Jean-Pierre Dick and Jérémie Beyou have won the 10th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. The pair crossed the finish line at Puerto Limon, Costa Rica at 08h 15mn 54s, UTC/GMT on Friday morning. The French team set a new monohull record for the race course from Le Havre – Puerto Limon. The time recorded beat the old record by one hour and seven minutes. Dick has now won the race three times.
Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill were 2nd on HUGO BOSS with a time of 16 days, 9 hours and 20 minutes.
The elapsed time for Virbac-Paprec 3 was 15d 18h 15m 54s. The average speed for the theoretical course of 4730 miles was 12.51 knots. They have traveled 5167 miles on the water at an average speed of 13.66 knots.
Jean Pierre Dick first won the race with Nicolas Abiven in 2003, again in 2005 with Loïck Peyron, the partner with whom he then went on to win this year’s Barcelona World Race.
Virbac-Paprec 3 lead out of the bay of Le Havre, passing the General Metzinger buoy, but the win result has been attributed to two major strategic decisions.
On the morning of Sunday November 6th, after Wednesday’s start, while passing the longitude of the Azores and setting up for the third big system since the start, the majority of the IMOCA Open 60 fleet hold south to escape the worst of the bad weather.
Virbac Paprec 3 stayed on the north routing with Hugo Boss and with Bureau Vallée and Gamesa. By the next day, November 7th on the 1100hrs positions report Virbac-Paprec 3 were in the lead and were never passed.
The second gain occurred two days later when the main group stayed south to seek the trade winds but ended up struggling for breeze.
HUGO BOSS Skipper, Alex Thomson said:
‘There were certainly moments when we concerned about our decision to go north. Ultimately, it was a bold call to commit to that route, but I’m pleased we stuck with it and managed to secure such a great result for Guillermo, me, and the whole HUGO BOSS team.’
Stewart Hosford, Team Director, Alex Thomson Racing said:
‘We’re thrilled to see HUGO BOSS on the leaderboard of a major race. This stands Alex in great stead for the Vendée Globe and is proof of his status as Britain’s leading solo ocean racing skipper.’
