Double-handed is the very DNA of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre

A the ned only four duos - one pair per class - will go on to have their names inscribed on the historic list of winners of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre, but each and every partnership – winners or not - will have experienced their own unique adventure, their own race, a race which can change personal histories, as has been the case for some of the best known sailors

As time ticks down towards the start of the sixteenth Coffee Route, more and more partnerships are revealed, these unveilings are all part of the excitement and interest which has long since been part and parcel of the race history, helping regenerate the Transat double-handed race every two years.

“The make-up of the duos creates more stories and builds intelligent interest,” says Gérard Petipas, who brought in the two handed format from the second edition. “The Anglo-Saxons liked this two-handed story a lot and the format has probably helped to make the event even more international,” adds Petipas who was Race Director in 1995.

Duos revealed
And over the years the revelation of the different partnerships has given rise to many surprises. Like in 1997 when the ‘extra-terrestrial’ Yves Parlier was joined on Aquitaine Innovations by the legend Eric Tabarly who had been retired from ocean racing since 1989.

“Eric had agreed during my previous Vendée Globe when I was off Brazil, but he hadn't told his wife about it. She only discovered this news through an indiscrete mention in the newspaper L'Equipe. And even then I believe that I only had Jacqueline's approval on the morning of the start from Le Havre!” chuckles Parlier.

Despite a turbulent start to the race, including a complete electrical blackout which left the 60-year-old Tabarly at the helm for a whole night resulting in a bad backache, the duo won in Cartagena for Parlier's second victory. It was also the last race for Tabarly, who died seven months later, a sailor whom Yves still remembers today "for him there was the high, the happiness of being out there in the race, but the low was having to talk about himself..."

It was a very different story but also something of a surprise in 2003 when Jean-Pierre Dick arrived in Le Havre with Virbac, the first Farr designed Open 60 footer in history, flanked by a co-skipper Nicolas Abiven, who was as little known to the general public as Dick was. There were many, many good sailors that year in the IMOCA fleet (Jourdain, Riou, Golding, Josse, etc.) but between Le Havre and Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), the qualified vet Jean-Pierre Dick and Abiven wrote their own, new story, marking out ‘JP’ as an ocean racer to watch. 

“We arrived quite a bit ahead of the second placed duo which is quite rare and seemed incredible for sailors who really had no ocean racing experience. It felt like a kind of robbery!” laughs Jean-Pierre Dick

 

Friends first or teammates first?

And there are great stories when partnerships are formed by a fateful encounter, such as in 2013 when Vincent Riou was accompanied by Jean Le Cam on Riou’s boat on which he rescued Le Cam just west of Cape Horn in the 2008-9 Vendée Globe after Le Cam’s boat overturned. And they were rewarded with a win!

Do duos have to even be friends to set off on the Atlantic for two to three weeks of racing?

Opinions are divided:

“The first two editions, I thought it had to be with a friend. What a mistake!”  recalls Yann Eliès who raced his first with his friend Bernard Stamm (2005) then with Sébastien Audigane (2007), who went on to be witness of his marriage.

"But with hindsight, I know today most of all you need someone complementary to help you understand and work your machine," says Eliès who this year is returning alongside Yoann Richomme. They of course have things in common, like sharing five overall victories in the Solitaire du Figaro between them, but in fact there is a big difference in IMOCA experience between Richomme whose first big ocean race it will be with his new IMOCA Paprec Arkéa while Eliès brings dependable, enormous experience (a triple winner including twice in IMOCA) "You have to evaluate of your pluses and minuses, your strengths and weaknesses. You are not looking for your double, your replica but someone who pushes you onwards upwards” adds Eliès.

Jean-Pierre Dick shares this opinion, adding: "The magic of being a duo is to manage to draw out the very best, the most from your team-mate, without experiencing the stress of being solo and alone." Jean-Pierre has won the event four times (a record that he shares with Franck Cammas) winning with Nicolas Abiven, Loïck Peyron, Jérémie Beyou and Yann Eliès. He adds: “What is important is that the recipe works, that you get on, that you get the best from each other. Even though we were racing on my boat and for my sponsors, I always tried to make my teammates feel comfortable and give all my energy. It's always gone well. »

 

A slice of life

Kito de Pavant, who has not missed any edition of the Coffee Route since 2001, also sees sailing two up as "a sharing of skills but, the feelings and good experiences matter enormously, because it is also the sharing of an adventure”.

This year, Kito is competing in the Class40 race with Bertrand Guillonneau who is an experienced amateur who has a full time career as a doctor. After having sailed with sailors like Jean Le Cam, François Gabart or Yves Le Blévec de Pavant notes:

“You have to be more flexible, less temperamental than sailing solo, where you often act on instinct. Now you need to discuss things to weigh things up together more, in short, you do better two up.”

And mixing up the backgrounds, the disciplines is also sometimes good. Vincent Riou will race with Aurélien Ducroz in Class40: "In 2015, I was looking for someone different because I had the impression of going round in circles and I suggested  to Sébastien Col who had just come from the America's Cup that he race with me. At first he said a clear, definitive no as we had nothing in common. I ended up convincing him and we won. We became very good friends and today I still have discussions with Sébthat I don't have with anyone else.”

But once again the proof is most evident after the finish line, not just in the result itself but when you watch the eyes and the body language and when a few ‘ti punches catch up with the tiredness the real stories come out……