Mercator involved in the 2003 Jacques Vabre double-handed transatlantic race from Le Havre, France to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

The Jacques Vabre transatlantic race takes place every two years. This year's sixth edition is also the transatlatic's tenth anniversary (first edition in 1993).

Surface currents forecast maps for November 24^th and 25 ^th November 2003:

Surface currents forecast for 24/11/2003 and position of the boats for monohulls -   Surface currents forecast for 25/11/2003

Boats numbers and names:  Multihulls 60 feet:   1 - Banque Covefi   2 - Banque Populaire   3 - Bayer CropScience   4 - Belgacom   5 - Bonduelle   6 - Foncia   7 - Géant   8 - Gitana   9 - Groupama 10 - Biscuit la Trinitaine 12 - Sergio Tacchini 13 - Sodebo 14 - Sopra Group 15 - TIM Monohulls 60 feet: 21 - Adecco 22 - 60ème Sud 23 - Arcelor-Dunkerque 24 - Cheminées Poujoulat - Armor Lux 25 - Carrefour prévention 26 - Ciments St Laurent 27 - Ecover 28 - Garnier 29 - Tir groupé 30 - Loire Atlantique 31 - Objectif 3 32 - Pindar 33 - PRB 34 - Sill 35 - Team Cowes 36 - Virbac 37 - VMI

The Mercator team's oceanographic expertise will contribute to the event through its oceanic forecast programme which was also used during the "Route du Rhum".
Sea currents forecasts are now currently used by competitors. Even though winds remain the most important factor when a route is chosen, the surface currents are nevertheless what will make the difference between two sailors who are racing under the same weather conditions.
One will remember that the Mercator forecasts benefited to Joé Seeten and his Arcelor Dunkerque, routed by Denis Theunynck.

Every day, the following data will be available on the Mercator site:

• Day to day maps of the sea currents forecasts with every ship's position.

• Reports from our experts twice or thrice a week.

Archives of forecast bulletins:

• Forecast maps of MERCATOR OCEAN

  All boats:
  16 November 2003, 13 November 2003,  12 November 2003, 11 November 2003, 10 November 2003, 9 November 2003, 8 November 2003, 7 November 2003

  Multihulls:
  17 November 2003, 15 November 2003, 14 November 2003, 6 November 2003,  5 November 2003

  Monohulls:
  24 November 2003, 20 November 2003 - first part,20 November 2003 - second part, 19 November 2003, 18 November 2003 - first part,18 November 2003 - second part, 17 November 2003 - first part, 17 November 2003 - second part, 15 November 2003, 14 November 2003, 6 November 2003,  5 November 2003,  4 November 2003,  3 November 2003

• Ocean bulletins

  14 November 2003 6 November 2003 3 November 2003

   

The race route

An overview of forecast maps

This map indicates the multihulls route (yellow line). They must leave the Ascencion Island on the starboard side whereas the monohulls (white line) will take a direct route. The map background indicates the sea surface heights* variations computed by Mercator. * The sea surface height is to oceanographers what atmospheric pressure is to meteorologists. The higher the sea heights variations, the higher the surface currents. The sea surface height is given in meters relative to a reference line.

This map is a surface currents animation computed from October the 22nd until October the 31st 2003, eve of the departure date. A large part ot the Atlantic Ocean is covered in the same way, from the North (Labrador and Norvegian Seas) until the tenth parallel in the south hemisphere and the Mediterranean sea.

For more information

• The Mercator Project ou Mercator and the sea currents

• Mercator press release (In French)

• All the products on Mercator ocean site.

• The official site of the Jacques Vabre Transatlantic Race 2003