Transat Jacques Vabre preview

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

60ft trimarans

The racing in this class will be hottest. This is partly because these boats are among the most exciting to sail in the world, capable of exhilarating speeds in excess of 30 knots but also have acceleration that is enough to knock you flat on your back.

This is perhaps best put in perspective by their relative performance compared to similarly sized monohulls. While a Volvo Ocean 60 has to date managed 440.1 miles in a day and an Open 60 last year did 467.1 miles, Yvan Bourgnon's trimaran knocked up a staggering 624 miles in a day during last year's Quebec-St Malo race.

It is this which makes it the premier league class in France. In the Mini class, the Figaros and the Open 60s most of the aspirant competitive sailors see a 60ft trimaran campaign as being their ultimate ambition. The boats are not only fast and hugely exhilarating to sail, but the fleet is highly competitive and professional and it is this which has attracted not only salty dogs like Desjoyeaux, but America's Cup and match racing experts such as Thierry Peponnet.

While the 60ft trimaran class was trundling along with half a dozen boats regularly competing in the early 1990s, in the late 1990s interest began to pick up and currently it is going through a great surge of popularity. This is partly down to the economic climate in France, but also because the class has a solid organisational foundation in the Offshore Racing Multihull Association (ORMA) run by former sailor Philippe Facque who maintains a Bernie Ecklestone-type grip on it.

ORMA run a series of televised Grand Prix events around France (and this year Italy and Belgium) which we have covered this year on madforsailing and the sight of these three hulled speedsters converging on marks at 25 knots with two hulls out of the water has made for some of the best sailing TV I have ever seen.

But the main reason that six of the 14 tris racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre have been launched in last 12 months is because of next year's Route de Rhum. Second perhaps only to the Vendee Globe, France's singlehanded transatlantic race is the most popular offshore yacht race in France in terms of its awareness with the public and is therefore of the greatest value to sponsors. Hence skippers are able to raise sponsorship for new campaigns. For the skippers themselves it is a classic event, first held in 1978 and one of the most prestigious events to win in the French sailing calendar.

Two brand spanking new trimarans will be taking part in the Transat Jacques Vabre. These are Jean-Luc Nelias' new Belgacom and Sergio Tacchini for Karine Fauconnier (see below). The former is a new design by Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prevost, a duo who are the most prolific architects on this circuit, while the latter is by top British racing multihull designer Nigel Irens.