Guide to the Transat

The Transat Jacques Vabre race starts on 3 November and its multi-hull fleet leaves Le Havre on 4 November.

A recent addition to the trans-atlantic sailing calendar, the Transat Jacques Vabre features mono-hull and multi-hull boats sailed by two crew.

Both race fleets set off from Le Havre en route to Salvador de Bahia, but they follow different routes and leave on consecutive days during the weekend of 3-4 November.

The mono-hulls embark first on their 4,340-mile course directly to Brazil.

The faster 60-foot trimarans - like Alain Gaultier and Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher-Foncia - take a longer route of 5,300 miles via Ascension Island.

The four previous stagings of the Transat have finished in Cartegena, Columbia.

This year, however, the biennial race has been rerouted to Bahia to coincide with the arrival of the Mini Transat fleet at the same Brazilian port.

Mono-hulls are expected to take 17-21 days and multihulls 13-16 days to sail the course.