Transat Jaques Vabre race from France to Costa Rica
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Sunday afternoon, November, 8, 2009, 14 Monohull sailboats and 6 Multihull sailboats set out from Le Havre, France on route to their destination in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica on the Caribbean coast. The Monohulls are traveling a route that will take them 4,730 NM (Nautical Miles) past the Dominican Republic and the Multihulls are traveling 5,050 NM past Barbados.
The sailors are from France, the UK and Spain. Two of the skippers are female. The general consensus is that this a very impressive group of sailors. According to Desjoyeaux, winner of the 2007 Transat race, “The whole fleet is quite homogeneous here, quite the same, and there are no bad boats and also no bad crews, so it will be much more difficult.”
The Transat Jaques Vabre race is run every two years and the stated goal of the race is to “promote the sport of sailing and to contribute to the development of ocean going Multihulls and Monohulls, of the equipment on board together with construction materials and techniques and to develop economic relations between Europe and Costa Rica.” Another very important goal of this race is sustainability.
The weather in Le Havre had been rough the week before the start with hail falling the day before. The start was great. The day started light with winds of 7 to 9 knots. However, the winds were expected to be variable.
Then disaster struck only a few hours into the race when Actual, the trimaran of Yves le Blevec and co-skipper Jean Le Cam pitch-poled in 23 knots of wind. The sailors were safe, but requested assistance. Back in Paris on Monday, Le Blevec reported that the capsize was “brutal and sudden”. After a wave stopped the bow, he indicated that there was nothing further that they could do.
Currently Foncia is leading for the Monohulls with pre-race favorites and 2007 winner Michael Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou. In second place is Groupe Bel with Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart. In third place on Aviva is the female skipper Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson.
In the Multihulls division, in first place is Crépes Whaou! with Franck-Yves Escoffier and Erwan Leroux. In second currently is Region Aquitaine-Port Medoc with Lalou Roucayrol and Amaiur Alfaro. Third place is Guyader Pour Urgence Climatique with Victorien Erussard and Loic Fecquet.
According to a survey by Demoscopía / Al Día, former vice president Laura Chinchilla is heavily favored to become the next president of Costa Rica when voters go to the polls on Feb 4, 2010.
The world’s third-largest banana exporter is visiting Dubai as a first step to expansion in the Middle East region
