The official award ceremony of the Transat Jacques Vabre

The awards ceremony for the 2023 edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre took place on January 30 at the Maison de l’Océan in Paris: the official ceremony followed, approximately two months later, the individual awards held in November in Martinique, upon the arrival of the top three finishers in each class.

The event saw the presence of several French authorities, including the mayor of Le Havre (the starting city of the Transat Jacques Vabre), the director of the Martinique Tourism Authority, the regatta officials and the representatives of the main sponsors. The evening was attended by all the crews that made the podium in the four categories (Ocean Fifty, Ultim, IMOCA and Class40); for the sailors it was an opportunity to meet again and relive the most exciting moments of the crossing, and also to reflect objectively on their strategic choices.

“Over the last two month”, commented Alberto Bona, third overall in the Class40 category on board IBSA, together with Spanish co-skipper Pablo Santurde del Arco, “we had many debriefings with our top technicians, from sails to meteorology, and we analysed both the strong points and the areas where we can still improve. I’m happy with our Transat Jacques Vabre: usually, when a regatta is evaluated retrospectively, many points emerge where we could have done better; instead, this time we realised that we made very few mistakes and made the most of the boat”.

After the awards ceremony, Alberto immediately returned to La Trinité-sur-Mer, where the Class40 IBSA is already in the shipyard for the necessary overhaul and refitting works following over 50,000 miles sailed, between regattas and transfers, in 2023.