Jacques Caraës, nicknamed "Jaco", was born in Brest in 1959. Introduced to sailing by his father, who ran a family marine sawmill, he took part at 20 in the 1979 Fastnet, the edition hit by the deadly storm, where his boat was dismasted and the crew took to the liferaft before being rescued.
He later sailed the Whitbread, including on La Poste alongside Éric Tabarly, and won the first Transat AG2R in 1992 with Michel Desjoyeaux. He won The Race in 2001 aboard Club Med and co-holds Atlantic crossing records. He has five complete circumnavigations to his name.
He crewed Bruno Peyron's Orange II, winner of the Jules Verne Trophy in 2005, then Franck Cammas's Groupama 3, which capsized in 2008 before winning the Trophy in 2010. In Class40 he raced the 2009 Transmanche (2nd) and the 2013 Fastnet.
He became race director of the Solitaire du Figaro from 2007, of the Route du Rhum from 2018 and of the Vendée Globe (2016 and 2020 editions). Made Chevalier of the Ordre du Mérite maritime in 2021 for the rescue of Kevin Escoffier, he was named manager of the DMG Mori Sailing Team in July 2025.
