Transat Jaques Vabre 2009

November 8th Sees the start of the 15th Transat Jaques Vabre race which forms part of the IMOCA ocean racing calendar.  The course this year is new and slightly different for the multihull classes than for the monohulls departing Le Havre and finishing in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

We’ve got six Brits competing, all in the IMOCA Open 60 class but sadly no Brits in the multihull class.  The British competitors are:

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson on Aviva

Sam Davies on Artemis joined by the French sailor Sidney Gavignet

Alex Thompson and Ross Daniel on Hugo Boss

And Mike Golding sailing what I assume is an unsponsored boat entered as Mike Golding Yacht Racing

I’ll be watching the race and occasionally posting updates.  I was fortunate enough to have chatted with one of the competitors recently who had been joking with one of the others about which of them was going to be taking the lines for the other at the finish of the course, but I’ll let that remain a mystery for now!  Whoever gets there first and takes the other competitors lines will no will no doubt be just a little full of themselves, and why not.  All I’ll say is good luck and make a safe passage.

UPDATE:

Mike Golding has just announced he will compete in the TJV race with Spanish round the world sailor, Javier ‘Bubi’ Sansó.

Tagged as: IMOCA, sailing, Transat Jaques Vabre