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.