Transat Jacques Vabre - Stan Thurel smells the coffee

Stan Thurel © TJV

Stan Thurel will recreate history on this edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. On Thursday the sailor was presented with a living coffee plant that he will carry to Martinique aboard his Class 40 boat Everial.

Exactly 300 years ago an adventurer from Le Havre carried coffee plants to Martinique on behalf of King Louis. Those plants became plantations and launched Martinque as the cradle of French coffee growing.

Thurel explains, "The plant is called Gabi, in homage to Gabriel De Clieu, the sailor who first carried coffee to Martinique in 1721".