Oceanracing 2003 - Transat Jacques Vabre 2003

Transat Jacques Vabre 2003

Betreff: TJV 03: VIRBAC & FARR SET TO WIN 1ST MAJOR RACE; SILL NOSES Ahead OF ECOVER; FONCIA 9TH
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 17. Nov 2003 17:53

DAY 16: MONOHULLS & MULTIHULL 50
DAY 12: MULTIHULL 60’s

VIRBAC & FARR SET TO WIN FIRST MAJOR RACE; SILL NOSES Ahead OF ECOVER; FONCIA 9TH

Salvador 17th November 03
MULTIHULL OPEN 60’s
* Foncia (Gautier/MacArthur) overtake Sopra Group (Monnet/L. Bourgnon) just before the line and take 9th place by 17 minutes.
Other multihull finishes online.

MONOHULL OPEN 60’s & 50’s
* Virbac due to finish at midnight local time; Sill pulls ahead of Ecover in their match-race for the podium; Team Cowes still on the tail of VMI

Virbac (Dick/Abiven) has sailed a faultless course and with 130 odd miles to the finish going at 10 knots VMG, is expected to finish ahead of the 12 other 60ft monohulls tonight around midnight local time (0300GMT). Still with a buffer of 114m over the second boat and with the Trades expected to push them all the way to the finish, bar an unforeseen technical incident onboard, French duo Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven look set to take their first major offshore victory in their brand new Farr 60. Speaking to the skipper today, the phrase “metho-Dick” comes into mind:

E.McArthur u.A.Gautier/Foncia 9th

M.Desjoyeaux/Geant 4th

Th.Coville/SODEBO 7th

Photos: www.jacques-vabre.com

“It’s an extremely positive result for us. The first confrontation against the best of the current Open 60 class. Whether it’s to do with managing the boat or the expertise of the people, we can only congratulate the team on the overall management of the project. We haven’t suffered a major breakage, everyone’s put their back into it and so we’ve got to be happy about the result. The only negative is the upwind performance in a strong breeze, but we’ve time to work on that. The first thing we want to do on arrival is have a shower as we forgot to pack any soap! We really did stick to the minimum on board, one toothbrush, one pair of shoes, boots and 2 T-shirts. We’ve only eaten two real meals each day and not three, and the cereal in the morning had to be stomached with baby milk – can you believe it – so the person who did our shopping was either playing a practical joke or seriously mistaken!”

The battle for second place has stepped up another level, as in the last 24hrs, both Ecover and Sill have been switching places in the podium rankings for 2nd and 3rd place, so close are they to each other in terms of the distance to finish. At the latest rankings of 1500GMT, it is now Sill (Jourdain/A. Thomson) who points her bow 11 miles ahead of Ecover (Golding/B. Thompson) but the VMG and actual boat speed for both boats over each two-hourly position update has seen no significant difference as they converge to the line some 250m away. Sill is currently 60m offshore and Ecover about 25m nearer the coast. The Trades look stable with consistent breeze in force, and so the only thing certain is that the four skippers will both be on dry land by tomorrow morning, they are expected in between 4 and 6 o’clock local time (0700 – 0900GMT), but between now and then it is a match-race down to the wire.

Not only is the competition for rankings, but for prestige as well, and the race is also about who will be the first British skipper in the international Open 60 class. Alex Thomson, co-skipper on Sill, reindexs level-headed despite all the pressure on him as the ‘new boy’ racing against the combined talent of Mike Golding and Brian Thompson: “It was another hectic night on Sill, we stayed offshore to keep in the breeze, but the wind varied from between 8 – 19 knots, which meant it was very physical, hand-steering with the gennaker, changing to Solent and back again, totally stop-go all night. Now we expect the wind to stabilize in force, but come more behind us. 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. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to get the rag up and go!” Indeed, all will be revealed by this time tomorrow.

Behind, PRB (Riou/Beyou) is conservatively holding her 4th position with a comfortable gap of 67m until 5th placed VMI (Josse/Autissier). Josse has served an invaluable apprenticeship with Isabelle Autissier on his Open 60 during this race, and has clocked some of the fastest speeds downwind on their spaceship-like hull, which has put them in the running for the overall Baume & Mercier 24hr record Trophy.

Unfortunately, Team Cowes (Moloney/Davies) has been squeezed out of the top 5,
and she lies just 35m behind VMI in a difficult Westerly position and unable to match her nearest rival’s performance despite pushing 100%. Co-skipper Sam Davies has mixed feelings: “I will be sad when this race is over. We are struggling a bit though to keep up with VMI, she took 23 miles out of us today and we can't sail Team Cowes any faster. I think that they got this wind first and the rich are getting richer, so to speak. Hopefully we will not lose too much more now we are up to speed. Then we will still be in with a chance of catching her.”

Hellomoto is still leading the Monohull 60’s but the dreaded Doldrums has them well and truly ensnared. Down to just 3.2 knots boat speed, Humphreys and Larsen will be watching their lead melt as Storagetek (Guillemot/Salnelle) eat into their lead at a rate of 11 knots. They still have a 169m advantage but will it be enough to get them to the other side before their rivals get too close?

