13.02.2010
JULES VERNE TROPHY
(CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds
Groupama
A crazy day…
Having covered nearly 720 miles over the past 24 hours, Groupama 3 is
tracing an impressively straight wake at an average speed in excess of 30
knots… This ticking off of the miles bodes well for the crew’s bid to make
up part of their deficit on the Jules Verne Trophy reference time as they
round the Cape of Good Hope.
Indeed it’s a studious and concentrated atmosphere which marked the start to
the weekend to the South of Tristan de Cunha: in a matter of hours the
situation has changed radically aboard Groupama 3, since the tricky exit
from the Saint Helena High at the end of the week, has now given way to
breakneck speeds ahead of a cold front, which is trucking along at 35 knots…
The astounding average speeds that Franck Cammas and his nine crew are
making are, of course, the result of a stable wind, though the fairly
slight, well organised seas are an added bonus. Such conditions are down to
the crew remaining ahead of the cold front, which they will have to continue
to do for as long as possible, in order to maintain this perfectly straight
trajectory and this exceptionally fast tempo…
“Since this morning, we’ve been sailing with two reefs in the mainsail and
solent in a NW’ly wind of between 28 and 30 knots, but with very slight
seas… Right now we’re clocking up an average speed of 35 knots! The
atmosphere has got much damper: it’s grey, it’s wet, but it’s not cold yet”
indicated Bruno Jeanjean at the 1130 UTC radio link-up with Groupama’s Race
HQ in Paris.
Unfinished business
The longitude of the Cape of Good Hope is around just 800 miles ahead of the
giant trimaran now. At this pace, she will have passed the Greenwich
meridian between 2100 and 2300 hours UTC this Saturday. Following on from
that she may even succeed in crossing the longitude of the first cape of
this round the world by sunset on Sunday!
“I don’t take the helm in conditions like the ones we have today. There were
times on the descent of the Atlantic where I had the opportunity on flat
seas with very nice conditions. The allotted helmsmen are driving her along
admirably... I am incredibly happy to be aboard because the shore crew have
done a superb job to ensure we were able to set off again. The whole crew
has remained particularly motivated and we know we have unfinished business
down here now, which we’re keen to resolve!”
By way of comparison with the Jules Verne Trophy reference time, Groupama 3
has had a excellent day with 719 miles on the speedo, while Orange 2, which
was in one of her fastest phases of the round the world, ‘only’ pulled back
680 miles in relation to the optimum course! As such the deficit has dropped
by forty miles over the past 24 hours… And despite even more impressive
average speeds than those of the Americans and Swiss in Valencia on Friday
afternoon, the crew was paying close attention to how the first race of the
Cup was panning out.
“For the first match of the America’s Cup yesterday, the organisation
onboard didn’t change. However, we did have one ear a little more open to
what was going on in the cabin: certain bits of news came in which led us to
believe that something was going to happen, but we quickly understood that
the result of the match was decided pretty quickly…”
Groupama 3’s log (departure on 31st January at 13h 55’ 53’’ UTC)
(Number of miles covered in relation to the optimum course for the Jules
Verne Trophy)
Day 1 (1st February 1400 UTC): 500 miles (deficit = 94 miles)
Day 2 (2nd February 1400 UTC): 560 miles (lead = 3.5 miles)
Day 3 (3rd February 1400 UTC): 535 miles (lead = 170 miles)
Day 4 (4th February 1400 UTC): 565 miles (lead = 245 miles)
Day 5 (5th February 1400 UTC): 656 miles (lead = 562 miles)
Day 6 (6th February 1400 UTC): 456 miles (lead = 620 miles)
Day 7 (7th February 1400 UTC): 430 miles (lead = 539 miles)
Day 8 (8th February 1400 UTC): 305 miles (lead = 456 miles)
Day 9 (9th February 1400 UTC): 436 miles (lead = 393 miles)
Day 10 (10th February 1400 UTC): 355 miles (lead = 272 miles)
Day 11 (11th February 1400 UTC): 267 miles (deficit = 30 miles)
Day 12 (12th February 1400 UTC): 247 miles (deficit = 385 miles)
Day 13 (13th February 1400 UTC): 719 miles (deficit = 347 miles)
Jules Verne Trophy reference time between Ushant and the Cape of Good Hope
2005: Orange 2: (14d 08h 19’)
Best time between Ushant – Cape of Good Hope
2008: Groupama 3 (13d 08h 47’)
The crew aboard Groupama 3:
* Franck Cammas, Loïc Le Mignon, Jacques Caraës, Stève Ravussin,
Thomas Coville, Bruno Jeanjean, Fred Le Peutrec, Lionel Lemonchois, Ronan Le
Goff.
* Stan Honey, navigator, off watch
Find all the latest about the Groupama trimarans on:
www.cammas-groupama.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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