Betreff: TJV 03: LEADERS HURTLING HOME, AS DRAG RACE BREAKS OUT BEHIND
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 15. Nov 2003 17:37
DAY 14: MONOHULLS &
DAY 10: MULTIHULL 60’s
LEADERS HURTLING TOWARDS HOME, AS DRAG RACE BREAKS OUT BEHIND
Salvador 15th November 03
* UK mobile phone operating in Salvador – I can be reached as normal on +44 (0)7887 643 583
Leading multihull and last time winners Groupama (Cammas/Proffit) have 364m to go and are due to finish at any time from 2am local time on Sunday here in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, which is 3 hours behind GMT. With an 83m advantage over nearest threat Belgacom (Nélias/L. Peyron) hurtling down the rhumb line at 20 knots average boat speed, Franck’s Cammas and Proffit will be quenching for that first caipirinha. In the monohull fleet, Virbac (Dick/Abiven) hold a similar advantage of being well into the SE Trades 123m ahead of second placed Ecover (Golding/Thompson) and up to 17 knots average boat speed in their 780m count down to the line, which they are due to cross on Tuesday morning.
MULTIHULL OPEN 60’s
* Groupama; Sergio Tacchini ahead of Géant; fleet rankings metamorphosing behind
* ETA Groupama is Sunday morning at dawn @4am local time, 7am GMT.
Groupama (Cammas/Proffit) is on the home stretch skirting the Brazilian coast at 16 knots boat speed, but must still be alert crossing the large fishing ground just ahead which is full of lobster boats and nets. Falling in behind are the chasing pack of trimarans, lead by Belgacom (Nélias/L.Peyron), followed by Sergio Tacchini (Fauconnier/Foxall) to the East and Géant (Desjoyeaux/Jan) to the West, the latter clocking 2 knots more speed at 24 knots on the rhumb line. Further back some impressive runs are being recorded, notably by Banque Populaire (Roucayrol/Bidegorry), who covered 577.3m over a 24hr period between 1500hrs yesterday and today. The current record for 24hr mileage is 625m, a record held by Yvan Bourgnon on Bayer (ex-Primagaz) since 2000. Banque Populaire is just 30m from Sodebo (Coville/Vincent) and Gitana (Lemonchois/Guessard), who are themselves separated by 3 miles on the rankings.
MONOHULL OPEN 60’s & 50’s
* Virbac’s lead looks unassailable and gives an ETA of Tuesday morning, Ecover & Sill in drag race for 2nd place, Team Cowes rises and falls…
Leading boat Virbac (Dick/Abiven) has under 800m to the finish, which translates to just under 3 days more sailing before reaching Salvador. French skipper Jean-Pierre Dick feels more comfortable with their 122m lead over Ecover (Golding/Thompson) now that they are cranking along at 17 knots in stable winds all the way in with no foreseeable obstacles in the weather crystal ball to lose such an advantage.
Behind, the duel for 2nd place has stepped up now that both Ecover and Sill (Jourdain/Thomson) are in the Southern Hemisphere. Ecover is a fraction faster in terms of average boat speed each 2 hourly position update, but the mileage between them lies still under 20 miles, as they are also separated by 1 degree of longitude. Golding revealed yesterday that his last, light spinnaker exploded in strong winds on Tuesday, but they are tight reaching in 16-20 knots of breeze with no need for the spi right now. This could play an important role if the two boats reindex so close and the final approach into Salvador is a spinnaker run, which is traditionally the case. However, the local weather is so variable inshore and we should not forget either the strong counter current, which could be another hazard if approaching the finish line at the wrong hour of the day or night.
Brian Thompson on Ecover still indextains his winning outlook on the last few days of the race: “Virbac are just over a hundred miles ahead with 800 to go, so only a breakdown or extreme bad luck with the stable weather of the tropics in going to keep them out of first. We are pushing 100%, not just to stay ahead of Sill but also to see if we can close up the gap ahead, to be ready for any opportunity. At present the gap is about 8 hours of sailing…”
Alex Thomson on Sill, of course, hopes the lack of sail wardrobe downwind will play to their advantage: “Well, it’s going to be a drag race all the way to the finish! Right now, Ecover is 80m to leeward of us and just in front, but she is going to have to sail a hotter angle to stay on the direct route, which is not far from upwind, as the breeze is from the SSE. For Ecover to be on the inside now is not going to be such a good position but she’s keeping up a good speed at the moment. Either she will come over towards our course, which will be slower, or more likely, she’ll sail up the coast where the winds may be freer as they should be more from the East, but they’ll definitely be lighter. It’s all in the lap of the wind gods now…”
Only 78m behind PRB (Riou/Beyou) is controlling the route, with VMI (Josse/Autissier) keeping the pressure up 66m behind and over to their East on a freer angle, and Team Cowes 44m behind and in the West. The sudden rise on Friday of Australian-British duo of Nick Moloney and Sam Davies has unfortunately fallen again as they had to grapple with the last the Doldrums’ squalls over the last day. Sam Davies reindexs positive: “We are just heading south tight fast reaching with the Solent and 1 reef in index. Wind is settled right now and should last a couple more hours before the next bank of cloud reaches us. The gradient wind has been really good and hopefully will see us through the Doldrums. The boats ahead are doing okay and they will be in the same conditions as us. The west has paid off so far as we keep ahead of VMI and as long as we keep fast now we might come out ahead of PRB...”
And finally…congratulations to Jeremie Beyou, who spent Thursday night following the birth of his first baby, a boy named Achille!
For the Open 50 fleet in their wake the Doldrums is looking as hazardous as ever - 300 miles of calms and squalls - not what the doctor ordered. Leaders Humphreys and Larsen on Hellomoto have a 209m lead but as we saw with Virbac, this could crumble if the weather gods are unkind: "We used our route through the Verdes to grab a little more westing”, said Conrad, “but there is just no decent path through the Doldrums below 31 degrees. If we were to try to go above that, we would be faced with a horrendous beat on the other side, all the way to Salvador. So all we can really do right now is point Hellomoto south and try to keep her moving through it. But it means that Storagetek and Défi Vendéen are a real threat. Our 200 mile lead could be eaten away in just a couple of days should we become becalmed and they strike lucky.”
WEATHER
Now in both Open 60 classes the race is about speed as Virbac and Groupama both hold a lead of over 100m and are in the established Trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere. However, the race is not over yet and the leaders are having to make their decision as to whether to skirt the Brazilian coastline in search of local winds or to stay offshore until the final approach to Salvador. Could Groupama be taking a risk with the inshore option as they are a couple of degrees further in the West than the pack of four trimarans in pursuit? The weather experts prefer the offshore route – we shall see what happens.
For those still to cross the Southern Hemipshere, indexly the monohulls, it will prove interesting to see if the more Easterly position pays as it should mean a better, faster sailing angle to the wind direction. The Trades are established all the way to the finish, and so the weather is unlikely to do anything unpredictable. Only the local effects of the wind in the final 3 hours of the race could shake anything up given that some boats are racing neck and neck into Brazil.
ETA first multihull is Sunday morning GMT, which is 3 hours ahead of local Brazilian time.
MEDIA CENTRE - SALVADOR
Centro Nautico Da Bahia (CENAB)
Av da Franca, s/n, Comercio, Salvador Da Bahia – BRAZIL
Tel: 00 55 71 319 34 45
Fax: 00 55 71 319 34 46
I will be keeping GMT time (Brazil is GMT -2hrs) with my daily press releases, but will email arrival press releases of top three in each fleet immediately with press conference quotes.
Please look at the web site as I will update this with finish information and arrival times first.
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