The Class40 V and B skippered by Maxime Sorel and his teammate Antoine Carpentier crossed the finish line of this 13th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre in Salvador de Bahia this Thursday, November 23, 2017 at 00:19:15.
In the last few miles of the race, it was difficult to determine the winner of the Class40 as the duel between V and B and Aïna Enfance et Avenir was close. But in the end, it was the first one to take the lead. Until 3pm on Wednesday 22 November, and for the past 3 days in the SE'ly trade wind Aïna Childhood and Future was in the lead, a position that was exchanged several times during the race with V and B.
After 4300 miles covered, V and B returned at pure speed to the level of the rochelais tandem. In two gybes along the coast, Maxime Sorel and Antoine Carpentier regained the lead and controlled their opponents (Aymeric Chappellier and Arthur Le Vaillant) up to the finish line.
Aïna Childhood and Future logically takes second place with a line crossing at 00:36:57. Imerys Clean Energy (Phil Sharp and Pablo Santurde) completed the podium of the Class40 with a finish at 5 h 33 min 41 s. Leaders more than half of the race, the crew of Imerys Clean Energy was unable to stem the attacks of the two French tandems in the southeast trade wind. It logically completes a very high level podium.
V and B - who broke the 24-hour distance record in the Class40 with 377 miles in 24 hours, also set a new reference time on the Le Havre-Salvador de Bahia course. This one was established by Giovani Soldini and Pietro d'Ali on Telecom Italia in 2007. Ten years have passed and the improvement of more than 5 days shows the tremendous evolution of the Class40, which has become a real offshore racing machine
"Thanks for the welcome on the line, it was a sick thing! The victory is magnificent because there are two exceptional competitors behind us. We leave Le Havre together, we arrive in Brazil together, everything is decided on the last night. They did a crazy job and so did we. From the beginning, it was fun, we were happy to pass the buoy in front at Fécamp. We said to ourselves, "There's a battle won, now it's war!" But we had many moments of despair. At the tip of Brittany, a partition was broken; we called Sam Manuard the architect who advised us to repair it. We figured if we wanted it to hold, we'd have to wait. We stayed three hours to watch the competitors pass. It was hard, we settled down, we drank coffee on Sylvie Viant's advice. When we left, we had 50 miles in sight. After that, maybe it helped us. Because we didn't pull the boat hard." said Maxime Sorel upon his arrival in Brazil.
