12/12/2007
THE TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE 2007: A popular, sporting and media success
This eighth edition confirms that the Transat Jacques Vabre is one of ocean racing's top events. It is one of the dates on the calendar that cannot be missed. Partners, skippers, the media and the general public in particular reindex faithful to this event, and look forward to it every two years. The proof can be seen by looking at the number of visitors that turned up in Le Havre to stroll through the 7000 square metres of the Village spread out around the Paul Vatine Basin: 270,000 people! There goes another record… From a sporting point of view, the counters also went crazy: Indeed, Franck Cammas beat his own record by almost two days on Groupama 2. As for the number of boats starting out, it practically doubled going from 36 yachts to 60, thanks to the arrival of the Class40 boats. As for the media coverage, it reflected well the number of entrants: a significant increase on previous years, on television, radio and the printed press.
For its eighth edition, the Transat Jacques Vabre has once again this year benefited from a wealth of media interest. The quality of the arrangements put in place as well as the coverage in the press, radio and television enabled us to obtain better results than in 2005, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Reference period: from 1/10 to 3/12
PARTNERSHIP
TELEVISION
TF1
Total broadcast coverage – 25 programmes, or 33 min 23''
LCI
Total broadcast coverage – 116 programmes, or 2h 52' 32''
EUROSPORT
Total broadcast coverage – 78 programmes, or 1h 46' 12''
PLANETE THALASSA
Total broadcast coverage – 44 programmes, or 6h 04'00''
Total TV coverage = 11h 16' 07''
RADIOS
RADIO France
- FranceInfo
Promotional spots – 22 messages broadcast, or 11 minutes
- FranceBleu
Promotional spots – 42 messages broadcast, or 21 minutes
BILLBOARDS(from 15th October to 17th November)
-AVENIR : 787 4m x3m billboards in Paris, in the suburbs and in the regions
-NOVEO : 27 320 cm by 240 cm boards in Normandy
OFFICIAL PROGRAMMES
80,000 official programmes were distributed with the Métro daily newspaper in Paris before the start of the race on 22nd October .
FEEDS AND SEA EVENTS MEDIA SERVER DOWNLOADS
- 7h30 of footage free of rights for editorial use were made available online on the Sea Events media download server from 2nd to 28th November
- 20 fifteen-minute feeds, or in other words 5 hours of footage, free of rights for editorial use were made available to French and English-speaking TV stations
AFP
- 1297 pictures of the race available online on the AFP Image Forum website and distributed via the AFP newswire.
MEDIA COVERAGE
(Excluding the special media arrangements)
Sources: « Argus de la presse » and TV and radio broadcasters
TELEVISION - Total broadcast coverage: 53 hours and 58 minutes including:
- Terrestrial TV: 09h 48 minutes, of which 2h 02minutes were national transmissions
- Cable / satellite / digital terrestrial/ broadband: 44 h 10 minutes
RADIO - Total broadcast coverage: 56 hours and 8 minutes
Including: 22h 40 minutes of national transmissions
FRENCH PRINT MEDIA- A total of 2661 articles including:
- Regional dailies: 1711 articles
- National dailies: 271 articles
- Weeklies: 195 articles
- Monthlies: 92 articles
- Press agencies: 137 articles
- Others: 255 articles
INTERNET – Official Transat Jacques Vabre website: 1,345,791 visits, including:
- 326,212 single visitors
- 5,482,113 million pages visited
Plus:
- 51 Newsletters sent out
- 1202 articles online
- 110 videos available online
- 426 radio sessions online
- 1462 photos online
- 795 requests for information
- charts: 278,148 single visitors
II- Sporting success: A Jacques Vabre for the history books
A win by the duo Desjoyeaux - Le Borgne in 17 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes on Foncia. Safran, the runner-up also impressed. In the Orma category, a clear win for Groupama 2 (10 days and 38 minutes). In the 50-foot Multihull category, Crêpes Whaou! dominated the fleet (15 days and 22 hours).
