Oceanracing 2003 - Transat Jacques Vabre 2003

Transat Jacques Vabre 2003

Betreff: Alex Thomson Racing: Sill clinch 2nd place just 19m ahead of Ecover - Alex Thomson is 1st British Skipper
Absender: "Mary Ambler"
Datum: 18. Nov 2003 15:41
ALEX THOMSON RACING – TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE 2003 – 2ND PLACE AND 1ST BRITISH SKIPPER

SILL CLINCH 2ND PLACE JUST 19 MINUTES Ahead OF ECOVER IN MATCH RACE DOWN TO THE WIRE

Alex Thomson becomes first British skipper in the 2003 Transat Jacques Vabre Monohull Class.
The Anglo-French team of Alex Thomson and Roland Jourdain crossed the finish line on Sill
in Salvador da Bahia at 1209hrs GMT 11s (0909hrs local time), to clinch 2nd place in the Open 60 Monohull Class of the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre, just 19 minutes 26 seconds in front of British duo Mike Golding and Brian Thompson on Ecover who are on the verge of finishing in 3rd place after 4 days of match-racing neck and neck right down to the line. At 0518hrs GMT, French pair Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven on Virbac had already secured overall class victory. Sandwiched between two brand new Open 60 yachts, the 1999 Lombard design, recently acquired by 29 year old skipper Alex Thomson for the Vendée Globe 2004, covered the theoretical distance of 4,340m in 16 days 22 hrs 9 mins 11 s at an average boat speed of 10.69 knots.

After starting at 14:00hrs GMT on the 1st November from the Normandy port of Le Havre, France, the wet and wild baptism of gale force headwinds, cross seas and heavy shipping in the first days of the Transat Jacques Vabre punished the 17 strong international fleet of Open 60 monohulls continuously for a week. This lead to the abandon of 4 boats, including Around Alone skippers Emma Richards (Pindar) and Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat/Armor Lux).

The two new generation Open 60’s from Owen/Clarke Design (Ecover) and Farr (Virbac) outstripped the rest of the fleet at first, Ecover particularly showing superior upwind performance to take an early and strong lead for the first week. Then a broken wheel, two chafed halyards and blown spinnakers on board Ecover brought them down to third, caught in a high pressure cell, which allowed Virbac and Sill to overtake on either side as they headed into the Doldrums. Virbac’s skippers Dick and Abiven made the right decisions at every obstacle, and came out of the ITCZ over 100m ahead of Sill, and their lead was from then on unassailable until the finish.)

Pierre Dick u.Roland Jourdain Erster und Zweiter

Jourdain's glückliche Umarmung nach dem Zieleinlauf

Roland und Alex nach der 2nd Gun

A.Thomson,R.Jourdain/SILL als Zweite durchs Ziel
Photos: www.jacques-vabre.com

However, this second place was the most hotly contested amongst both multihull and monohull 60ft classes, as Sill and Ecover match-raced each other for the last 4 days across the Equator and down the Brazilian coastline in the favourable South East Trade winds. Ecover admitted to losing their final spinnaker a week ago, which was thought to be a crucial drawback if the home stretch was a spinnaker run.

And then in the final 24 hours after 16 days of intense, non-stop racing, Sill slipped back into second after Ecover suffered a technical problem; the runner fitting had come away from the mast, forcing Golding to climb the rig to repair it, but lose precious miles by stopping the boat in the process. Then Alex and Bilou took an option to stay offshore whereas Golding and Thompson hugged the coastline, one boat nosing fractionally ahead and then the other in the two-hourly position reports, according to the incremental changes in the wind speed and their VMG. Gradually, Sill aligned herself on the same route as Ecover to put themselves between their rival and the line in an attempt to control their slim 8 mile lead in the final 150 miles of the race.

Racing ‘blind’ for eight hours with no position reports to compare boat performance with each other during their final night, dawn rose at 0445hrs local time on 18th November to show Sill just 2.6m ahead of Ecover and now racing in sight of each other. Sill changed to their big spinnaker, their trump card, knowing that Ecover had none left in their wardrobe and began to notch up fractional gains in the steady Easterly breeze. With just 16 miles to go, Sill and Ecover both gybed to cover each other, but at 5 miles Sill turned the corner first at the Barra Lighthouse, gybed and changed to Solent and full index, to finish in glorious close reaching conditions on a fetch to the line a mere 19 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of Ecover.

After a traditional Bahian welcome of fireworks, samba music, tropical fruit and caipirinha cocktails on the pontoons of the CENAB marina, the two rugged looking, and grinning sailors went to welcome in their closest rivals and fellow sailors, and then talked about the experience of racing with each other and the achievement of coming 2nd after such a hard-fought contest against a new Open 60 and a formidable team in Golding and Thompson.

