Route du Rhum 2002 www.routedurhum.org zur Übersicht Betreff: PRESS RELEASE Route du Rhum 16 Nov 1630 GMT Absender: Empfänger: Datum: 16. Nov 2002 17:36 The Route du Rhum 2002 : Press Release N° 23 Kite’s Up Finally. No reefs, wind from behind, warmer weather and big sails up. That is the enjoyable situation for the leading boats in the Route du Rhum. Ecover and Kingfisher are continuing leading the monohull fleet. head to head, and never time for a rest. Ecover was 9 miles ahead of Kingfisher at 1500 GMT. Stève Ravussin on TechnoMarine is far ahead of his fellow multihull competitors. The trailing pack is also exper< /B>iencing better conditions and looking forward to some pleasant sailing. The leaders should soon be on their way out of the lighter area of the Azores High, and hit the road of the trade wind highway. Das Schlimmste ist überstanden Photo: Campione In 16-20 knots of breeze the frontrunners are gliding with the wind from behind on the southern border of the Azores anticyclone. Blue skies and stabilising conditions are very much welcomed, but the hard work is not over. The two British rivals leading the monohull fleet are continuing sailing side by side, neither of them willing to let go. There is no time for rest. Ellen MacArthur reported: “I hardly slept last night, there were constant wind shifts and changes of sails. It is very tiring. Mike Golding is right next to me and there is a little bit of a battle between us…We have crossed each others paths several times but now our courses will separate. Mike is heading north, but I am heading down south. I will be reaching on one long port tack and it will not be easy. You really have to be careful in the last bit to the Caribbean." Mike Golding, some miles ahead of Kingfisher since yesterday afternoon, agrees with MacArthur. The battle is on: “She’s [Ellen’s] doing very well. I’m sure we will both fight until the end. …Also Bilou [Roland Jordain on Sill] is a fighter and a very strong man. He will undoubtedly bounce back. I wish he was still racing near us. Anyway, I’ve still got 1,900 miles to go, so it’s all still open.” Sill left Madeira yesterday evening, after a 12 hour pitstop. With his southerly option he is reaching the trade winds sooner than his British contenders, but as he is several hundred miles east of the leaders he has a lot of catching up to do. “I would need the two Brits in front to give me a helping hand so that I can come back, but unfortunately I do not think they will give me that present. It will be hard t o catch up, but I am happy and will push as much as I can,” said the French pre-race favourite. Australian Nick Moloney on his 50-foot monohull Ashfield Healthcare is following Ellen MacArthur’s foot steps, reflecting on when she won the 50-foot monohull class and was fifth overall in the 1998 Route du Rhum. Moloney is catching up with the second group of 60-foot monohulls and is 35 miles behind the fifth IMOCA Open 60’, Miranda Merron (UK) on UUDS. The 50-foot trimarans have ploughed through the hard conditions without the damage caused to their bigger brothers, the 60-foot trimarans. Frank Yves Escoffier on the 50-foot trimaran Crepes Whaou has performed a perfect race so far and is 130 miles ahead of Anne Ca seneuve on Yachting Casino.com. Crepes Whaou is second overall in the multihull fleet behind Stève Ravussin on TechnoMarine! Escoffier is giving a lot of credit to his router Jean Yves Bernot, who is also routing Kingfisher and Ashfield Healthcare. Interesting to note is that Anne Caseneuve, second in her class (2 multihull) is not using any router at all and is doing all her navigation strategies onboard herself. Michel Desjoyeaux on Géant left Porto Santo this morning and is back on the course, with only three more 60-foot ORMA trimarans racing (note that Marc Guillemot, Biscuits la Trinitaine - Ethypharm is still at port in the Azores and will not leave until tomorrow Sunday or Monday). Last to abandon was Bonduelle, which left port yesterday to attack the race once again. The skipper Jean Le Cam experienced winds of 45 to 50 knots last night and the fore and aft beams of the yellow green trimaran were damaged. He will have to head back to port once again. At this point of the race the arrival dates are starting to be estimated. The first multihull is estimated to finish in Pointe à Pitre in Guadeloupe 21 November, the first monohulls are expected 23 or 24 November. With these ETA’s it is very uncertain if there will be any records broken in this year’s Route du Rhum. The record for monohulls dates back two editions, set in 1994 by Yves Parlier on Cacolac d’Aquitaine in 15 days, 19h, 23 min. The race record for multihulls was set in 1998 by Lau rent Bourgnon on Primagaz (now Rexona Men – capsized ) in 12 days, 8 h, 41 min, 6 sec. Update on the trimaran breakage: - Karine Fauconnier (Sergio Tacchini dismasted) was not able to be picked up by a freighter yesterday due to the heavy weather. Bob Escoffier on Acecco Etoile Horizon (6th in monohull class 2) was asked by the race committee to head towards Fauconnier and will arrive on site in short time. The 50-foot contender will have to drop off Fauconnier in Madeira. - Alain Gautier Foncia arrived in Madeira yesterday afternoon. - Sodebo arrived in Cascais, on the Portuguese coast this morning - Yvan Bourgnon on Rexona Men refused to leave his boat and has stayed on the overturned trimaran for three days. - Sopra is being towed towards the Spanish coast. - Peyron hopes to get to his boat Fujifilm tomorrow morning and start towing it towards the coast. Quotes: Mike Golding (UK) Ecover (1st IMOCA monohull) “I am tired after the first week, but hopefully this weather will give me an opportunity to recuperate. I’m able to moderate my sleep efficiently. I’m not steering the boat much, as I’m using the time to sort out problems. I’ve done a lot of work on my indexsail. The boat took a tremendous thrashing and pounding. Things we thought would be reliable have broken!” Ellen MacArthur (UK) Kingfisher (2nd IMOCA monohull): “the pace of the race has been very high, from the challenging upwind start battles - to the safe passage through some of the worst, but most beautiful conditions I have ever seen at sea.” “it feels wonderful to remove my wellies (rubber boots), and to be able to go into the cockpit without getting instantly soaked - oh how things change.. I remember sitting in the gale - holding tight onto the chart table edge - just thinking 'that in 36 hours we'll be sailing with our spinnaker up..' I guess it's these things which keep you going, together with the mesmerising beauty of the ferocious waves, foaming crests and seas so large and rolling you could have built villages in their valleys.” Miranda Merron (UK) UUDS (5th IMOCA monohull): “It's beautiful weather, still blowing dogs off chains, and since we are h eading for the Azores, it has to get lighter. Sometime anyway. …Harness required to get back to cockpit once the breeze hits, grappling hooks would have been useful too, but not good for the carbon deck. Since the start of the race the only sails we have used are the trinquette and index, never once to full hoist. It is 6 days in and I am starting to get fed up with the constant pressure of heavy weather. So is the boat, I think. This is the North Atlantic, not the Southern Ocean.” 