Alex Thomson Racing: Alex Thomson 1st British skipper and 3rd away at the Défi Atlantique start
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 30. Nov 2003 20:23
ALEX THOMSON RACING
ALEX THOMSON 1ST BRITISH SKIPPER AND 3RD AWAY AT THE DEFI ATLANTIQUE START IN BRAZIL
Fleet of 10 Open 60 monohulls started the Défi Atlantique solo race at 1300hrs GMT today 30th November, 2003 from Salvador, Brazil to La Rochelle, France to qualify for the Vendée Globe 2004..
Alex Thomson yet again proved his star talent by crossing the start line of his very first Open 60 solo race, the Défi Atlantique from Brazil to La Rochelle, in 3rd place on AT Racing as the top British skipper, which he indextained for the initial inshore course around the Bay of All Saints, and through the final gate off the Barra Lighthouse, as the fleet headed out of Salvador for their 4,100 mile solo qualifier race for the Vendée Globe 2004.
At 1500hrs GMT (1200hrs local time) on Sunday 30th November 2003, ten Open 60’s began this longest East to West transat race in a Northerly 17 knot breeze, which gusted over the Bay of All Saints. In a regatta style breathtaking start, Virbac (Dick) and AT Racing (Thomson) were lined up perfectly, but just at the gun, VMI (Josse) and PRB (Riou) surged through to leeward in style. All the boats had 1 reef in their indexsails and Solent up for the first reaching leg to the Liverpool cardinal buoy, except for Virbac flying full indexsail, and places kept changing as the skippers worked hard in the cockpit changing down to staysail and trying to keep boat speed up in the patchy breeze.
It was PRB (Riou) who rounded the first mark in the lead, followed by Virbac (Dick). Then AT Racing (Thomson) and Team Cowes (Moloney) rounded up to the cardinal mark together, Nick Moloney squeezing through first, and then Alex Thomson powering through to leeward, still flying his Solent as they headed up wind to the next mark. Not far behind, Ecover (Golding) began to steal a march on the back of the pack having started conservatively, and after a fouled tack by Moloney, which put Team Cowes into irons, Golding showed a superior sailing angle upwind although sailing flatter. The British solo sailing veteran walked over four boats on this leg, and then got on the tail of his native rival Thomson just 10 boat lengths ahead.
The final inshore mark before the fleet disappeared into the horizon was a ‘gateway’ 150m off Barra Lighthouse. As they sailed past the Salvador skyscrapers, Virbac (Dick) powered past PRB (Riou) and exactly 57 minutes after the start, the Transat Jacques Vabre winner passed through this final gate to the sound of fireworks from the lighthouse with a 45 second advantage. After PRB, Alex Thomson on AT Racing sailed past the Barra Lighthouse 1 minute 42 seconds behind the leading Open 60 Virbac, and 1 minute 23 seconds ahead of Ecover. Within just the first hour of racing, the positions all through the fleet kept swapping, and at the gateway, the first to last boats were already separated by over 15 minutes.
In the morning before the start, Alex Thomson was on good form, and extremely focused for this important race on the path towards the Vendée Globe. “I have got an incredible amount of confidence from racing with Bilou (Roland Jourdain) in the Transat Jacques Vabre. I feel totally comfortable sailing AT Racing single-handed now, and the gear change up from an Open 50, when I last competed solo in the Europe1 Star 2000 to an Open 60 is very natural. My shore team have worked from dawn to dusk after Bilou handed over the boat to us just 12 days ago, and any performance I show out there has a lot to do with their thorough preparation. Everything about this project feels right, and as we still look for sponsorship for the Vendée Globe itself, my job is to go out there and do the best I can on the race course. I will push hard and I’d like to see myself in the top 5 by the finish, but ultimately I need to qualify for the Vendée so if something goes then I will throttle back.”
For all his self-confidence, Alex is naturally a little nervous, especially about the first 24 hours out there: “It’s going to be upwind conditions overnight and we’ll be trying to reindex as close to the coast as possible if the weather forecast is right. The breeze should be more established inshore, but my worry is to be alert the entire time to any slight wind change because we will be so close to the coast. I’ve got all sorts of alarms – oh, and a loud stereo fitted into the nav station now – to keep me awake!”
Ahead of Thomson is 4,100m of open ocean as he races non-stop with no outside assistance or routing to La Rochelle, France. The Défi Atlantique course takes the fleet through the unpredictable Doldrums, up the South and North East Trades rounding the Azores High, and then across to the Western coast of France with the North Atlantic low pressure systems and choppy cross seas of the Bay of Biscay. It should take between 18 – 20 days to complete the race - rendez-vous in La Rochelle around the 18 – 20th December for the arrivals…
**LATEST NEWS** – Alex rang in excited to tell us he has just overtaken PRB…what a rockstar!
POSITION REPORTS
The first position reports will be on the Défi Atlantique website at 1900hrs GMT, with updates daily at 0700, 1400 and 1900hrs GMT from then on.
The official race website is: www.defi-atlantique.org/uk
ATR.COM WEBSITE
You can follow Alex Thomson’s progress on the path to the Vendée Globe on the campaign website at www.alexthomsonracing.com, where Alex’s personal updates & images taken on board from the Transat Jacques Vabre & Défi Atlantique, plus information about the project and skipper, are posted online. If you wish to make enquiries, sign up to receive updates or send Alex a message of support at any time please register your email through the Quick Enquiries section online or at info@at-racing.com.
ENDS
For interviews, high resolution photography, and media enquiries: Mary Ambler - Email: mary@alexthomsonracing.com - Mobile: +44 (0) 7887 643 583
AT Racing Ltd
Address: Unit 11, Haslar Marina, Haslar Road, Gosport PO12 1NU
Tel: +44 (0)23 9252 4343 - Fax: +44 (0)23 9252 4646
Website: www.alexthomsonracing.com
Sponsorship enquiries: sponsorship@at-racing.com
General enquiries: info@at-racing.com
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