Route du Rhum 2002 www.routedurhum.org zur Übersicht Datum: 15. Nov 2002 18:10 The Route du Rhum 2002 : Press Release N° 22 Domination of the Anglophones The very French solo race has been overrun by the foreigners. Two Brits are leading the monohulls superciliously, a Swiss is first overall, and an Australian is far ahead of his opponents in the 50-foot monohull-fleet! A “punch on the nose” to the deeply rooted single-handed race tradition in France. Ellen MacArthur has had several dramatic incidents today and lost 14 miles to her closest rival Ecover in four hours! She is now back on track, with Ecover in sight. The frontrunners have passed the Azores archipelago from the east. The anticyclone is slumbering round the corner, but the leading boats will probably slip through without getting stuck in too light conditions. More abandons and breakage in the fleet. The hardships continue on day 7 of the Route du Rhum with four more abandons in the trimaran fleet. Tacchini hatte anschließend Mstbruch Photo:Martin-Raget/Royale Prod. The British duo, Kingfisher and Ecover, are putting on an impressive show, battling it out southeast of the Azores , neck and neck again, far ahead of their opponents. Ellen MacArthur on Kingfisher gained miles steadily and managed to get a 15 miles lead on Mike Golding at midday today. That was before her problems started. Kingfisher was near disaster when Ellen realised that the runner holding the mast up almost failed. : "The pin that the runner attaches to on the stern was almost out, just hanging on by 3mm...one more wave it would have come out. bang. end of story. Lucky I saw it I guess. Unreal.” The drama was not over. Later on the top of the mast was showing signs of an inversion. Next to that the boat was not responding to the autopilot and the helm was highly loaded and shaking. Ellen stopped Kingfisher and reversed the boat using the indexsail, which freed the problem, although she had to gybe away southeast in order to retune the backstay. She has now re-gybed and is back in 100 percent race mode. Ellen caught sight of Ecover just one mile behind. “Merde! How to lose 15 miles in one position report....I’ll have to hand steer to attack again...” was Ellen MacArthur’s response, who once again is giving an outstanding performance. Mike Golding on Ecover was of course pleased but surprised when he suddenly had Kingfisher in sight again: “I can see Ellen now, and I’m pleased to be back in it. I was quite shocked when I saw Ellen because it has been so tough over the last few days. Dealing with these problems is all part of the race. Looks like Ellen and I are restarting the race in the middle of the Atlantic,” said Golding who has two tares in his indexsail, which he has tried to repair as much a s possible. At 16.45 GMT Ecover called in and reported he was just ahead of his close rival! The frontrunners are finally experiencing more moderate conditions, with a wind of 20-25 knots from the northwest, but veering to the north. One reef has been taken out, and it will soon be time to let go of one more and get some bigger sails up at front. Tomorrow the wind is likely to drop to 15-20 knots, and might veer northeast, meaning straight from behind, which could require the boats to gybe to avoid the high pressure system in the west. The challenge for the competitors will be to estimate how close they can skirt the anticyclone. Nick Moloney on Ashfield Healthcare is further behind his Anglophone mates, still experiencing quite rough conditions, but full of enthusiasm with his great progress in the race. This morning he said, “I am looking forward to the wind dropping to maybe 35-40 knots (!). Then I can sail fast again.” Swiss swooshes into the lead Swiss Stève Ravussin on the 60-foot trimaran TechnoMarine is fired up leading the fleet towards warmer latitudes. TechnoMarine is going very well, and got out of the storms without any damage. “The boat is spot on,” said the eternally enthusiastic Swiss, who is looking forward to getting his gennaker out in the lighter conditions to come. The first days’ extreme