The Transat Jacques Vabre, or TJV, is a biennial, double-handed, transatlantic race that takes place every year which ends with an ‘odd’ number (2021, 2023 etc)

Established in 1993 the course follows routes originally used by cargo clipper ships that traded coffee from Brazil to France and is named after its sponsor, French coffee manufacturer Jacques Vabre.

Leaving from France’s Le Havre in early November, the race often finishes in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, one of the country’s biggest coffee growing regions. However, there have been some variations in the final destinations, for example s in 2011 the finish line was in Puerto Limon in Costa Rica, another area renowned for its coffee plantations, while in 2021 when the finish had to be moved to the French-owned Caribbean island of Martinique due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The straight line course distance averages around 4,500 miles

However, as the boats contesting the Transat Jacques Vabre get faster, so the course has been adapted. For 2021 there were three different routes, with the Class 40s sailing some 4,600 miles from Le Havre to Martinque, while the Ocean 50 multihulls and IMOCA 60s sailed via the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, a total distance of 5,800 miles. Meanwhile the giant Ultims sailed 7,500 miles, rounding a waypoint off Rio de Janeiro. The larger classes also had to twice cross the Equator and doldrums.

The Transat Jacques Vabre is open to many classes of multihull and monohull yachts:

MultiHulls:

Ultims (between 70 and 105 feet)
Multi 50 (50 feet)

Monohulls:

IMOCA (60 feet)
Class40. (40 feet)