The 15th Transat Jacques Vabre starts on 7 November: "We have a unique fleet for this race!"

A high number of illustrious names, including Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven, "Charal" skipper Jérémie Beyou and Eric Tabarly's daughter Marie Tabarly making her debut: A total of almost 80 boats will make the 15th edition of the double-handed classic Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV for short) a highly exciting season finale. The 23 Imoca yachts form the second largest of the four classification groups behind 45 Class40 crews and ahead of the seven Ocean Fifties and the five Ultime giants. With many familiar faces from the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe, which ended at the beginning of the year, the Imoca class will be reliving the past adventure.

Originally, the German flag was also supposed to fly in the 2021 TJV, as Jörg Riechers had entered alongside Swiss rider Beat Fankhauser on his Imoca "The Mountain Man". However, the Fankhauser Racing team had to cancel their participation last week due to technical problems. After dropping out of the Rolex Fastnet Race due to a problem with the halyard lock system, the cancellation is unfortunate for both sailors. Jörg Riechers had been looking forward to the race and the transatlantic challenge and wanted to use the TJV to prepare for his planned Vendée Globe start in 2024 with the Alva Blue Team. "As a skipper, you only gain the really important experience on the water," says Riechers. Nevertheless, he does see one advantage to retiring: "Now I can concentrate fully on developing our Imoca 60 with the Alva Yacht Team in the coming weeks."

Boris Herrmann is focussed on his new building

Boris Herrmann, on the other hand, had never entered the TJV this year. Following the sale of the "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco", which is now being managed by Romain Attanasio and Sébastien Marsset as "Fortinet - Best Western" in the TJV, the 40-year-old is currently heavily involved in the development process of his new Imoca for the upcoming The Ocean Race and the Vendée Globe 2024/2025 without a boat, frequently travelling between his home port of Hamburg and Brittany. The base camps of the major racing teams and the heart of the smaller projects are now increasingly buzzing again. The teams are busy preparing for the 5,800 nautical mile course from Le Havre in Normandy to Martinique in the Caribbean. For many teams, the lights hardly go out at night, as in Lorient. While the Minitransat fleet will be sent into the second and decisive leg on 29 October, the starting shot for the "big ones" and their leap across the pond will be fired a good week later on 7 November.

Among the favourites in the Imoca class are the "Apivia" drivers Charlie Dalin (Vendée Globe runner-up) and Paul Meilhat, the "LinkedOut" crew Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière, Jérémie Beyou with Christopher Pratt on "Charal" and several others. There are five mixed teams in the Imoca fleet, including Sam Davies and Nicolas Lunven on "Initiatives-Cœur", the German-French Isabelle Joschke with Fabien Delahaye on "Macsf" and Simon "Sifi" Fischer with Justine Mettraux on "11th Hour Racing-Alaka'I". Louis Duc and Marie Tabarly, who is making her Imoca debut on "Kostum-Lantana Paysage", will also be competing in the mixed doubles. Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven sails his "Maître Coq IV" with Jean-Marie Dauris.

What regularly makes the Transat Jacques Vabre so exciting, in addition to its prominent cast, is the demanding course: in uncomfortable November, it first leads from the English Channel through the often moody and rocky Bay of Biscay in late autumn, before warmer weather and the trade winds in the south promise relief, but also new hurdles. The challenge is made more difficult by two passages through the squid belt, while the Imocas first head for the island world of Fernando de Noronha before sailing north-west again towards the finish line. Favourite Charlie Dalin, who has already won the Fastnet Race and the Défi Azimut 48 Hours with his sailing partner Paul Meilhat, says: "Yes, it would be great if we could defend our title. That would certainly be a huge success. But there are definitely more hurdles in this race than in the Fastnet or the 48-hour race - one of them is the Doldrums, the other is fatigue. The race is longer and these boats take their toll on the sailors when they are sailed at high speed over long distances." Click here for the presentation of the TJV 2021 participants (please click!).

"An unusual edition"

Sam Davies is saying goodbye to her 2012 boat "Initiatives-Cœur" with the TJV. The 47-year-old Brit, one of nine non-French starters in this edition, will have a new Manuard design in 2022. She says ahead of the Transat start: "I think we have a unique fleet for this race. That's unusual for an edition in the Vendée Globe post-season, when it's usually rather quieter. Just being in the harbour in Le Havre is going to be a pretty incredible experience. It's going to be a potentially close race, but we mustn't forget that it's almost 6000 nautical miles long. So it won't just be about pure boat speed."