As expected, battle commenced as soon as they left the English Channel with a fast pace forcing the sailors to draw on their reserves. Strong winds and reaching conditions set the atmosphere. Everyone knew that a particularly deep low-pressure area would be the deciding judge in this first part of the race. This very active low centred to the north of the Azores, was generating very strong winds and whipping up the seas. Should they face up to the elements and risk having to face some tricky conditions, but save precious miles on their way or play the safety card by diving south as soon as they reached the tip of Brittany? Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou (Foncia) were the first to choose the south. The two times winner of the Vendée Globe explained: facing winds in excess of fifty knots did not scare him, but this time it would be upwind, which meant inflicting a real battering on the men and equipment. The two, soon followed by other crews including Akena Vérandas, Artemis, and W Hotels gambled they would be around 100 miles behind the leaders coming out of the low, but above all that they would be in better shape and that their boat would be in perfect condition. It was a well thought through plan, but unfortunately, the weather patterns changed so that this little group ended up 300 miles behind when they got back with the others in the fleet, who had remained in the north. They could not overcome this handicap and could no longer seriously look forward to winning such a tightly fought race.

Hell facing everyone
In the north, the fleet had to face some very high seas and storm force winds. Several sailors spoke of wind gauges stuck at sixty knots, rogue waves, boats knocked down into the water. The whole of the fleet had to weather the storm and hold out in spite of damage forcing Veolia Environnement to make a pit stop in the Azores while Aviva and 1876 had to deal with recurrent technical problems right up to the finish. But in general, the boats got through… with the exception of Sébastien Josse and Jean-François Cuzon on BT, which after the worst of the storm had passed suddenly saw their coach roof ripped off by a wave, meaning they suddenly took on board almost three tonnes of sea water. With their damaged boat threatening to sink, the two sailors had to ask for help. By chance, the fact that they were close to the Azores combined with the professionalism of all those involved, meant that they were lifted off by helicopter eight hours later, in spite of waves rising to eight metres in height.

But from this hell, three boats made their way out in the lead: Safran (Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier), Groupe Bel (Kito de Pavant and François Gabart) and Mike Golding Yacht Racing (Mike Golding and Javier Sanso). Behind the two lightweight French boats, the Anglo-Spanish crew tried to hold on, in spite of the loss of their wind instruments meaning they were unable to use their autopilot. But gradually, things became clear: unless there was a last minute upset, the Transat Jacques Vabre would see one of the two VPLP/ Verdier designed boats win the race…

A well established hierarchy
From that moment on, in spite of all the hard work from Kito de Pavant and François Gabart, Safran, day after day extended her lead to reach almost eighty miles as they reached the finish. The result was therefore clear in spite of the variable winds at the finish in Puerto Limon in Costa Rica. Logically Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier won the event ahead of Kito de Pavant and François Gabart. In third place Mike Golding and Javier Sanso managed to ward of the attacks from Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou, who were looking dangerous in the second part of the race. For fifth place a real battle raged between Roland Jourdain – Jean-Luc Nélias and the Spaniards on W Hotel, Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes. When they thought they had done all the hard work by relegating their rivals from more than five miles behind them to ten miles at the finish, the duo on Veolia saw during a squall a rocket coming up behind them to grab fifth place finishing just five minutes earlier. There was the same excitement between Akena Vérandas and Aviva, where Arnaud Boissières, joining forces with Vincent Riou, managed to do the same with their friends from the Vendée Globe, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, by stealing victory from the British couple on the line…

Several crews were not lucky enough to complete the voyage to Puerto Limon: Brit Ait was forced to retire when the mast track was ripped off… Hugo Boss hit a floating object forcing them back to the Azores. The crew of Artemis found it rather harder to get into the wing of the race… Finishing in tenth and final place in Costa Rica, Sam and Sidney could console each other by telling themselves that they had managed to get through in spite of the bad weather that hit the fleet. Considering the circumstances that was indeed some sort of consolation.