The Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie- Le Havre celebrates its 30th anniversary this year

And these 100 duos who have entered the race for Class40, Ocean Fifty, IMOCA and Ultim 32/23 are the best possible proof of the continued popularity and vitality of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the Coffee Route which has long since established itself as the double handed Transatlantic, a unique race which has been a firm fixture on the ocean racing calendar for so many years now.

As the creator of a brand of coffee of pure origins, Jacques Vabre, came to competitive sailing in 1993 when they teamed up with the city of Le Havre to launch a new race across the Atlantic

"The main strength of the event was to find a real meaning for it.”  Recalls Marc Dujardin the marketing director of JDE France, the company which owns the Jacques Vabre brand. “And so the race is the Coffee Route, an event which – since the beginning – has celebrated the richness of coffee producing territories as well as the people who take care of them, whilst at the same time inspiring people to dream and enjoy an extraordinary human and sporting adventure”.

And so the Transat Jacques Vabre was created, the official name of the first edition racing between Le Havre and Cartagena in Colombia, two destinations intimately linked by the coffee trade joined together by an event unprecedented in ocean racing.

 

In the beginning
Thirteen intrepid sailors set off on October 31, 1993. Some were there pursuing their top level sport, names like Peyron, Parlier, Gautier and the Bourgnons. But others were attracted by the adventure, like a youthful Vincent Riou, the youngest skipper in that inaugural event taking on his first Transat Jacques Vabre.

“After 20 days racing you met these canoe fishermen who live on the islands off Cartagena, you found yourself wondering where you were! And for me since then the Coffee Route has remained really synonymous with adventure travel. I discovered countries which were new to me, and I made friends each and every time.”  Recalls Riou who has won twice, in 2013 and 2015. And now he sets off once again in this 30^th anniversary year, this time on the Class40 Crosscall along with Aurelien Ducroz.

From this inaugural edition the winner, Paul Vatine, stands out. He won the first Transat Jacques Vabre, before winning again 1995 alongside Roland Jourdain. A native of Le Havre who won the first edition on a new course which had a distinctly exotic air about it, that was special. 

“Of course, this race elicits thoughts of Paul Vatine,” says Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, France’s Minister Delegate in charge of Territorial Organization and Health Professions who is from Le Havre. “But I'm also thinking of Charlie Dalin, another local Le Havre boy who was around the Transat Jacques Vabre starts in the ‘90s as a youngster harbouring his youthful ocean racing dreams, and now here he is back among the favourites again this year (Dalin won the IMOCA race in 2019 NDR). The link between these two sailors from Le Havre, 30 years apart,. is a great part of the story. We had expected Le Havre to become a real nautical city and indeed the Transat Jacques Vabre has played a huge part in this."

 

From the Coffee Route to the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie- Le Havre
In 1995, to professionalize the organization, Jacques Vabre and the city of Le Havre which had elected its new mayor Antoine Rufenacht, called on Gérard Petipas to bring in new ideas.

These include switching from single-handed to double-handed, maintaining the original course but with no passage to Saint Barth to channel the fleet and so maintaining the suspense in the Caribbean and sticking to a biannual timing. 

The Coffee Route becomes the Transat Jacques Vabre and will never again deviate from the fundamentals of 1995. Petipas recalls “The reference format I had in mind was the double-handed Transat Lorient Les Bermudes Lorient. So a long race but with suspense until the finish raced on boats driven flat out by two sailors whilst maintaining a good level of safety”.

From 1995 to 2023, the Transat Jacques Vabre remains faithful to the start port of Le Havre but will visit many coffee regions. Cartagena, Salvador de Bahia, Itajaí, Puerto Limon and since 2021, Fort-de-France in Martinique. And so there remains the sense of adventure travel, it is two handed still and they cross the Doldrums pass round remote mysterious islands and put the spotlight on destinations lesser known to the general public...

A virtuous and pioneering organization
The year 2010 is a turning point with the creation of the Transat Jacques Vabre Association on which the two title partners sit equally. “It is a virtuous governance because there is no profit motive.” explains Gildas Gautier, co-director of the event. “From the outset, we sought to bring the main fundamental requirements in line with our environmental ambitions”.

The Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre is the first sailing race to take on this initiative. In fact from as far back as 2007 the race asked skippers to sign a charter to manifest respect for the environment, a first step which has been transformed into a real action plan on all CSR topics. The 2011 edition was the first to be organized around these facets and the race was recognized as a benchmark event by ADEME* that same year.

A pioneer in the field of environmental responsibility, the Transat Jacques Vabre has innovated to support the development of ocean racing in particular with separate courses per class. Small or big, pro or amateur, each competitor should receive their share of the limelight. And this year, the start for 100 boats on October 29 will see four start sequences running every 10 minutes, so that each class has its time in the spotlight.

 

Achievements, a state of mind
Over the years the Route du Café has uncovered many of the new stars of offshore racing, from Vincent Riou, to Maxime Sorel via Antoine Carpentier as well as revealing some legendary pairings. For different reasons among the outstanding partnerships have been Yves Parlier - Eric Tabarly, as well as Franck Cammas - Steve Ravussin, Jean-Pierre Dick - Loïck Peyron, Karine Fauconnier - Franck Yves Escoffier. And there has been Tanguy de Lamotte sailing with with actor François Damiens. Franck Cammas and Jean Pierre Dick share the event record with four victories. And Cammas has the chance to go one better now, this time as Jérémie Beyou's co-skipper on Charal in the IMOCAs.

“What drives us today is the desire to continue to make the Route du Café a real meeting point. The Transat Jacques Vabre is a real link between coffee lovers and producers, and between the public and sailors, whether in Normandy in Le Havre, or in Martinique in Fort de France. We want to connect the continents, and rally people around a shared  imagination that unites us together,”  concludes Marc Dujardin. “It is the whole spirit of friendship that is created between the partners, and of the village where we will have the opportunity to celebrate together from October 20th.”

 

The 200 competing sailors who will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre from October 20, the opening date of the village in Le Havre, will surely bear witness to this.