Sill Plein Fruit, skippered by Roland Jourdain and Gael Le Cleac’h, crossed the line at 2313hrs local time in Bahia on Monday night, or 0113hrs GMT, Tuesday 20th November. The red boat takes sweet victory in the Open 60 Monohull class, after spending 16 days, 13 hours, 23 mins & 41 seconds on course. An flawless race for this Lombard-designed Open 60, after finishing 2nd in the EDS Atlantic Challenge, despite a dismasting, and 3rd in the Vendée Globe. Roland Jourdain becomes the first skipper to have won the Transat Jacques Vabre in both monohulls and multihulls, as he co-skippered Paul Vatine on Région Haute Normandie to victory in 1995.
And what an exceptional race it was for Sill Plein Fruit, skippers Roland Jourdain and Gael Le Cleac’h took the lead off the African coast from Ecover a few days before entering the Doldrums and just never gave anyone else the opportunity to touch them after that. Their official course is 4340m and on this mileage their average speed was 10.92 knots. Calculations show that they actually covered 4620 miles at an average speed of 11.62 knots.
Finally the swords are down – 5 hours and 17 minutes after Sill Plein Fruit, Ecover (Golding/Hutchinson) swept into second place, Casto-Darty-But (Moloney/Turner) finishing 3rd an hour and a half later. So the curtain has come down at last on the closest battle waged at sea in the monohull fleet between two proven rivals for over 4 days and across two oceans in this Transat Jacques Vabre, often just half a mile separating them. In the reaching to upwind conditions it was Casto-Darty-But’s advantage, but the final miles would be downwind in the SE Trades, and that was always going to be Ecover’s joker to pull out just 24hrs before the line, her hull optimised for this point of sail.
Ecover nosed ahead of Casto-Darty-But yesterday morning, just 24 hrs before the line, excelling in boat speed in the steady downwind conditions along the Brazilian shores. Golding & Hutchinson crossed the line in Bahia at 0630hrs 55s GMT half a dozen miles ahead of comrades Moloney & Turner on Casto-Darty-But, who crossed in third place at 0800hrs 52s GMT.
After coming 3rd in the last Transat Jacques Vabre with Ed Danby as co-skipper, Golding has moved one place up the podium this time round.
NEWSFLASH
* Open 50 Tredici lost 10 metres of its 22m mast after the rupture of a bottlescrew caused the rig to break above the second spreader. They are heading to Brazil under main with 3 reefs and staysail.
* Bonduelle (Le Cam/Caraes) finished at 2121hrs GMT on 19th November, followed by Belgacom (Nélias/Desjoyeaux) at 0318hrs GMT, on 20th Novermber.
Mary Ambler
– Multihull Rankings (Time reference + difference from leader)
Alexis Loison and Jean-Pierre Kelbert’s JPK 1050 Léon has been crowned overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race. No other boat still racing on the 695 nautical mile course can catch the French doublehanded duo for overall honours in this, the 51st edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s offshore classic.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) is delighted to announce the Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM) as the winner of the 2025 Admiral’s Cup. After an intense battle during the RORC Channel Race, six inshore races in the Solent and the prestigious finale, the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Yacht Club de Monaco team is victorious. Runner-up for the Admiral’s Cup (…)
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Parti le 19 septembre dernier de Manhattan, le trimaran de 53 pieds Great American II vient d’arriver en Australie. Il a franchit la ligne d’arrivée mouillée devant le Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. Il était 13h29 mardi après midi (heure australienne).
A finish gun fired from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria at 1:29 PM today signaled a new sailing record from New York City to Melbourne. The 53-foot trimaran Great American II completed the 15,000-mile voyage to Australia in 68 days 10 hours 7 minutes 52 seconds, breaking a record that had stood for 146 years.
The SeaSailSurfer of the month has won the two-handed transatlantic from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia. He is from Switzerland and is nearly 33 years old : Stève Ravussin was Franck Cammas crew aboard the 60’ trimaran Groupama.
Le SeaSailSurfer du mois s’est illustré entre Le Havre et Salvador de Bahia. Il s’agit du Suisse Stève Ravussin, vainqueur au coté de Franck Cammas de la Transat Jacques Vabre dans la catégorie des monocoques.
FRA 46 et NZL 32 en plein circling devant l’île de Groix. Photo : Ch.Guigueno
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The Transat Jacques Vabre 2001 was the last event to count in the biennial FICO-LACOSTE 2001 World Championships, for skipper, crews and sponsors alike, and the results of this race have finally determined the winners, who will be presented with their titles on the 7th December in Paris, at the
official Awards Ceremony.
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