FIVE days after receiving the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration at the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, Dee Caffari sets off today on the Transat Jacques Vabre, one of the biggest races in the short-handed sailing calendar.

Caffari, who finished sixth in the Vendee Globe earlier this year to become the first woman to sail solo non-stop both ways round the world, says she will take a slice of Rollason’s pioneering spirit with her on the 4,730-mile voyage from Le Havre. She will certainly need all the help she can get against one of the strongest Open 60 fleets ever assembled.

The Transat Jacques Vabre is a biennial double-handed race from France to Latin America, following the old coffee trading route, previously to Brazil, this year to Costa Rica. Like the Vendee, the race has been dominated by the French, but with Sam Davies, Mike Golding and Alex Thomson joining Caffari and Brian Thompson in the fleet, the British are building a core of established solo sailors capable of ending the French monopoly.

Caffari has teamed with Thompson for a race that marks her last competitive outing on her trusty Aviva, and the end of the deal with her long-time sponsor. Caffari, feisty and ebullient, and Thompson, quiet and unassuming, make an odd couple.

The pair battled from the tip of Cape Horn all the way through the South Atlantic and on to the finishing line in the most recent Vendee, Thompson winning the duel to finish fifth, six hours ahead of Caffari after more than 90 days of solo racing.

“We competed against each other but we also supported each other,” Caffari says. When Aviva agreed to extend their sponsorship to include the Transat Jacques Vabre, Caffari asked Thompson to join her, initially for the Round the Island race and the Fastnet, then for the Transat Jacques Vabre.

“Racing against Dee in the Vendee, I found out not only what a competitive person she is but also what a nice person she is,” Thompson adds. “With solo sailing you can get into a downward spiral and start becoming obsessive. With two of you on board there’s someone who can clear any mental block. There’s still the challenge of sailing short-handed but without the risk of sailing solo.”

Caffari’s switch from solo survivor to short-handed racer began on the Transat Jacques Vabre two years ago. “I can remember arriving for the race not knowing any of the skippers, not having much confidence that I belonged in the fleet and not really knowing my boat,” she recalls. “So the difference in two years has been incredible. It’s not just, ‘Here’s Dee, out to make up the numbers’, I’ve earned respect with what I’ve done on the Vendee and I know my boat. When you look at the depth of talent here, though, it’s still a bit frightening.”

In contrast to the marathon of the Vendee, the Transat Jacques Vabre is a 17-day full-on sprint. With two on board, the Open 60 boats, already explosively fast, can be pushed to their limit every hour of day and night. “Every crew will arrive in Costa Rica absolutely spent,” Caffari says. The emphasis will be on teamwork rather than individual muscle, which should make Caffari and Thompson dangerous foes for the likes of Michel Desjoyeaux, twice winner of the Vendee, who is sailing with Jérémie Beyou, and the host of other French pairings in this year’s 14-strong fleet.

“There’s no time for macho hierarchy in a two-handed race,” explains Caffari. “You sail differently from when you’re solo. You have the confidence to push to the limit all the time. In making decisions, two brains are better than one but it’s a fine balance. You might have to compromise but you still have to make the decisions and make them quickly. I might look at the weather one way, and Brian another, but it’s good to have somebody questioning you.”

As soon as the race is over, Caffari will continue her search for a new sponsor to take her through to the Vendee in 2012. Of the British skippers in the Transat Jacques Vabre, only Alex Thomson, who will race Hugo Boss for the last time before switching to his new boat, has a sponsor confirmed for the next Vendee. Thomson is sailing with his fellow Briton and long-time boat captain Ross Daniel. Davies is joining forces with French skipper Sidney Gavignet on Artemis for the first time, while Golding returns to the Open 60 fleet after a summer racing an Extreme 40 catamaran in the iShares Cup series.

One domestic duty has already been allocated. “If I’m a bit grumpy, all Brian has to do is make me a cup of tea,” Caffari says. “Then I’m sweetness and light.”