The Class40 heart-stopping finale in the Transat Jacques Vabre: Sleepless in the Caribbean

They took the lead in the Class40 on the evening of 18 November and haven't relinquished it since: Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde Del Arco sailed towards their victory in the Class40 on Monday morning in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021, which was already within reach. At 9am, the duo on "Redman" had a lead of around 13 nautical miles over Valentin Gautier and Simon Koster with just under 50 nautical miles remaining to the finish line off Martinique.

Behind them, after more than 4500 nautical miles of theoretical course length with only half a nautical mile between them, the crews on "Seafrigo Sogestran" and "Volvo" fought tooth and nail for third place. In the heart-stopping final for this third podium place, the "Seafrigo - Sogestran" crew with Cédric Château and Jérémie Mion and the "Volvo" team with Jonas Gerckens and Benoit Hantzperg fought within sight of each other for a result in the top three. Ten nautical miles behind them, Luc Berry and Achille Nebout drove their "Lamotte Module Création" towards the finish harbour of Fort-de-France. The decisions will be made on 29 November.

Ian Lipinski and Julien Pulvé, who have now dropped back to 14th place, can no longer take part in this battle. The "Crédit Mutuel" of last year's winner and Mini-Transat overflyer Lipinski and his co-pilot collided with an unknown object on the night of 25 November. The keel was damaged in the process. The duo were in second place when the shock dashed all hopes of a top position. Their brand new Class40 had been one of the pre-start favourites.

World circumnavigator and Nacra 17 world champion Marie Rio and young Amélie Grassi on "La Boulangerie Bio" were the best Class 40 performers in tenth place in the largest transat field of the 43 Class 40 yachts still sailing shortly before the final. The two sailors only had a good 100 nautical miles to go to the finish and doggedly defended their top ten position.

Isabelle Joschke and Fabien Delahaye have now arrived in Martinique with their "Macsf". The Munich-born French-German and her co-skipper sailed to twelfth place. Eight other Imocas had previously crossed the finish line on Sunday, including Romain Attanasio and Sébastien Marsset on "Fortinet - Best Western" in seventh place. The duo sailed the ex-"Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco", taken over by Boris Herrmann, for the first time.

Skipper Attanasio, who finished the Imoca race only two places behind his wife Samantha Davies, who came fifth with Nicolas Lunven on "Initiatives Cœur", said after arrival: "At the beginning we still lacked a little knowledge about the boat. After that we learnt a lot. I'm glad that it was a year with a transatlantic race in the double. In Seb, there was someone who took the boat in his hands with me right from the start." Sébastien Marsset was also impressed with Boris Herrmann's loyal and fast yacht at the last Vendée Globe: "It was great. The boat is great. I think it's the best boat I've ever sailed on."

And here you can find the intermediate results of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2021 (please click!).