Saint-Michel/ Virbac, the monohull manned by Jean-Pierre Dick and Fabien Delaunay, set off on smooth seas from the piers of Le Havre on Sunday, 25 October for the Transat Jacques Vabre. 

Arnaud Fayolle, partner at Altana, represented the firm as part of this loyal partnership and was accompanied by sailing enthusiast Stanislas Llurens, director of AutoEcole.net and a client of the firm.

“This sailing of the new St. Michel Virbac comes with great emotion”, said Jean-Pierre Dick just before embarking. “I want to set off. The race is starting under very rough conditions, especially in terms of waves”.

The forty-two teams of duos set out to face the challenge of reaching Itajai; in the south of Brazil, from Le Havre. This offshore race retraces the trajectory of the traditional “Coffee Route” and the best teams should reach the finish in fifteen days (based on weather conditions).

A delegation of the firm and clients was able to see this boat being constructed last June. It was finally delivered with a small delay a month ago, thus limiting the race preparation. The boat has the special feature, as do only four other sailboats, of having foils on each side that prevent the boat from heeling excessively and allow it to reach higher speeds.

 

“A Stirring Encounter”

“The partners met at 7:30 on Sunday morning for a rather moving breakfast with Jean-Pierre, Fabien and their families”, reported Arnaud Fayolle. “At this occasion, Jean-Pierre shared his concerns about the weather conditions that they were going to face on Monday night, with waves exceeding seven meters and winds at 35 to 40 knots”, continued Arnaud. “The boats are fragile and there is always a concern about their ability to navigate such conditions”.

Jean-Pierre recalled that this race, which he has already won three times, constitutes above all a good way to test his new boat in an offshore race in preparation for the Cendée Globe next year. The emotion was high as his wife, his son and all of his friends wished him good luck for these three weeks of racing.

“We then followed the 42 boats for a few nautical miles from Le Havre to attend the departure,” Arnaud continued, “a soft start with winds at less than 3 knots (10 km/h) and a sun worthy of the Côte d’Azur. The sailboats barely crossed the line formed by two buoys to follow the coasts until Etretat. Luc Talbourdet, Jean-Pierre Dick’s partner “on the ground”, and a young sailor, Justine Mettraux (who participated in and won a leg of the Volvo Race this year) heartily shared their passion for the Transat with us, and showed us all of the technical details of the boats and the race strategy.”

Altana is very proud to be a partner is this adventure and to be fully associated with its values: courage, work, solidarity and performance.

All who wish to more closely follow the race are welcome to visit the race’s link at http://tracking.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en.