Jules Verne Trophy 2008 www.cammas-groupama.com - Übersicht Sunday 27th January – Press Release No.61 JULES VERNE TROPHY (CREWED CIRCUMNAVIGATION VIA THE THREE CAPES) “IT COMES AND GOES…” The weather conditions reigning to the South of the Canaries have not favoured the steady progress of Groupama 3, which has been wavering between seven and thirty knots according to the squalls and the jumps in the wind. Midway through Sunday afternoon though, Franck Cammas and his men were still holding onto a lead of over 200 miles on the reference time. “Ca s’en va et ça revient…” (It comes and goes”), a song by French singing legend Claude François, perfectly reflects the end of this weekend off the Canaries! One moment they have air, the next calms, all of which is enveloped in an atmosphere laden with clouds, which Franck Cammas explains in more detail: “It’s not very simple on the water: it feels like we've been in the Doldrums since yesterday! The squalls enabled us to make headway quickly last night but they were very fickle with the wind jumping from thirty to three knots with a 60° shift… We’re longing for some more established tradewinds. Here, the skies are very cloudy as we are in the axis of a ridge of high pressure close to a depression. We're trying to slalom between the squalls.” This stormy zone is the result of a disturbance, which had already caused the areas of calm prior to the Canary Islands. Groupama 3 will no longer suffer the effects of these once they're past the latitude of Cape Blanc (Nouadhibou, on the border between Morocco and Mauritania), which is likely to be before sunset this Sunday. Next on the agenda are the E to NE'ly tradewinds, which fortunately seem to have settled over the zone on a more permanent basis, even though they're not very powerful at between 15 and 20 knots. The advantage of this wind orientation will be considerable however, as Franck Cammas and his nine crew will be able to make towards the SW in order to round to the West of the Cape Verde archipelago. Further landforms creating a disturbance Cape Verde, like the Canaries, sprawls out in terms of longitude (180 miles) and latitude (150 miles), with mountains reaching nearly 2,000 metres on Santo Antao (the island furthest to the NW of the archipelago)! As a result, the wind shadow and the disturbed breeze extends for tens of miles downwind of the island and Groupama 3 will have to get away to beyond 26° West in order not to suffer its effects… The giant trimaran's course was particularly revealing through the course of the afternoon, indicating that the navigator and the skipper were opting to give these volcanic islands a wide berth. The first half of Sunday was characterised by a ‘yoyo-ing’ headway, which proved testing both for the nerves and the body. A great number of manoeuvres were called for to adapt the sail area to the incessant changes in the breeze. However, in a few hours time, Franck Cammas and his men are likely to see the boatspeed pick up again. The start of the week will also be faster with the return of the tradewinds, and whilst Groupama 3 still has a 200 miles cushion of a lead over Orange II, it is likely that this will have increased further still by Tuesday morning… 1,300 miles from the equator, the objective of crossing into the other hemisphere in less than six days is still a possibility! Everything about the tour: the weather analysis by Sylvain Mondon “On the morning of Sunday 27th January the crew of Groupama 3 were still battling with the leftovers of the stormy depression further to the West. It is with this system that the maxi trimaran has had to pick its way along since Saturday night. The alternating increases and decreases in wind strength have resulted in the trimaran making rather fitful progress. This configuration is very testing on the nerves and requires frequent manoeuvres. Fortunately the tradewind air flow is not very far away now and Franck Cammas and his crew will finally be able to benefit from steadier winds late Sunday afternoon. These twenty knots or so of NE’ly tradewinds will carry Groupama 3 towards the inter-tropical convergence zone in the next few days.” Today’s interview Franck Cammas, skipper of Groupama 3: “The appeal of this weather window is that our trajectory is fairly rectilinear as the wind is coming from a favourable direction, albeit very shifty in terms of strength… The seas on the nose aren't making our progress any easier though. Together with Yves Parlier, we are spending a lot of time looking at the satellite images to watch the cloud mass but sometimes we don’t really have any choice and we end up in wind holes with a lot of manœuvres to make: this morning, we went from two reefs and staysail to full main and gennaker in the space of an hour! Days like these enable us to toughen ourselves up though and the manœuvres are becoming increasingly fluid: it augurs well for the next stages! We have also made progress at the helm as well as the trimming and the manœuvres… Right now it’s been a bit like a desert on water since we passed the Canaries yesterday. It's rather grey like it was at the start from Ushant… Apart from the temperature which is more pleasant, we could well be in Brittany! We still have 150 miles to go this lunchtime before we can really slip along nicely, but they aren’t very strong tradewinds. The 200 mile lead we have over Orange II is always an added bonus as it's motivating to be on the pace. The hook problems have been partially resolved and we are happy not to have been penalised by this issue.” http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/groupama/fc270108a_fr_e.mp3 Rights free interview for the press, available by simple request – broadcast via ISDN line, telephone or email. Contact Corentin Duroselle - Windreport’ on +33 (0)6 63 02 80 71 - +33 (0)2 40 84 30 00 - cod@windreport.com During the record, find Franck Cammas and his crew everyday at 1100 GMT live from Groupama 3. For this nothing could be simpler: www.cammas-groupama.com or connect to the Groupama 3 / WindReport platform and ask your questions, by calling 0 825 15 30 70 (0.15 € / min). References: Jules Verne Trophy Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds – Average speed: 17.89 knots Record held by Bruno Peyron, aboard the maxi catamaran Orange II, since March 2005. Time to beat from Ushant to the equator: 6 days 11 hours 26 minutes (Geronimo in 2003) Today’s figures Start on 24th January at 0750’17’’ UT Arrival before Saturday 15th March 2008 at 00h09'21'' UT Day 3 at 07 45 UT *Distance covered on the water in 24 hours: 556 miles *Distance covered since the start: 1,642 miles *Distance to the finish: 22,888 miles *Average on day 3: 23.16 knots *Average since the start: 22.8 knots *Lead in relation to Orange II: 220.7 miles NB: The WSSRC round the world is defined as corresponding with the circumference of the Earth to the equator, or 21,600 miles. However, this is the shortest route and not achievable (Equatorial Doldrums, Antarctica…): in order to be closer to reality, the positions carried out by the latest round the world attempts (Orange II, IDEC, Groupama 3…) are based on an optimised theoretical course of 24,530 miles. Find a detailed cartography at: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne Kate Jennings Copyright © 1996-2008 - SEGEL.DE