For the Class 40 boats, an impressive win for Telecom Italia in 22 days and 13 hours ahead of Atao Audio System and Chocolats Monbana. Four boats were forced to retire out of sixty.
What can we learn from this eighth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre? A lot of useful lessons. We can begin with the Imoca class, which attracted everyone's attention with the Vendée Globe coming up next year.How can we not notice Michel Desjoyeaux's domination (accompanied by Manu Le Borgne) on Foncia?
The first major race and victory for this boat from the new generation of Farr designs. However, we should not just say it is simply one more win for this brilliant yachtsman, who manages to grab first place with such amazing regularity as he deserves to be thoroughly congratulated. We would be right to say that there is no one quite like Desjoyeaux, and his intelligence and determination should be admired. Just a reminder that the top three were Foncia-Safran-Cheminées Poujoulat.
In this hotly contested Transat Jacques Vabre (7 leaders in 17 days), the outstanding achievement came from the men on Safran (2nd in the race). Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier, having to sail without a spinnaker, crossed the finish 54 minutes after Foncia. Marc Guillemot, a few days later, looked back on his performance: «We really have the impression we have a great boat with a strong potential, which others are jealous of,» said a quiet-spoken Marc with a tiny smile on his face. Then he added: «What surprised me was that in the end the most radical design choices came from the older sailors: myself, Mich' (Desjoyeaux), Mike (Golding) and Kito (de Pavant). But we'll have to wait and see what that means in terms of single-handed sailing», concluded a wise Marc Guillemot.
This was also the opinion expressed by Loïck Peyron when his Gitana Eighty finished: «These are great machines. But will the sailor be able to cope with them? » How can we interpret this comment looking towards a round the world race. The reply from Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), who was in the company of Gildas Morvan, finishing in fourth place: «The first question on everyone's mind: who can beat Safran? The second, which follows that is how can we push a boat forward as quickly without suffering?» Jean had a glimpse of the problem from the start: «Powerless with such power.» It sounds like a school exam subject, but it is very clear. Marc Guillemot puts him up there with the winners of the Vendée Globe: «If Jean can work on his appendages, lightening them, he is going to be a very, very serious contender.»
Are there any other lessons? Certainly, at least as far as the two new boats are concerned (Generali and Brit Air) who did not live up to the hopes of the sailors taking part in the Jacques Vabre. A lot of work will have to be done on these boats this winter. As one sailor said they « will be on a weight watcher's diet,» adding as he drew a puff on his cigarette: «But what can you do when you know you have got it wrong?»
Safran, reindexs beyond question the boat that establishes a pattern for the next series of architectural designs. Groupe Bel, her half-brother, can boast of arousing similar interest. For a country like France, as we hear the death knell of the Orma class, at least in its present design form (60-foot), it is heartbreaking. Things should be more cheerful in a couple of years with the 70-foot one-design boats.
There was little suspense in seeing Groupama 2 (Franck Cammas – Stève Ravussin) win ahead of Gitana 11 (Lemonchois - Guichard) and Banque Populaire (Bidégorry - Yvan Ravussin). The latter two, following damage, had to stop for repairs, thus giving up any hope of victory. Groupama 2's great time (10 days, 38 minutes) on the direct route smashed the previous record by one day and 22 minutes. Five boats set out and five were to finish. There was one frightening moment for Banque Populaire, whose bow broke off a few hours from the finish. It looked like «a nose sliced up by a machete», according to Pascal Bidégorry.
In the fifty-foot multihull class, there was nothing new under the sun to be honest. We knew from the outset Crêpes Whaou!'s domination over the class had been clear for a long time and that Franck-Yves Escoffier, this year in the company of Karine Fauconnier, was the right person to get the trimaran from St. Malo in the right place to pull off a second win. He did this in 15 days and 22 hours. Crêpes Whaou!'s leadership was not really under threat, even if Laiterie de Saint-Malo, who chose a westerly option through the Doldrums, managed to close the gap (less than fifty miles separated them) before paying the price (1 day and 16 hours behind). The duo of mother and daughter Caseneuve (Croisières Anne Caseneuve) had an amazing race finishing in third place (19 days). As for the pairing from St. Brieuc (father and son Carlan) on dzenergy.com, they brought up the rear of the 50-foot multis on Saturday.
