Salvador (Brazil) (AFP)
Gilles Lamiré and Antoine Carpentier, aboard the Multi50 Groupe GCA - Mille et une smiles, won the 14th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV) Friday in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil).
The tandem is the first to reach the bay of all Saints, in the early morning, ahead of two other multihulls engaged in the race. The other two classes of boats, the Imoca, stars of the TJV 2019, and the Class 40, are expected in a few days.
The finish line was crossed at 05H49 French time (01H49 local time), after a crossing of 11 days, 16 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds.
Lamiré and Carpentier were at the helm of one of the best-performing boats in the class, despite its construction in 2009, already winner of the Route du Rhum and three TJVs.
"A good strategy, a good speed of the boat and a good investment" allowed this victory, assured to AFP Christian Dumard, router of the duo, stressing also "the super complementarity" between the two sailors.
The winners of 49-year-old Gilles Lamiré won the British Transat in 2016, also in Multi50, while Antoine Carpentier, 44, has already won the coffee route two years ago, but in Class40.
The two other multihulls entered are those of Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben (Primonial) and Thibaut Vauchel Camus and Fred Duthil (Solidaires En Peloton - ARSEP). They are expected in Salvador before the arrival of the first Imoca, probably Sunday morning.
The latter are the stars of the race this year because of their large numbers -29 took the departure Oct. 27 of Le Havre-, but also because these monohulls of 18 meters are the ones that will start on November 8, 2020 Vendée Globe, the mythical race around the world alone and without assistance nicknamed the Everest of the seas.
"With the Vendée Globe in a year, everyone looks Imoca is a little test," said Francis Le Goff, deputy director of the race. "All the big names in sailing are on this class".
The Transat Jacques Vabre, created in 1993 by the city of Le Havre and the brand of coffee, is the longest transatlantic race with its 4,350 nautical miles, or some 8,000 kilometers.
© 2019 AFP