Britain’s Sam Davies and co-skipper Nico Lunven on Initiatives Coeur finished fifth in the IMOCA class of the 2021 Transat Jacques Vabre.
They finished just 21 minutes 40 seconds behind the all-French crew of Sébastien Simon and Yann Eliès aboard Arkéa-Paprec.
Their race stats are evidence of a skillful performance both driving and navigating; total distance covered 6,440.1 miles averaging 12.94 knots. Davies has a new boat on the way and this result will act as a shot over the bows of her rivals.
Sam said after crossing the line, “I think if someone had told me that we were going to be playing alongside the new boats for the whole race, I wouldn’t have believed it. We are super proud. It was a hard and long race.”
“It went very well on board. The magic of ocean racing is that we never stop learning. This was my third Transat Jacques Vabre with this boat and I never get bored.”
Sam and Nico’s 20 days at sea also raised enough money for a further 26 children to receive life-changing heart surgery as part of the Initiatives Coeur campaign.
In Class40 the leaders are Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde Del Arco (Redman) with 251 miles to go to the finish line.
The leading four boats are within only 40 miles of each other.
Britain’s Brian Thompson and Alister Richardson (Tquila) are in 11th place with 354 milles to go.
Transat Jacques Vabre – Rankings November 28 at 04:00 pm
OCEAN FIFTY – All boats have arrived in Fort-de-France.
1. Primonial
2. Koesio
3. Leyton
ULTIME – All boats have arrived in Fort-de-France.
1. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild
2. SVR – Lazartigue
3. Banque Populaire XI
IMOCA
1. LinkedOut (Thomas Ruyant – Morgan Lagravière)
2. Apivia (Charlie Dalin – Paul Meilhat)
3. Charal (Jérémie Beyou – Christopher Pratt)
– Next to finish
10. Nexans – Art et Fenêtres – Distance to destination 7 milles
11. Groupe Apicil – Distance to destination 50 milles
12. MACSF – Distance to destination 73 milles
CLASS40 – Redman is the first Class 40 expected in Fort-de-France on Monday
1. Redman – Distance to destination 263 milles
2. Banque du Léman – Distance to destination 290 milles
3. Seafrigo – Sogestran – Distance to destination 294 milles
GBR:
11. Brian Thompson and Alister Richardson – Distance to destination 354 milles