Finally, to close, we must pay homage to the achievement made from Ushant by Soldini and d'Ali on board Telecom Italia, a Verdier design, like Safran (but with VP-LP). Five months to build a boat and 22 days and 13 hours to cover 4340 miles. Great work. Second place went to Atao Audio System (Vittet - Chabagny) in 22 days and 17 hours. As for Chocolats Monbana (Grimont - Le Roux) in 23 days and 1 hour, they took the final podium place. We should mention too the close finish between Sidaction, Pôle Elior Santé and Deep Blue. The three boats, practically neck and neck, as they approached the line, were only two minutes and five seconds apart at the finish. One more number: 27 seconds. This was the gap between Jardin Bio (Parnaudeau - Caso) and Commerce équitable (Criquioche - Duc), respectively 21st and 22nd. Just for fun, we cannot resist offering you one of the most amusing lines about this Jacques Vabre. It came from Miss.Cécile Poujoul on Merci les amis (17th): «It was a transatlantic race for fans of Sarkozy. You had to keep to the right all the time. The rich got richer, while we had to work harder to earn more, but it never got us anywhere! (laughs). » The reader can draw his or her own conclusions.
III- Sustainable development on the podium: first results look very positive
The eighth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre was focused on the goal of sustainable development with the ambition of organising a race, which will be seen in the long term as a responsible event.
A charter brought together all of those involved in the Transat Jacques Vabre, who wanted to join the project and there were indeed many of them. The 79 people signing, including skippers, owners and partners, committed themselves to taking concrete measures to fight against pollution and encourage sustainable development, such as sorting out 100% of their rubbish and reducing and offsetting their CO2 emissions.
The overall plan of action was supported by the French Environmental and Energy Conservation Agency (ADEME), the Regional Environmental Authority in Upper Normandy (DIREN) and the French Sailing Federation (FFV).
An educational goal
At the Transat Jacques Vabre village in Le Havre, which attracted more than 270,000 visitors, the organisers wanted to make the public become more aware of what is at stake with sustainable development.
Almost 50,000 people passed through the dome at the entrance to the village: a fun event was in place to inform visitors, both young and old about the basic concepts of sustainable development. There was a reconstruction of a coffee plantation applying the principles of sustainable farming, thanks to the support and work of the Rainforest Alliance (NGO that has been working for 20 years on sustainable development and biodiversity).
Reducing the ecological footprint of the event
A lot of measures were put in place in Le Havre to limit the production of CO2 linked to the organisation of the event. These efforts were aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gases in comparison to the previous edition.
Among the key measures, we can give the example of the use of low energy lighting, the use of transparent roofs on the village tents in order to take advantage of solar energy to reduce heating costs, the exceptional opening of a bike hire centre set up by the City of Le Havre to make it easy to access the race village.
Moreover, waste management arrangements were put in place to allow all those taking part (competitors, exhibitors, the general public and organisers) to sort out their rubbish. Finally, all of the communications media published by the race organisers was printed on high quality environmentally friendly paper (FSC standard of recycled paper).
A pilot programme to offset CO2 emissions
In order to offset reindexing greenhouse gas emissions,estimated at 2700 tonnes of carbon dioxide (from every possible source, including motor boats, accompanying boats, travel by the organisers, the transport of equipment to Brazil and finally the energy related to travel by the general public to get to Le Havre, were taken into account), the race was committed to replanting forests with around 15,000 trees in the Caraiva River basin in Brazil.
In this region of the State of Bahia, the Atlantic Forest has almost totally disappeared. NGOs and local associations have got together to save and replant this old primary forest. This pilot project in which the Transat Jacques Vabre and several of its partners became involved, set itself the goal of achieving the criteria of the Climate Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), the most demanding standard for offsetting projects using replanting.
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