles, average speed 17.56 knots.

2nd Solidaires En Peleton - ARSEP - Thibaut Vauchel Camus and Fred Duthil
Finished: Friday, November 8, 2019 at 14:53:01 (UTC)
Race time: 12 days 2 hours 38 minutes and 01 seconds
Miles travelled: 5,054 nautical miles, average speed of 17.39 knots.
Distance to winner: 10 hours 3 minutes and 20 seconds

3rd Primonial - Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben
Finished: Saturday, November 9, 2019 at 12:24:42 (UTC)
Race time: 13 days 0 hours 9 minutes and 42 seconds
Miles travelled: 5,088.80 nautical miles, average speed of 16.30 knots.
Distance to winner: 1 day 7 hours 35 minutes and one second

Find out more at transatjacquesvabre.org/en