24 abandons of 58 starting: 14 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 Jean Le Cam Bonduelle Structural damage on beams 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 Positions 16/11/02 15:00:00 GMT Multihull 60’ ORMA 1-TechnoMarine-Steve Ravussin-1945 miles to finish 2-Banque Populaire-Lalou Roucayrol-2168 3-Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm-Marc Guillemot-2343 4-Géant-Michel Desjoyeaux-2651 -Bonduelle- Jean Le Cam- - - Monohull 60’ IMOCA 1-Ecover-Mike Golding-1948 miles to finish 2-Kingfisher-Ellen McArthur-1957< /P> 3-Arcelor-Dunkerque-Joé Seten-2223 4-60ème Sud-Didier Munduteguy-2298 5-Un Univers de Services-Miranda Merron-2357 6-L'Heautontimoroumenos-Antoine Koch-2406 7-Garnier Belgium-Patrick De Radiguès-2455 8-Sill-Roland Jourdain-2469 9-Millimages-Gédéon-Patrick Favre-2477 10-Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma-Mike Birch-2659 11-Ciments St Laurent-Ocean-Georges Leblanc-2874 12-Leasecom-Elie Canivenc-3168 NL-Dinan Pays d'Entreprises-Frédéric Lescot- Monohull Class 1 1-Ville de Dinard-Bruno Reibel-2769 miles to finish Monohull Class 2 1-Ashfield Healthcare-Nick Moloney-2392 miles to finish 2-Florys-Luc Coquelin-2473 3-Mille Visages-Hervé Vachée-2492 4-Branec III-Roger Langevin-2511 5-Laiterie St Malo-Clément Surtel-2617 6-Adecco Etoile Horizon-Bob Escoffier-2694 7-Défi Vendéen-J. F. Durand-3365 Monohull Class 3 1-Storagetek-Regis Guillemot-2453 miles to finish 2-Passion Entreprendre-Jérôme Thiriez-2671 3-Grain de Soleil-Etienne Svilarich-2750 4-Fantasy-Forest-Alain Grinda-3327 Multihull Class 2 1-Crepes Whaou!-F. Y. Escofier-2149 miles to finish 2-Yachting-casino.com-Anne Cazeneuve-2276 3-Vaincre la mucoviscidose-Hervé Cleris-2655 4-Archipel Guadeloupe-Claude Thelier-2689 5-Lehning-Lapeyre-Blanchet-Gourbeyre-P.Y. Guennec-2842 Morning Update Saturday 16 November 2002 at 07.30 GMT RUBBERBAND ON THE BRITS The conditions for the frontrunners have changed radically the last 24 hours. They are now sailing in warmer temperatures and lighter winds from the north-northeast (wind from behind). The leading boats will have to round the anticyclone from the southeast to avoid it. “This anticyclone is moving a lot and you have to pay attention,” said Ellen MacArthur early this morning. Ecover and Kingfisher are inseparable following practically the same course to the goal. Mike Golding on Ecover has gained some miles during the night and at 0700 GMT he had a 7 mile lead over his fellow country woman, Ellen MacArthur. Sill is back in the game, Roland Jordain left Porto Santo (Madeira) last night after a 12 hour pitstop. He is currently in 8th position but is sailing fastest in the monohull fleet at 15 knots (0700 GMT). Sill is more than 550 miles astern (east) of his English opponents and is diving southwest to search the trade winds. Swiss Stève Ravussin on TechnoMarine (60’ ORMA trimaran) is still holding pole position, some 30 miles ahead of the British monohull duo, on a similar course. Ravussin calculated this morning at 0300 GMT that he had approximately 300 miles to go to reach the trade winds. Second positioned trimaran Banque Populaire (Lalou Roucayrol) is 207 miles behind, and sailing on a complete different course than any other boat. He is the only boat passing north of the Azores islands, and will have to negotiate the anticyclone from the north. Roucayrol had problems with his index sail and had to climb the mast yesterday evening to untangle bits of the “lazy-jacks” (restraining lines rigged from the ma st to the boom) that were messed up with the index sail halyard. Biscuits La Trinitaine and Géant, third and fourth of the 60’ trimarans, are both still in port for repairs (Azores and Madeira). Fifth, Bonduelle, is catching up in high speeds – doing 18 knots at the 0700 GMT position report (Bonduelle left port in Camaret, France yesterday morning). Leading boats 07.00 GMT: ORMA 60’ multihulls: Stève Ravussin TechnoMarine IMOCA 60’ monohulls: Mike Golding Ecover Class 2 50’ monohulls: Nick Moloney Ashfield Healthcare Class 3 40’ monohulls: Régis Guillemot Storagetek Class 2 50’ multihulls: Frank Yves Escoffier Crepes Whaou! Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE