The Transat Jacques Vabre – the doublehanded 4,340-mile transatlantic race which starts this Saturday from Le Havre – will see a total of 35 entries on the start line with the fleet divided into four different classes including 60ft multihulls (10 entries), 50ft multihulls (6 entries), 60ft monohulls (13 entries), 50ft monohulls (6 entries).

There are two British boats taking part with Brian Thompson and his Australian teammate Will Oxley aboard the Open 60Skandia(Nick Moloney’s Vendee Globe yacht), and Mike Golding and Dominique Wavre onEcover. Ellen MacArthur, in the same class, will race with teammate Roland Jourdain aboardSill et Veolia.

Other British sailors to watch out for include Miranda Merron who’ll be racing with Vendee skipper Anne Liardet aboard the Open 60Roxy, Merfyn Owen who’s sailing with Kip Stone on the Open 50Artforms, and Josh Hall who’s on the Open 50Gryphon Solowith Joe Harris.

The monohulls will leave the start port of Le Havre, France on at 15h00 local time followed by the multihulls the next day. For the Open 60 monohull fleet the race duration is between 16-18 days while the faster multihulls are expected to finish in around 14 days at the finish port of Salvador da Bahia in Brazil.

Entry list