Alex Thomson Racing: Back in 2nd in the Final 24hrs - "Get The Rag Up and Go!"
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 17. Nov 2003 15:14
ALEX THOMSON RACING
BACK IN 2ND IN THE FINAL 24HRS – “GET THE RAG UP AND GO!”
Transat Jacques Vabre: Monohull Class 1 – DAY 16
17th November 2003
Leader: Virbac (Dick/Abiven FRA)
13:00hrs GMT Position of SILL: 2ndplace, 125m to the leader
Conditions: 18 knots from the ESE – the Trades
Location: 284m to Brazil. 60m offshore going down the Brazilian coast
* Sill ETA to the finish will be Tuesday 18th November from 0800GMT. You will be able to keep abreast of arrival times and follow the arrivals live online on the official website at www.jacques-vabre.com/pages_uk/accueil_uk2003.htm and Alex Thomson Racing.com will also be updated with the arrival times, Alex’s update and photos from the finish.
* Barring any major incident, the top sport will be taken by Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven on the brand new Farr Open 60 Virbac, due in after dark tonight here in Salvador. However, for all followers of the Open 60 monohull class, it has been the exciting battle for 2nd place between Sill and Ecover which has absorbed their attention.
* Alex Thomson is hyped up this morning – no one can blame the lad, as the Sill boys have eeked out a 7.3m lead over Ecover in the last 2 hours since 0900GMT, and in fact from yesterday evening, the rankings have been playing musical chairs with the two contenders for second place in the Transat Jacques Vabre.
Last night Mike Golding reported in that the runner fitting on the mast had pulled away, which posed a potential threat to the stability of the rigging. Mike with co-skipper Brian Thompson had to stop the boat, to let Mike climb the mast and fit the runner back on with a Vectran strop. This technical fault allowed Sill to slip past by a fraction of a mile, and continue to eek out their lead until 0900GMT this morning, when it was Ecover’s turn in the 2nd spot again after they put in a better two hourly average boat speed towards the finish.
Then at the 1100GMT Sill moved back into the lead as they pulled out the stops at 15 knots average VMG (Velocity Made Good), and again at 1300 GMT they are holding onto this slim 8 mile advantage over the Brits behind, but Ecover have nearly a knot more in VMG, although Sill is averaging better pure boat speed…what a rollercoaster!
We just see data on charts and dots on maps, but here Alex tells the story from their angle: “It was another hectic night on Sill, our router said that we should stay offshore in the breeze, go the long way round and so we did, but the wind varied from between 8 – 19 knots, which meant it was very stop-go all night. We dragged the gennaker out at 2am, popped it up and then I went to sleep for a bit. Bilou had a frustrating couple of hours getting the boat going, I got up and took over, then suddenly the breeze filled in to 16 knots, went forward so we rolled the gennaker and got the Solent up. Bilou and I have a phrase for when the Solent and indexsail are flying – we call it ‘Holiday Time’, because we don’t need to be on the helm! However, that period didn’t last for long as the wind backed so we got the gennaker out again and that meant one of us driving all the time, but the boat really powers up then.”
And of course this is Bilou and Alex’s last 24 hours racing together at sea, so what will it be like? “We expect the wind to stabilize in force, but come more behind us, it’s already very Easterly). So as it moves to the left more we will probably end up flying the spinnaker. We are 60m offshore, with Mike about 25m nearer to the coast, and Bilou and I are hoping that Ecover will have to come back out and so sail behind us. We are just sailing this boat as fast as she can go between now and the line, she can be more twitchy at times but that’s good when she just takes off at the pull of a string.”
Although we are all on the edge of our seats, thankfully, the two people who need to stay calm in all of this are doing exactly that. Alex chatted on the phone this morning, as if he was having a casual conversation between mates: “We’re both keeping pretty level-headed, although I am prone to be more excitable than Bilou. Conversation between me and him goes something like:
‘Bilou, Mike’s going faster than us, we’ve got to do something!’
‘Don’t worry Alex…’
(Alex gets just a little agitated in the ensuing silence)
‘OK, Alex, we just ‘ave a leettle theenk, and zen get out le gennaker…’
“We get on incredibly well, so that helps in these situations when the racing is so close, there is never a cross word between us, even if I am different in that I tend to react immediately to anything, whereas Bilou has to philosophise about things a bit, which I guess is a particularly French habit…oh and I am teaching Bilou some Cockney rhyming slang! He’s learnt ‘Dog and Bone’ so far but it’s hard to explain to him, anyway, it helps to keep us laughin’ until the finish.”
So you can imagine the atmosphere on board, and can be thankful that these two characters work well together, which has no doubt contributed to their performance, and to Alex’s learning curve for when he races the boat solo in just under 2 weeks time back to France in the Défi Atlantique qualifying event for the Vendée Globe 2004.
Final phrase from Alex says it all: “We’ve just gotta get the rag up and go!”
ATR.COM WEBSITE
You can follow Alex Thomson on ‘Sill’ in the Transat Jacques Vabre on a new-look format of the current campaign website at www.alexthomsonracing.com, where Alex’s personal updates & images taken on board, plus the latest race information and boat positions will be 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.
The Official Race web site is at www.jacques-vabre.com
ENDS
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
Media enquiries: Mary Ambler - Email: mary@at-racing.com - Mobile: +44 (0) 7887 643 583
High resolution images of Alex Thomson / Sill (on board & aerial) are available on request and copyright free.
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