Friday 16th January 2009
THOMAS COVILLE, IN BREST TOMORROW MORNING
IN BRIEF:
- Arrival of Sodeb'O quai Malbert tomorrow morning, Saturday
- Radio session recorded this afternoon with Thomas Coville
- The highlights of the circumnavigation
- Reminder of the passage and record times
Tomorrow morning, on the Maxi Trimaran Sodeb'O, Thomas Coville will arrive
in Brest, completing a circumnavigation of the globe in less than 60 days.
Setting out nine days after the sailors in the Vendée Globe, the solo sailor
will return to France two weeks prior to the frontrunners. Nature has
generously let him through but not enough to beat the record. Positioned 350
miles from Brest at 1600 hours, the sailor is continuing his course in
superb fashion. He’s hurtling along towards Brest at a brisk pace. Contacted
by telephone this morning, his speedo was displaying 27.8 knots.
Listen to and download the MP3 extracts from the radio session with Thomas
Coville this Friday.
1/ The past 24 hours aboard Sodeb'O
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/sodebo/audio/dl.asp?file=tc16012009a_
e.mp3
2/ Initial assessment
http://www.windreportmedia.com/sailing/sodebo/audio/dl.asp?file=tc16012009b_
e.mp3
Concentrated all the way to the finish
“I’m still concentrated because it’s not over and I’m in a zone which will
be very complicated to deal with. There’s been a lot of shipping, a fairly
strong wind and a very difficult cross sea for several days. I’ve had the
same daily routine since the start so no change there. Whether you’re 24
hours from the finish or 30 days, ultimately the concentration levels are
exactly the same. On the other hand, I am affected by being outside the
reference time on a competitive level. The boat is a little fatigued like
me. There are quite a few jobs to be done here and there and the mainsail
sheet block gave up the ghost last night. I’ve got between 25 and 33 knots,
downwind, with a W and NW’ly cross swell, which is hampering progress and
making things difficult for the pilot to handle… as is the case now. It’s
shocking. The boat broaches from time to time. She accelerates very fast and
then buries into the wave. There isn’t much visibility. I can’t see the
cargo ships and Spanish fishermen which may be on zone. I’m keeping a radar
watch around every quarter of an hour approximately. I’ve accumulated a huge
amount of sleep deprivation over the past ten days, which is worrying me for
the finish. I’ve got some navigation on the horizon and it’s important I
carry out some manœuvres”.
A fatigued boat
“The mainsail travellers are broken, which is making life very complicated.
With every manœuvre, prior to every gybe, I have to replace them on the
track with warps, which involves creating systems which aren’t simple. As
such every manœuvre is slower than before. In the mainsail sheet blocks, the
rollers and the bearings have been crushed and last night, in really big
seas, they ended up giving up the ghost completely. As a result, I’ve set up
a system to make them secure, so that it may be possible for it to serve as
a mainsail block”.
Two out of three objectives
“At the start I had three objectives. One was to take the start. That meant
designing, building and fine tuning a boat, with the people in my world. We
achieved that together. After that, to beat the record, it was necessary to
sail the course. However, my personal competitive aim was to beat the
record. As regards the team and the overall project, we’ll have succeeded in
the first two objectives; however, from a personal point of view, I’ll have
failed on the latter, which was the reason I set out. My satisfaction? Never
having given up and having been flat out all the way to the finish”.
RETROSPECTIVE: 60 days around the world, single-handed, on a trimaran
A fourth round the world for Thomas Coville! From the very first time, he
was already sailing under the colours of Sodeb’O, single-handed in a
monohull. That was eight years ago during the Vendée Globe. Converting to
the multihull, the sailor from La Trinité, Brittany, has today become the
third sailor, after Francis Joyon and Ellen MacArthur, to have
circumnavigated the globe, single-handed, in a multihull and without
stopovers. We take a look back at the past 60 hectic days.
Setting out!
Brest, 18th November 2008, 0800 hours UT. Weather analysis confirms that
there’s a favourable window. It’s time to leave. Action stations! Thomas
switches to ‘race’ mode. Quayside, Olivier de Kersauson greets his former
crew who is setting off on his mission single-handed. At 1354 UT, Sodeb'O
crosses the line off the Petit Minou light.
