Thursday 7th February – Press Release No.72
JULES VERNE TROPHY
(CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
MARINE COMPOSITION
The Indian Ocean is living up to its reputation: unpredictable! Evidence of this
comes in the form of a zone of high pressure, slipping along under Africa and a
very big low kicking up a nasty swell past the North of 40°… As a result
Groupama 3 is having to pick its way through beam seas, which are making the
sailing uncomfortable as well as tiring out both the men and the boat.
The paradox of sailing: whilst Groupama 3 has been racking up a fine day's
upwind sailing with 620 miles at an average of 26 knots, the giant trimaran is
continuing to lose its lead over the reference time set by Orange II! And the
haemorrhage is severe: half the 600 miles accumulated two days ago, have been
reduced to just 290 miles this Thursday afternoon… Yesterday's ‘light patch’
experienced by the crew, who were anticipating this loss of ground, is
nevertheless past and during the viseo-conference this Thursday, Franck Cammas
appeared more serene, explaining that the 'scar' was going to close up again in
half a day… “The weather's not very fine and there are shifty winds and messy
seas. We have seven metre waves, but they’re short and it's difficult to know
what sail to hoist as the breeze is changing very quickly, passing from 20 to 28
knots: we’ll have to limit the impact as much as we can!
In this way the boat
goes very fast at times, making over thirty knots, and then comes to a stop
sharply: it’s not easy to control it… We still have twelve difficult hours ahead
of us, then the swell will lengthen before reducing. We are in the process of
making easting and the biggest seas should pass in front of us. By Friday,
things will be better!” A mass of swells… During round the world voyages
under sail, in a race or on a record attempt, in solo or crewed configuration,
in a monohull or a multihull, the method of sailing has deeply changed. First
off, the boats go faster, then because the sailors are more experienced and
finally because the weather forecasts are considerably more reliable and safe
over longer periods…
Gérard Petipas, navigator to Eric Tabarly, recalled during
the radio session that: “a compass, a knife and a barometer, that’s what we had
to predict the weather…” It was the same scenario for Eric Loizeau, skipper of
Gauloises II during the crewed round the world race in 1977-78, who only had
isobaric charts received via fax... Times have changed with digital files today,
which enable not just the forecasting of the strength and direction of the wind
over the next five or even seven days, but also the sea state. “Multihulls
brake in the first instance due to the sea state: we can easily reach thirty
knots but as soon as you have waves, you have to reduce the sail area to limit
the speed and the result is that you end up with more apparent wind. It’s this
wind, which is dangerous when it varies rapidly, generating impact with the sea
and making the boat go from 25 to15 knots in a few seconds… This is all the more
impressive on a trimaran, because with its three hulls, there is still one wave,
which hits the windward float very hard! And the vibrations of this resound
throughout the platform. The blows are pretty impressive..." stated the skipper
of Groupama 3. Now, when a front generating a strong NW'ly breeze is succeeded
by a W'ly wind and then a S’ly storm, these three trains of waves form an
extremely violent pyramid-shaped chaos, which is above all highly unpredictable.
This mass of swells, which have mixed together, create a fearsome undulating
disharmony for the structures of multihulls, not to mention the sailors who
bathe in the spray they kick up, smashing against the bulkheads down below and
vibrating from head to toe! There can be nothing worse than a trimaran seasoned
by shaker sauce… Fortunately, multihulls have the ability to accelerate to free
themselves of the biggest seas in order to find some more high performance
sailing conditions… However, for Franck Cammas and his nine crew, they’ll have
to wait until the start of the weekend for that!
The weather for the circumnavigation Sylvain Mondon, from Météo France
“The crew of Groupama 3 will have 24 difficult hours due to the sea state as at
midday, they had waves varying between five and seven metres and beam winds. The
sea will continue to be messy and laborious, forcing the crew to ease off the
pace. The aim for the weekend is to catch a low, which will form to the North of
the Kerguelen Islands, to sail with a slightly more favourable wind, which will
enable them to make a course to the SE. The seas will level off and allow higher
speeds... It will be difficult to slip along to the South of this growing
disturbance, given the speeds over these next few hours, but the trimaran will
then be able to sail behind it with the NW’ly wind, which will enable them to
round the stationary high pressure system to the South of Australia. The
problem for Groupama 3, in relation to the other Jules Verne Trophy attempts, is
that it will have to cover more ground. In this way it will make three quarters
of its course in the Indian Ocean at 40°, so it will lose at least 700 miles in
relation to a course along 45° South… To manage to maintain a lead over Orange
II will be very difficult over this part of the course! We aren’t in an unusual
weather configuration since it occurs once or twice a fortnight. However, the
disturbance currently passing to the South of Groupama 3 is particularly
powerful! What is paradoxical at the moment is that the trimaran will get pushed
by a zone of high pressure, whilst normally it is a low…”
Today’s interviews
Franck Cammas “We pushed the boat well in the Atlantic: she’s going well and we
are discovering what she's like in the South, even if for the time being, we are
being forced to ease off the throttle. Indeed, our biggest fear is the sea state
rather than the strength of the wind. We’re looking at the wave charts as much
as the breeze files to define our trajectory. This low with its strong S’ly
swell was unavoidable and we’re going to have to do our best to avoid the zones
of big waves and messy seas that we have at the moment.”
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/groupama/fc20080207_fr_a.mp3
Franck Cammas: "We’re still managing to drive the boat in a high performance
way, even though we’ve eased off the pace since yesterday evening due to the sea
state. I’m very proud of my crew."
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/groupama/fc20080207_fr_b.mp3
Frédéric Le Peutrec “There is an amazing contrast at the moment: we are seeing
big albatross… and flying fish! It’s incredible… The water is still very warm.
In big seas, it’s sublime to see these birds from the South benefiting from the
rising currents and if they feel like it, they can go a lot quicker than us
without any effort, gliding with ease, …”
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/groupama/fred_20080207.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 07h50’17’’ UT
Arrival before Saturday 15th March 2008 at 00h09'21'' UT
Day 14 at 0800’ UT
* Distance covered on the water in 24 hours: 624.3 miles * Distance covered
since the start: 7,458 miles * Distance to the finish: 17,072 miles *Average on
day 14: 26.01 knots *Average since the start: 22.19 knots *Lead in relation to
Orange II: 325.1 miles Reference time * Jules Verne Trophy: 50d 16h 20’ (Orange
II in 2005) * Ushant to the equator: 6d 6h 24’ (Groupama 3 in 2008)
* Equator – Cape Agulhas: 7d 02h 22’ (Groupama 3-2008) * Ushant – Cape Agulhas:
13d 08h 47’ (Groupama 3-2008) * Cape Agulhas - Tasmania: 9d 11h 04’ (Orange II
in 2005)
Find a detailed cartography at: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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