Worldspan has just delivered the hospitality programme for the final race in the BT Team Ellen sponsorship agreement, The Transat Jacques Vabre. This race has been in existence for 14 years and is based on one of the world’s most historic routes: Le Havre, France to Costa Rica. The UK participants won places on this event by participating in a competition which was run in a national newspaper. In addition, guests from France and Netherlands joined their hosts from BT, providing a group of 30 people in total.
Guests visited the race village in Le Havre and saw the Imoca 60 and Multihull vessels in the harbour, before boarding their privately chartered spectator boat, Seafin, to follow the yachts out to watch the race start at close quarters. Despite choppy seas, the start went well, with commentary from BT Team Ellen’s skipper, Nick Moloney. The two sailors aboard BT Open 60, Seb Josse and Jean Francois Cuzon, started off with an excellent lead and, in fact, remained in first place for the first few days of this famous race.
Unfortunately, BT Open 60 was damaged in 65-knot winds on Friday 13th November, which led to a rather dramatic helicopter rescue of the crew in high winds. The yacht remained at sea, taking on water, whilst a salvage operation was put in place. BT Open 60 was finally recovered on 16th November and towed in to harbour in the Azores on 18th November.
