Ecover’s Open 60 participated in the IMOCA fleet prologue in Le Havre on Saturday and won in a very tight race just ahead of Virbac-Paprec.

Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre were joined by a small team to compete in a prologue against the other Open 60 teams racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Also onboard Ecover were North Sails France manager Bruno Dubois and the boat preparatory team, Graham Tourell and Ian McCabe.

Golding commented on Saturday: “Today has been a great opportunity for Dominique and I to look at all the sails we will need for the Transat Jacques Vabre. This is great for Dominique who is still relatively new to the boat plus, we were joined by Bruno Dubois who has an intimate knowledge as the designer of the sail wardrobe on Ecover.”

With a great blue sky and 20 knots of south-westerly winds, Ecover led for the the majority of the regatta. Virbac-Paprec jeopardized the final victory in the last lap of the course. “It was a very tough race for the crews on all the boats because the boats are not designed to do this kind of intensive manoeuvring. On the last term, Virbac-Paprec were just ahead, then they had a twist in their code 5 which allowed us to catch and overtake them and to finish about 200 yards ahead of them! It has been a very close and tight race and it gives an idea of what to expect during the Transat Jacques Vabre!” Explained a delighted Golding at the pontoon.