Jean Pierre Dick confirmed his supremacy again this morning as the ultimate double handed monohull ocean racer when he and co-skipper Jérémie Beyou brought Virbac Paprec 3 across the finish line of the tenth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre to win in the very early hours of the morning in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.
Victory completes a remarkable year for Dick, who also won the two handed Barcelona World Race around the world on April 4th this spring, winning with co-skipper Loïc Peyron, and for Beyou who won the intense solo one design Solitaire du Figaro this summer.

They set a new record time from Le Havre to Puerto Limon for the mononulls beating the 2009 record by one hour and seven minutes, setting the mark at 15 days 18 hours and 54 seconds. Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill on Hugo Boss are expected to take second place around about 10 hours after the French duo.

Dick and Beyou arrived bearded, exhausted but elated at their win which is the result of smart tactical sailing, taking a winning northerly routing around the succession of vicious low pressure systems putting great faith in the reliability of the proven VPLP-Verdier design which has already sailed one and a half times around the planet since being built in New Zealand, and a complementary working relationship which allowed them to push exceptionally hard with confidence in each other and the boat.

After following a similar route on a boat which is of an older generation and which they had only sailed for 12 days prior to starting back on Wedensday November 2nd in Le Havre, Thomson and Altadill deserve considerable credit. After disappointments and setbacks since finishing second to Dick in the 2007-8 Barcelona World Race, the last race he completed, Thomson has bounced back with an accomplished performance along with the talented veteran Spaniard who completes his first IMOCA Open 60 podium finish.
Thomson and Altadill are due to finish in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica around 1900hrs UTC/GMT.  Thereafter a steady stream of IMOCA Open 60’s are expected over the following two days.

Tags on NauticNews.com : Transat Jacques Vabre – IMOCA – Virbac-Paprec – Jean-Pierre Dick – Jérémie Beyou

Photo Credit: Alexis Courcoux / Transat Jacques Vabre

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