Transat Jacques Vabre preview

Awesome fleet converges on Le Havre for the start of the two handed transatlantic race

Little known outside of France, the Transat Jacques Vabre is a relatively recent transatlantic race, but has become a classic event not to be missed in the sailing calendar for Open 60s monohulls and multihulls alike.

The race is two handed and open to both monohulls and multihulls - a feature which many in the increasingly independent Open monohull classes are not over the moon about. On the previous four occasions this biannual event has been held it has run from Le Havre to Cartegena in Columbia, following one of the traditional routes by which coffee was shipped to Europe (Jacques Vabre is a brand of coffee). This year however the route has been changed to go to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, the same place as the Mini Transat is currently bound.

In order to bring the finishing times closer together the monohulls sail the 4,340 mile course directly to Salvador, while the faster 60ft trimarans must sail a longer route of 5,300 miles via Ascension Island in the South Atlantic.

This year's race starts from Le Havre in northern France over the weekend of 3-4 November. The monohulls set off on the Saturday, followed by the multihulls on the Sunday.

This year's event will be exceptional simply because of the incredible competition taking part. This is both large in number and high in quality with many top names in this type of sailing taking part including Vendee Globe heroes such as Michel Desjoyeaux, Ellen and Yves Parlier and the hi-flying trimaran sailors like Loick Peyron and OSTAR winner Francis Joyon. In the fleet there are 14 60ft trimarans, 13 Open 60s and - something of a new trend in this style of racing - seven Open 50s.