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It has been all about caution for the 2023 Transat Jacques Vabre as storms disrupt the course for the doublehanded teams. With a planned start on October 29 for the biannual race from Le Havre in northern France to Martinique in the French Caribbean, only Class Ultim were deemed fast enough to outrun the destructive conditions.
While the Ocean Fifty multihulls and Class 40 fleet started on schedule, they have been on hold in Lorient where they were stopped to avoid the storm force winds and big seas. They will resume their race on November 6.
As for the record fleet of 40 IMOCAs, they remained docked in Le Havre but the passage of storms Ciaran and Domingos now offers a suitable weather window to start on November 7.
“The sea will have calmed significantly in the Bay of Biscay as in the English Channel,” explains Christian Dumard, the race meteorologist. “The general westerly flow continues from the Atlantic but the starts should be completed in manageable conditions. A new front does look set to come in and hit the Atlantic coasts from Wednesday (Nov. 8) but we are seeing winds of 30-35 knots which is much less violent than these recent storms.”
Details: www.transatjacquesvabre.org/en
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