The equator in 7 days
Things get rolling quickly, very quickly. A NNW’ly wind of 25 knots (46
km/hr), flat seas, a sheer delight! Sodeb'O devours the Canaries in three
days, Cape Verde in five, and despite squalls as she approaches the
Doldrums, the objective is fulfilled: the trimaran crosses the equator in 7
days and 8 minutes, at an average speed of 16.3 knots (30 km/hr). It’s 25th
November.
Saint Helena, pray for them...
The first obstacle across the route, the Saint Helena High is keeping guard
on the gateway to the Deep South. It’s impossible to cut through the middle,
either for Thomas, or the sailors in the Vendée Globe, which the skipper of
Sodeb'O is catching up one by one. And yet, just a year earlier, Francis
Joyon managed to cut straight down the centre. The skipper has to resign
himself to the fact that he’ll have to go right around the outside, out to
the west, and then descend the Southern Atlantic close-hauled against the
waves. These harsh conditions don’t prevent Thomas from racking up a number
of days with average speeds in excess of 22 knots (40 km/hr).
On 30th November, Sodeb'O finally hangs a left. The temperature drops, the
lows become increasingly virulent. Welcome to the Roaring Forties! The Maxi
Trimaran dives eastward and passes the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope on
5th December, after 16 days, 13 hours and 31 minutes of racing, at an
average speed of 20.5 knots (38 km/hr). The ‘tour of the parish’ has cost
Thomas 800 miles (1480 km). He reaches the Indian Ocean with a deficit of
one day and 6 hours on Francis Joyon.
A new 24 hour record!
At the entrance to the Indian Ocean, the trimaran slams into a zone of high
pressure which she sidesteps to the north. Clutching ponderously onto the
train of systems circulating the Southern Ocean, the skipper loses ground.
However, the following day, he picks up the pace again. At full bore, on the
edge of a low approaching the Kerguelen Islands, Sodeb'O is truly underway
once more. On 7th December, the high speed trimaran improves on her own
outright record by 10 miles (18 km) for the most distance covered
single-handed in 24 hrs: 628.5 miles (1164 km), at an astounding average of
26.2 knots (48.5 km/hr)!
An uncouth Indian Ocean
Whist in Paris the French Sailing Federation is rewarding Thomas and Sodeb'O
for the North Atlantic record crossing in July, the sailor is taking the
brunt of one depression after another in the Indian Ocean he dreads so much.
In the Vendée Globe, Loïck Peyron’s boat dismasts; Thomas writes: “I’m still
making headway but my stomach’s been so knotted for several hours that I can
no longer sleep or eat and I’m holding my breath every ten seconds.”
Shortly prior to Cape Leeuwin, to the south of Australia, information
emerges which will make the skipper’s blood run cold: we’ve spotted a 400
metre long iceberg along Sodeb'O’s trajectory. Thomas will have to desert
the Furious Fifties and climb up into safer waters... and hence lengthen the
course. Following on from that a new complicated weather transition, then a
second, kick in shortly before Tasmania. Thomas makes it to the Pacific
Ocean after 25 days and 9 hours at sea. His deficit on IDEC extends to a
little over three days.
Pacific...not very!
It’s already been a month since Thomas and his trimaran left Brest... 30
days at the pace of a transatlantic race. Thirty days without breathing,
without a minute, or even a second of silence. Thirty days without
extracting himself from this washing machine whose spin cycle is endless.
Beneath New Zealand, the solo sailor has to attack the Pacific, but the
situation is far from ideal with a low preventing him from dropping down and
satellite observations signalling an immense field of icebergs, measuring
hundreds of kilometres, to his south. Subjected to the same weather pattern
as the sailors in the Vendée Globe, Sodeb'O is forced to make northing in
the Roaring Forties... whilst a year earlier, in the same area, IDEC was
benefiting from more favourable conditions and was already teasing 56
degrees south.
