After 15 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes and 54 seconds of racing, Jean-Pierre Dick and Jérémie Beyou on board Virbac-Paprec 3 this morning won the Transat Jacques Vabre after dominating the race continuously for eleven days. Jean-Pierre has therefore achieved a third historic win in this race, which he previously won in 2003 with Nicolas Abiven and in 2005 with Loïck Peyron.
Virbac-Paprec 3 has smashed the course record, set by Safran in 2009 (15d 19h 22 mins) improving on time by 1 hour and 7 minutes. The skipper from Nice has achieved his fifth major win in the IMOCA circuit in ten years of competition. Jean-Pierre Dick: "During the first three days, we found it hard to get into the swing of things, then for three quarters of the race we were in charge, after pursuing our strategy and going our own way. We worked well, kept hard at it and that paid off. This victory feels great, as Puerto Limon is a port I don’t know at all. We can smell the earth, and what’s funny is that right alongside there is a beach called Bahia, which reminds me of my two previous wins in this transatlantic race. I’m pleased, because there was a fantastic line-up at the start of this event with a very high standard, as we were up against boats like Safran, PRB and Banque Populaire… which are fantastic projects, so it’s wonderful to finish in first place."
