Tagesberichte siehe Menu unten
Wednesday 11th November – Press release No.8
JULES VERNE TROPHY (CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds
First reference time
After 5 days 15 hours and 23 minutes, Groupama 3 has crossed the equator,
establishing a new reference time over this stretch of the course between
Ushant and the line marking the switch of hemispheres. Now sailing
close-hauled in a SE’ly tradewind, Franck Cammas and his nine crew are
making headway at an average speed of twenty knots, heading due South…
In the middle of last night, the crew was able to observe that the clouds
and squalls were astern of Groupama 3: the clouds were disappearing from the
sky, the stars were out, and a crescent of moon was dimly lighting a clear
horizon. They’d ploughed through the Doldrums at an average of over fifteen
knots, which remains an amazing performance, albeit a predictable one in
light of Sylvain Mondon’s forecasts from Météo France. Franck Cammas and his
men certainly weren’t sparing of their efforts though as they tried to
extract themselves as quickly as possible from this Inter-Tropical
Convergence Zone, on a mission to drive down towards the equator, which they
crossed at 0713’ UTC. As such, they have a lead of one day, eleven hours
thirty three minutes over the Jules Verne Trophy record time set back in
2005 by Orange 2.
“We crossed the equator at first light and I was on watch with Franck
(Cammas) and Loïc (Le Mignon). We ticked off the miles on the GPS to savour
the exact moment of passage: it’s always a slightly magical moment when you
switch from one hemisphere to another... We’ve done rather better than we
could have anticipated on leaving Ushant so it seems that we’ve had more
wind than forecast. We’ve improved on the reference time by around fifteen
hours: it augurs well to be back in contention in this way with a boat in
tip-top condition… You can sense that Groupama 3 has been very well
prepared. It’s really very agreeable to see the degree of work which all the
technical team have put into the boat. Today we’re reaping the benefits of
that and it’s enabling us to make headway in some great conditions,”
indicated Jacques Caraës during the lunchtime radio link-up.
Hooking onto the front
3,235 miles at an average of 24 knots is what the ten men on Groupama 3 have
already achieved on crossing the equator! And if all goes to plan, at the
latitude of Recife (Brazil), scheduled for this Wednesday evening, the wind
is set to shift round to the E, which will enable the trimaran to make
headway beam onto the wind and set the speedo reeling at an average of over
25 knots. As such the daylight hours of Thursday promise to be pretty quick
because, as the giant trimaran gains grounds to the South, the breeze will
clock round to the NE, then N level with Salvador de Bahia. And at this
latitude, a stormy zone currently in the process of forming will generate a
series of little depressions, which will push the Saint Helena High over
towards Africa: a corridor of steady downwind condition should then form
towards the Cape of Good Hope…
“We’re now into the SE’ly tradewinds, which are proving to be fairly steady
since they’re pumping out 20 to 25 knots of breeze: we’re living on a tilt,
close on the wind and it’s not the most pleasant point of sail on a
trimaran. The sky has cleared, with some good heat, but it’s not very
comfortable: we’re going to have to wait a few more hours before we begin to
open the sails a little, ease the sheets and accelerate... We’ve got a
fairly short chop with lots of spray so we’re having to hold on! We don’t
have too many manoeuvres to perform at the moment though; simply hoisting
the mainsail or putting in a reef from time to time, according to the
strength of the tradewinds. It’ll be a whole different ball game in a week’s
time in the cold… We’re hoping to hook onto a front near Brazil in order to
rapidly drop down towards the Cape of Good Hope, which is why we can’t
afford to hang about as a few hours could make all the difference…”
Indeed, the timing is tight for hooking onto the cold front, which would
enable them to curve a course taking them directly towards the Indian Ocean.
The Cape of Good Hope is a little over 3,500 miles ahead on a direct course.
If Groupama 3 maintains the average speed of 24 knots which she’s been
making since the start, it will take between seven and nine days to reach
it…
The crew and organisation aboard Groupama 3:
* Watch No.1: Franck Cammas / Loïc Le Mignon / Jacques Caraës
* Watch No.2: Stève Ravussin / Thomas Coville / Bruno Jeanjean
* Watch No.3: Fred Le Peutrec / Lionel Lemonchois / Ronan Le Goff
* Off watch navigator: Stan Honey goes up on deck for manoeuvres
* Each watch lasts three hours
* One watch system on deck, one watch on stand-by ready to help
manœuvre, one watch totally resting
The record to beat
Currently held by Bruno Peyron on Orange 2 since 2005 with a time of 50 days
16 hours 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots. Lionel Lemonchois, Ronan
Le Goff and Jacques Caraës were aboard at the time.
Race HQ, 21 Bld Malesherbes, 75008 Paris
Open to the public from 0930 to 1900 hours
Daily telephone link-up from 1130 to 1200 hours
Weekly videoconference on Thursdays from 1230 to 1330 hours
Find all the latest about the Groupama trimarans on:
www.cammas-groupama.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
|