WEATHER
For the monohulls, Tuesday will be their day to hurry on in with the same regularity of trade winds. However after Virbac it is still not clear what the order will be down the rest of the rankings as the boats reindex within a few miles. So the weather will play no further part in this battle, it will be down to pure boat speed as to which boat prevails.

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
Please look at the web site as I will update this with finish information and arrival times first.

FINISH TIMES AND POSITIONS

MULTIHULL OPEN 60
1. GROUPAMA 16/11/03 AT 0810GMT 41S covering actual distance of 4,624m in 10 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes, 41 seconds at an average speed of 17.57 knots on the water

2. BELGACOM 16/11/03 AT 0922GMT 42S covering actual distance of 4,675m in 11 days, 00 hours, 22 minutes, 42 seconds at an average speed of 17.68 knots on the water

3. SERGIO TACCHINI 16/11/03 AT 1220GMT 28S covering actual distance of 4,700m in 11 days, 03 hours, 20 minutes, 28 seconds at an average speed of 17.58 knots on the water

4. GEANT 16/11/03 AT 1527GMT 31S covering actual distance of 4,700m in 11 days, 6 hours, 27 minutes, 31 seconds at an average speed of 17.38 knots on the water

5. BISCUITS LA TRINITAINE 16/11/03 AT covering actual distance of 4,687m in 11 days, 8 hours, 11 minutes, 55 seconds at an average speed of 17.22 knots on the water

6. BANQUE POPULAIRE 16/11/03 AT 1827GMT 44S covering actual distance of 4,842m in 11 days, 9 hours, 27 minutes, 44 seconds at an average speed of 17.71 knots on the water

7. SODEBO 16/11/03 AT 2020GMT 15S covering a theoretical distance of 4,340m in 11 days, 11 hours, 20 minutes, 15 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 15.76 knots on the water

8. GITANA 17/11/03 at 0450GMT 45S covering a theoretical distance of 4,340m in 11 days, 19 hours, 50 minutes, 45 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 15.29 knots on the water

9. FONCIA 17/11/03 AT 0538GMT 6S covering a theoretical distance of 4,340m in 11 days, 20 hours, 38 minutes, 6 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 15.25 knots on the water

10 SOPRA GROUP 17/11/03 AT 0555GMT 50S covering a theoretical distance of 4,340m in 11 days, 20 hours, 55 minutes, 50 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 15.23 knots on the water

11. BONDUELLE 17/11/03 AT 1140GMT 21S covering a theoretical distance of 4,340m in 12 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes, 21 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 14.93 knots on the water

POSITIONS at 15:00 hrs GMT 17/11/03
MONOHULL OPEN 60
Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
1 VIRBAC 11 50.76' S 36 33.24' W 10.5 219 138.9m
2 SILL 10 20.92' S 35 06.76' W 15.5 221 252.9m 114m
3 ECOVER 10 05.76' S 35 16.80' W 15.3 223 263.4m 124.5m
4 PRB 8 59.48' S 34 08.64' W 15.2 213 357.8m 218.9m
5 VMI 8 02.52' S 33 37.72' W 14.2 214 420m 281.1m
6 TEAM COWES 7 09.12' S 33 47.04' W 13.2 201 455.6m 316.7m

MULTIHULL OPEN 60
Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
12 BAYER CROPSCIENCE 12 17.72' S 37 22.04' W 21.6 230 17/11/03 14:44:00 83.9 0.0
13 BANQUE COVEFI 10 58.04' S 35 34.40' W 14.8 224 17/11/03 14:44:00 216.3 132.4

OPEN 50 MULTIHULL
1 MOLLYMAWK 17 29.56' N 26 33.24' W 12.7 175 17/11/03 14:30:00 1987.1 0.0

OPEN 50 MONOHULLS
1 HELLOMOTO 4 39.40' N 24 59.16' W 4.3 174 17/11/03 14:44:00 1338.6 0.0
2 DEFI VENDEEN 7 46.32' N 24 32.12' W 12.4 188 17/11/03 14:44:00 1508.2 169.7
3 STORAGETEK 9 18.24' N 27 11.28' W 10.0 189 17/11/03 14:30:00 1514.4 175.8

abandoned CIMENT ST LAURENT
abandoned OBJECTIF 3
abandoned PINDAR
abandoned ATLANTIC NATURE
abandoned LABESFAL
abandoned CHEMINEES POUJOULAT/ARMOR LUX
abandoned TIM

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Contacts :
International Press: Mary Ambler +44 (0)7887 643 583 Email: mary@alexthomsonracing.com
French Press : Television : Anne Millet +33 (0)6 84 33 09 30 Radio : Valérie Beaulieu +33 (0)6 62 04 39 77 Journalists : Soazig Guého +33 (0)6 62 08 75 44 & Justine Ozoux +33 (0)6 25 05 58 35 Race : Mathieu Sarrot +33 (0)6 60 67 10 00)