Monday 28th January – Press Release No.62
JULES VERNE TROPHY
(CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
IN THE THICK OF THE DOLDRUMS!
Whilst Groupama 3 was skirting round the island of Santo Antao in the Cape
Verdes this Monday lunchtime, the tradewinds had finally kicked in, bumping up
their speed. Franck Cammas and his crew were focussed on heading to the SW prior
to diving down towards the ‘unmissable’ Doldrums. This Inter-Tropical
Convergence Zone situated between 5° and 3° North, are not forecast to be very
active, but will still be tricky to negotiate between the calms and squalls.
Since sunrise, Groupama 3 has found its wings once more. Under gennaker in fine
NE’ly tradewinds of 18 knots on slight seas, the giant trimaran was able to rack
up average speeds of over 27 knots! This fifth day at sea has born witness to a
cracking pace then, particularly as the equator was no more than 950 miles ahead
of them this Monday lunchtime… “We are working on the long term scenario: for
the passage of the Doldrums we have scheduled a long tack to the SW prior to
finally gybing due South afterwards. We are set to pass the equator prior to
sunrise on 30th January… We're going to hit some stronger tradewinds this Monday
afternoon and we will probably save more time over Orange II. It looks like
things are shaping up nicely for the Southern hemisphere too!” detailed Franck
Proffit, at the radio session broadcast live on the Groupama website every
lunchtime.
A hook before the direct
The end of the weekend on the other hand was less positive with 'only' 443 miles
on the speedo, that is less than a twenty knot average on Sunday. This reduced
pace was due to a stormy disturbance to the South of the Canaries, which caused
the wind to alternate between 7 and 30 knots, preventing a very pure trajectory.
Indeed Groupama 3 had to gybe twice in the middle of the day to shift over to
the West so as to round Cape Verde. A double manœuvre, which wasn’t enough since
at daybreak, the crew were forced to make headway at 90° to their normal heading
in order to round Santo Antao, the island furthest to the NW of the archipelago.
“We are in fine, relatively flat tradewind seas, with not a cloud on the
horizon. This morning we discovered the island of Santo Antao at sunrise:
superb!” exclaimed Franck Cammas at noon this Monday.
This two hour tack to avoid the wind shadow of Tope de Coroa (1,979 m) was
followed by another spot of repositioning two hours later so as to hunt down
this infamous 28° West, the entry point for traversing the Doldrums. It wasn’t
until the end of the afternoon that Franck Cammas and his nine crew engaged in a
final gybe onto a direct course, due South to the equator.
In this way Groupama 3 will remain on port tack for a fair while since on the
other side of the equator some regular SE’ly and then E'ly winds await them.
Today’s interview
Franck Proffit, head of Operations, watch leader-helm on Groupama 3: “I’ve just
finished my watch and Steve Ravussin is replacing me on deck. It was necessary
to manage the zones without wind, which was fairly tricky with the zigzag
trajectories, but we haven't come out of it too badly... We had a very good wind
rotation to the left, which enabled us to get clear of Cape Verde and now we're
making 28 knots: the situation is rather positive. The sailing conditions are
excellent and we should make it to the equator in less than six days. Above all
though, we have fine seas, which aren't putting any pressure on the boat at all.
We’re really getting on well together and the organisation onboard is very good:
everyone got into their watch rhythm from the start at Ushant! You have to keep
your 13m² clean and everyone is doing their bit. We’re keeping an eye on the
gear and the maintenance is a daily routine: everyone has a role aboard whether
it be sails, rigging or sheets…
We’ve only been looking at Orange II’s course for the past 24 hours: Yves
Parlier is monitoring it from his chart table and it gives us a fifteen hour
lead this Monday lunchtime. The important thing though is to have a good weather
strategy on the medium term: for the passage of Cape Verde we were expecting a
little more pressure before making the archipelago, but we weren't able to slip
along quite as we'd anticipated. We had to gybe to avoid the buffer zone dished
up behind the island."
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/groupama/fp280108a_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).
Today’s figures
Start on 24th January at 0750’17’’ UT
Arrival before Saturday 15th March 2008 at 00h09'21'' UT
Day 4 at 07 45 UT
*Distance covered on the water in 24 hours: 442.7 miles
*Distance covered since the start: 2,055 miles
*Distance to the finish: 22,475 miles
*Average on day 4: 18.45 knots
*Average since the start: 21.4 nœuds
*Lead in relation to Orange II: 242.7miles
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
Press Office: Welcome On Board
BP 30 241 - 56102 Lorient Cedex - bienvenue@welcomeonboard.fr
Tiphaine Combot-Seta + 33 6 30 73 30 41
Vincent Borde + 33 6 07 68 18 95
Kate Jannings
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