weather conditions in the Route du Rhum have had brutal consequences on the 60-foot ORMA trimarans. Last night’s victims: Foncia and Sergio Tacchini, both hit by vicious waves, which caused damage on Foncia’s beam, and dramatic float breakage and dismasting for Sergio Tacchini. Sergio Tacchini’s skipper Karine Fauconnier was devastated. “Since Fujifilm’s incident I was really taking it easy. I was not racing just being really careful till the conditions would get better. I can just conclude that in 45 knots of wind from the side in a high sea – it just does not work,” said the sole female skipper of the trimaran fleet with a breaking voice. Karine will abandon her boat and rescue is on its way. Only 5 out of 18 of the ORMA trimarans are still in the race. Four have capsized, three dismasted and three suffered structural damage. Three skippers decided not to continue.Today: Belgacom Jean Luc Nélias stayed in port, and Bayer CropScience (Frédéric Le Peutrec), the sister-ship of Fujifilm and Sergio Tacchini, turned back to port shortly after leaving, following the advice of the architect Nigel Irens. Quotes: Mike Golding Ecover (2nd 60-foot IMOCA monohull) “No matter how bad my day is you will always know that someone else out there is having a worse day. Anybody that says the Route du Rhum is a walk in the park compared to the Vendee is wrong. This is as tough as it gets.” Stève Ravussin TechnoMarine (1st 60-foot ORMA trimaran) “We are in the single-handed Route du Rhum nevertheless and we are here to win! I am on autopilot, sailing at 20 knots under two reefs and ORC, the barometer is climbing. I will soon be in the anticyclone. I am freewheeling, but I am heading down so it’s going well” 23 abandons of 58 starting: 13 ORMA 60’ multihulls: Franck Cammas Groupama Capsize Bertrand De Broc Banque Covefi Gives up solo-sailing Francis Joyon Eure & Loir-Lorenove Capsize Giovanni Soldini TIM Structural problems Lionel Lemonchois Gitana X Masthead breakage Yvan Bourgnon Rexona Men Capsize Loïck Peyron Fujifilm Damaged starboard float, skipper on a freighter Philippe Monnet Sopra Group Capsize Thomas Coville Sodebo Structural problems to the float and beam, en route to Lisbon Alain Gautier Foncia Structural problems with the aftbeam Karinne Fauconnier Sergio Tacchini Damaged starboard float, dismasting Frederic Le Peutrec Bayer CropSciences Not risking the boat Jean Luc Nélias Belgacom Not risking the boat 4 IMOCA 60’ monohulls: Loïc Pochet La Rage de Vivre Collision with a freighter Sébastien Josse VMI Dismasting Dominique Wavre Temenos Damage to the foresails Jean-Pierre Dick Virbac Dismasting, en route to La Coruña 2 Class 2 50’ monohulls: Christophe Huchet Apic A3S Collision with a freighter Yannick Bestaven République Dominicaine Keel problems 1 Class 3 40’ monohulls: Conrad Humphreys Hellomoto Dismasting 3 Class 2 50’ multihulls: Pascal Quintin E-Sat/Tri Séléctif Electrical and various damage Didier Le Villain Chaleur Fioul Elan Electrical problems Patrick Morvan Groupe France Epargne Leak and electrical problems Leading boats 15.00 GMT ORMA 60’ multihulls: Stève Ravussin TechnoMarine IMOCA 60’ monohulls: Ellen MacArthur Kingfisher Class 2 50’ monohulls: Nick Moloney Ashfield Healthcare Class 3 40’ monohulls: Régis Guillemot Storagetek Class 2 50’ multihulls: Frank Yves Escoffier Crepes Whaou! Datum: 15. Nov 2002 11:37 NEWSFLASH 15 NOVEMBER 10.00 GMT Breakage of float and subsequent dismasting of Sergio Tacchini Today at 0815 GMT Karine Fauconnier contacted her shore crew to announce that her starboard float had ruptured leading to an immediate dismasting. Karine is fine, she had a clear voice. A rescue operation of both the skipper and her boat has been launched from Lisbon. Following this incident, experienced while sailing in 30/35 knots of wind (gusts up to 40 knots) Karine set off her distress beacon. She then dumped her mast and cleaned everything up to save the platform of the trimaran. At the 0700 GMT polling the sailor was halfway between Lisbon and the Azores at 38° 19 20 N and 17° 42 40 W. At 2248 GMT Wednesday evening, all was