The latest race news from the race

© Jean-Marie Liot / Aléa
Open letter to participating classes and skipper candidates
Dear skippers, dear classes,
Today, the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre, its founding members, its new management and race management teams, are delighted to present the 2021 version of the Coffee Route to you. Naturally, we are counting on your participation and your commitment to make this new draft a success.
Since 1993, you sailors, teams and partners have felt welcome and appreciated when you come alongside in Le Havre at the end of October. Rest assured that you will feel even more cherished in 2021. You can also be certain that Martinique is reserving its warmest welcome for you and is preparing a wonderful celebration for your arrival on the other side of the Atlantic.
For the past 28 years, this generous relationship between the race and those who take part has been widely acknowledged. It forms part of our heritage and guides this fresh impetus for the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre. This new course, bound for Fort-de-France, is intended to be a theatre for our new collective story, as well as all our individual stories.
Dear Imoca skippers, after getting our imagination going in this winter’s Vendée Globe, you’re presence is eagerly awaited in a few months’ time. Dear Ocean Fifty skippers, you will have the honour of being the very first to make landfall in Martinique. Dear Class40, it’s a promise, the celebrations
in Fort-de-France will continue for your arrivals. As ever, you are expected to come out in force. Dear Ultim class, it’s a real honour to welcome you back in 2021.
Finally, dear virtual skippers, the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre is honoured to be the first offshore race to officially recognise you as the ‘fifth class’. The zeal for Virtual Regatta and our desire to join together the physical and the digital has prompted us to register you as a class in its own right.
Dear skippers, dear classes, we know that the values promoted by the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre, namely responsibility, performance, high standards and sharing, echo your own. As such, we hope to see a great many of you taking the race start, be it real or virtual, on 7 November 2021.