"Banque Populaire" at the Transat Jacques Vabre 2011
"B to B" stands for "Back to Britany" and has been the back race after the Transat Jacques Vabre since 2007. Which also counts as qualification for the Vendée Globe 2012, eight of the original 13 ImocOpen 60s took the opportunity to do so. Since the start on St. Barth on Monday, the ships have been chasing north with half to clear wind. The skippers have all chosen a very westerly course in order to sail around a high pressure area in the middle of the Atlantic and take advantage of the east and south-east winds blowing on the western side.
This tactic has given the group perfect half wind and space wind courses since Monday. A low pressure area currently off the coast of Virginia will move across Bermuda to the Azores in the next few days. So ideal conditions to start the ride across the North Atlantic to Brittany.
"Banque Populaire" is currently in first place, followed by "Safran" (16 nautical miles behind) and "Macif" (17 nautical miles). The winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2011, Jean-Pierre Dick, with his "Virbac-Paprec 3" is arithmetically 22 nautical miles behind "Banque Populaire", but is much further to the west and is from the low that with winds up to 40 knots from the US, benefit much earlier than the counterparties.
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The race can be followed on www.transatbtob-imoca.org.
Photo gallery: Open 60 spectacular
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