going well on board Sergio Tacchini as indicated in a message sent by Karine to Race HQ : « Everything is fine aboard, wind and seas still strong but the boat is going well. Big cumulo-nimbus with more than 45-50 knots regularly. Rested, dried off, and fed, the girl is good. » Quote from Alain Gautier, Foncia: « Tonight, I was sailing in a wind of 35 to 40 knots in strong seas with waves of 10 metres. In addition, it was a cross sea at the time which made the navigation very delicate. It was a pyramid-shaped wave which came in very quickly and took hold of the boat underneath and that’s when I heard a big crack. It was dark but I had seen several waves of that type during the day. First of all the underside of the exterior coating was broken across a two metre wide area. I tried to repair it then the outer skin exploded along a five metre length to starboard. In fact, the water was coming into the beams with every incoming wave. I am also heading for Madeira and I am retiring from the Route du Rhum because I can’t, on the one hand continue in this way, and on the other we would never be able to repair it within the 72 hours allowed. » Gautier will reach the islands of Madeira tonight. Morning Update Friday 15 November 2002 at 07.30 GMT TECHNOMARINE CHARGING AWAY - ALAIN GAUTIER FONCIA ABANDONES Swiss Stève Ravussin (TechnoMarine) has in the last 24 hours gained and gained. He is pushing his machine at around 20 knots of speed and has during the night extended his lead on Biscuits La Trinitaine – Ethypharm with more than 80 miles, and passed the leading IMOCA monohulls. Biscuits La Trinitaine – Ethypharm is heading to Punta Delgada on the Island of Sao Miguel (Azores) for a short pit-stop during the day to change his solent and staysail, and will loose more miles to the leader. Alain Gautier Foncia is heading to Madeira. He is experiencing similar problems as Sodebo, but on the aftbeam – structural damages to the exterior carbon coating, caused by a massive wave hitting the boat from behind. He confirmed his abandon to the race head quarters this morning. Kingfisher and Ecover are stuck together, neither letting a sole mile slip away to the opponent. Kingfisher has since Wednesday night had a slight advantage to her British rival, which extended to 10 miles at the 0700GMT report this morning. The two have extended their lead further to the boats behind. So has Australian Nick Moloney in class 2. His Ashfield Healthcare is more than 60 miles ahead of number two in the class, and is not far from Miranda Merron, 5th in the IMOCA class. Same situation in the monohull class 3 and multihull class 2, StorageTek and Crêpes Whaou have been leading their classes almost since the start. Both are more than 200 and 150 miles ahead of the second positioned boat in their class. Roland Jordain on Sill will arrive in Madeira within the hour. Géant (Michel Desjoyeaux) is carrying out a pit-stop at Madeira (arriving this afternoon). Belgacom, Bayer CropSciences and Bonduell e are all leaving port at this moment. The leading pack is heading south-west of the Azores. The wind is still strong – north-westerly 35-40 knots, decreasing to 30 knots for the leading boats and veering north. Leading boats 07.00 GMT: ORMA 60’ multihulls: Stève Ravussin TechnoMarine IMOCA 60’ monohulls: Ellen MacArthur Kingfisher Class 2 50’ monohulls: Nick Moloney Ashfield Healthcare Class 3 40’ monohulls: Régis Guillemot Storagetek Class 2 50’ multihulls: Frank Yves Escoffier Crepes Whaou! 20 boats have abandoned Copyright free photos, Gilles Martin-Raget On the web site : www.routedurhum.org / Obligatory photo credit : Gilles Martin-Raget or gmr@martin-raget.com Institutional Partners: Town of Saint Malo, Guadeloupe Regional Council, Town of Pointe-à-Pitre, Chamber of Commerce & Industry for Pointe à Pitre, Chamber of Commerce & Industry for Basse Terre, National Navy Official Partners: France Télécom, EPSON Official Suppliers : Air France, Bayer, Buchin Equipement Pro, Ercuis & Raynaud, Renault, Rent A Car, Station d'Avoriaz. 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