On 20th December, the challenger’s deficit reaches its maximum: 2,154 miles
(3,990 km). Nevertheless, Sodeb'O is smoking. The day before Christmas Eve,
the Maxi Trimaran racks up a 623 mile day (1,154 km) at an average of 26
knots (48 km/hr). In spite of the cold, in spite of the fear of capsize or
that of a nasty encounter with the ice, Thomas ignores his fatigue. “When
the boat drops into a wave in the pitch black, you feel like you’re falling
into an abyss. Aboard it’s unbearable as you’re shaken and tossed about. You
slam into things and you don’t know what it is; bunches of seaweed as hard
as tree trunks” he confides, prior to experiencing his worst hours since the
start, shortly prior to Cape Horn.
The Hard Cape!
Around Christmas time, with icebergs still drifting across his course,
Thomas dives southward to round Cape Horn. Day and night he slaloms between
the ice, he endures a horrific squall and faces up to some enormous waves;
all of which last for 48 long hours. Finally he’s able to hoist his sails
again, but a punch of wind at 50 knots (92 km/hr) whips Sodeb'O’s mainsail.
Assessment: four broken battens and a seven hour balancing act at the end of
the boom, in order to change the five to nine metre long carbon rods. The
skipper’s hands are bordering on being frostbitten. On 28th December, still
coloured by the tail end of the inappropriately named Pacific, Thomas rounds
Cape Horn, the third and final great cape on his course. On the fortieth day
at sea, the log indicates a deficit of 4 days and 17 hours on Francis Joyon,
but the separation has been reduced to 1,300 miles (2,400 km).
Rocket-powered Coville
After the Horn, it’s a close shave when hanging a left. Sodeb'O cuts the
corner as tightly as he can via Le Maire Strait and leaves Islas de los
Estados to starboard (right). Along the South American coast, low pressure
activity promises an express ascent. On 3rd January, there is a great deal
of hope in the air as Thomas comes to within 300 miles (555 km) of his
virtual adversary! However, a small tack towards the coast, then a tradewind
disturbed by squally storms reverses the order. In the space of two days,
Thomas’ deficit triples again.
Return to the northern hemisphere
The yo-yoing with Francis Joyon’s reference time continues. On crossing the
equator on 7th January, after 50 days and 5 hours at sea, Sodeb'O has made
up more ground; the deficit is just 574 miles (1,063 km). Since the Horn,
Thomas has made up two and a half days. If the weather pulls its weight, the
record is feasible! Of course since the start, the skipper has covered 1,400
additional miles (2,593 km) to round the weather obstacles, and with an
average of 16.97 knots (31.43 km/hr), Sodeb'O exceeds the record holder’s
16.6 knots (30.74 km/hr).
Unfortunate sequence
Slightly slowed in a fairly inactive Doldrums, Thomas struggles to ride a
NE’ly tradewind punctuated by violent squalls. Sodeb'O is making headway
against the waves, unable to really lengthen her stride. The clock is
ticking and the record hopes look set to be dashed as the Azores stretch out
their anticyclone. The yearned for low increases, but heads a long way north
into the Atlantic. It promises to be rough going, very rough even, kicking
up furious seas. Thomas battles upwind and has to face facts: this year he
won’t beat Francis Joyon’s record.
A fantastic exploit
This year, aboard the Maxi Trimaran Sodeb'O, Thomas Coville has completed a
circumnavigation of the globe single-handed, without stopovers. On making
Brest on Saturday 17th January, his voyage will have taken nearly 60 days.
Already the solo 24 record holder, the skipper of Sodeb'O will set the
fourth best time around the globe, after IDEC (solo) and the performances by
Orange II and Cheyenne (crewed). The men and their boats have made giant
leaps forward since the time when Olivier de Kersauson received a hero’s
welcome in Brest after circumnavigating the globe single-handed; his journey
took 125 days with two stopovers. That was 20 years ago, in the 20th
century.
AUDIO, VIDEO, IMAGES AND CARTOGRAPHY ACCESSIBLE FROM THE press zone on the
site www.sodebo-voile.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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