A Fine Finish to the Year
Final preparations for the Transat Jacques Vabre are in full swing in Le Havre and we are ready to bring 2023 to an end in true style with two back-to-back Trans-Atlantic races. Are you ready to join us battling across the Atlantic and back for five weeks?
It all kicks off on Sunday 29th, with the start of the double handed Transat Jacques Vabre race. A double handed multi-class event which starts in Le Havre, Normandy, then sees each class sail a different course, down the Atlantic to finish in Martinique in roughly three weeks’ time. Once I arrive there the team will have about seven days to turn the boat around and then I will be racing single handed back to Lorient, France in the Retour a la Base.
In the IMOCA class we have 40 entries, it’s a bumper fleet with a huge blend of boats and skippers. For the low down on IMOCA entries you can watch the dock tour I recorded with our technical director, Joff where we talk about the different history and features of each of our competitors.
Our course starts in Le Havre, then runs down the Atlantic, to cross the doldrums and equator wherever we choose. We then must round the rocks of Sao Pedro, Sao Paulo, leaving them to Starboard before heading back across the equator to finish in Martinique. The course is 5,300 miles, it will take just under three weeks and is one I have never sailed before. My co-skipper for this first race is British sailor Nick Bubb who raced in the Fastnet with me. We are the only British pairing in Class IMOCA.
The team have been flat out ironing out post-race glitches and I have had a chance to push Medallia quite hard since our less than satisfactory Fastnet race. I feel the boat is strong and I am in a better place, however, this will be the first trans-Atlantic so I am nervous to see how we perform. The start of the race is going to be a challenge for us all. It is the North Atlantic in November, a place notorious for fast moving depressions and aggressive weather fronts and from the current forecast the weather is promising to deliver exactly that. On our way south I expect we will have to cross two perhaps three aggressive weather fronts with big winds and breaking seas. These conditions break boats and the whole fleet will be worried about the first five days of the race.
As ever I have needed to set out my objectives clearly for this race and this is not going to be a race of the head. The Transat Jacques Vabre is a qualification race for the Vendée Globe, as is the Retour a la Base. My IMOCA entry is based on cumulative mileage raced in IMOCA globe series races. There is a total of around 6000 miles to earn – double handed races score half miles. Should I not finish one or both of the races my Vendée Globe race entry could be at risk – to damage the boat early in the TJV would be detrimental as I would lose mileage from both races.
The primary objective has to be finishing both races – most importantly the TJV with little damage so the boat can be turned around to do the Retour a la Base. This doesn’t mean sailing slowly – it just means not taking risks. But this is also a huge opportunity to learn about the performance of our boat, to line up against others, to record data, to record how our existing sails interact with the foils and the new speeds. We have five weeks of solid sailing to test the reliability of our systems and to gather learnings to take through to the Vendée year next year. The racing is going to be great, but we need to keep our eyes on the prize and that prize getting the boat as competitive and strong as possible for the Vendée Globe.
One thing I can promise is some great daily updates of life onboard, a tracker to obsess you until mid-December and some plenty of stories of our battles with life on the ocean.
I cannot wait to get out there again. I have a lot of worries in my head at the moment it has been a tough year on many counts and we still have a mountain to climb to practically deliver the competitive campaign I aspire to. But I can’t help feeling a bounce in my step. I am usually so stressed out in the race village, by the pressure and the deadlines, but this time I seem to be breezing it. I stopped to reflect on why I feel so relaxed and realised it is because I am just excited about going sailing. Really really excited. I have missed the ocean so much, I’ve missed being able to race for weeks on end, being my own driving force and the solution to my own problems. The next few weeks are going to be great and I can’t wait to share them with you.
You can follow the race here