Alex Thomson’s immediate reaction to being the first British skipper in his first major oceanic event: “Just fantastic. Superb. I couldn’t have asked for more. Bilou never held back on information when I constantly asked him questions about his boat – and he was always laughing. He left me with half the work on board, and I feel very at one with the boat now, got into her straight away, it’s as if I’ve had 4 years of experience in under 3 weeks – in all a good ‘after sales service’! This has been a steep learning curve in some areas, and in others I felt at ease sailing Sill straight away. One thing I’ve learned from Bilou is to calm down a bit, I’m always reacting to everything happening on the boat when you need to hang in there a bit to see if you need to change a sail configuration or not, but on the other hand I am sure I can find more speed out of her though to reindex competitive with the new boats. We’ll see how I do on my own in the Vendée Globe qualifier race which starts in 12 days time…”

Current IMOCA and FICO-Lacoste World Champion Open 60 skipper, Frenchman Roland Jourdain, had these few but thoughtful words to say about his young British apprentice: “Alex and I had a very agreeable race together. Above all, he has a charming character, and is a very intuitive sailor – ‘un très bon marin’. This is good as I want the story of my boat to continue and I can tell Alex really loves her. It was a good race for us to see that Sill is always competitive against the new generation of Open 60 boats, and as for Alex, I think he is a real concurrent for me in the next Vendée Globe! This boat is proven for the round the world race as it is a much longer endurance event, and I am happy that someone as good as Alex will take the helm and take care of the boat now. The next time we race will be against each other, so it is also good for me to know my rivals well!”

AT Racing co-founder, Keith Mills, CEO of the London bid for the 2012 Olympics and creator of both the Air Miles and Nectar loyalty programmes, responded: “I’m so proud of what Alex and the shore team have achieved in such a short time since acquiring this top Open 60 and launching his Vendée Globe 2004 campaign. This is largely due to the effective collaboration with and generous support from the French Sill team and sponsor. Alex already has the right qualities as the ‘Jamie Oliver of the ocean’ with an expert team behind him, and now he has a podium finish in his first major competition, which has increased the desirability of our sponsorship package. We hope to make further announcements about the future of Alex Thomson Racing soon.”

Alex Thomson will take the start of the Défi Atlantique qualifier race for the Vendée Globe on 30th November in under 2 weeks time, and this time he will be racing in solo mode up against the likes of Mike Golding, Jean-Pierre Dick, Sebastien Josse and Nick Moloney. This will be the first test of form for the current and new generation boats and skippers to line up against each other in the true conditions of the Vendée Globe – solo, non-stop and with no outside assistance.

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.

The Official Race web site for the Transat Jacques Vabre race is at www.jacques-vabre.com
ENDS

For interviews, high resolution photography, and media enquiries: Mary Ambler - Email: mary@alexthomsonracing.com - Mobile: +44 (0) 7887 643 583
UK TV Feed will be at 1615 GMT on Tuesday 18th November
Contact: APP Broadcast - Tel: +44 (0)208 964 4992
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

Alex Thomson, 29 year old professional sailor from Gosport in England, is the youngest skipper ever to win a round the world yacht race after he came 1st in the Clipper ’98 race. Alex Thomson founded in 2000 and headed up the sailing side of yacht charter company, Formula 1 Sailing Ltd for 3 years. His short-handed career includes racing as co-skipper to Josh Hall on ‘Gartmore’ in the 1999 Transat Jacques Vabre. He also came 1st in the 2000 Criterion Round Britain & Ireland race, and 3rd in class in the 2000 Europe 1 New Man STAR on the Open 50 ‘Sail That Dream.com’. He now adds a Xth place finish in the 2003 Transat Jacques Vabre.

Keith Mills is the CEO of the London 2012 bid for the Olympic Games and Chairman and Chief Executive of Air Miles International Group BV (AMIG) which is the holding company he established in 1988 to develop the AIR MILES programme. He is also Chairman of Loyalty Management International and Loyalty Management UK Ltd, the company which recently launched the Nectar programme. Prior to founding the AIR MILES business, Mr Mills had over 20 years experience in marketing and advertising. He is also a keen sailor, and was part of the crew on board the winning boat in the Clipper ’98 RTW yacht race.

AT Racing Ltd is the new company set up by Keith Mills and Alex Thomson to manage all aspects of the Open 60 boat campaign, including shore team, marketing and communications support.

Open 60 ‘Sill Entreprises’ - Under the previous skipper, Roland Jourdain, the Lombard design Open 60 ‘Sill Entreprises’ has been on the podium many times since being launched in 1999 and broke the solo 24hr record by covering 436 miles at an average speed of 18.16 knots within days of arriving 3rd on the podium of the Vendée Globe. With trademark giant deck spreaders and rotating mast, ‘Sill Entreprises’ has been constantly optimised from build, particularly for upwind performance, which is second to none in the current fleet.

The 2004 Vendée Globe
Out of all the current five RTW yacht races, only two are single-handed, and the Vendée Globe is the only non-stop event. Held every 4 years from the port of Les Sables d’Olonne in the Vendée region on the western coast of France, this 26,000 mile solo marathon around the globe is renown as the ‘Everest’ of the sport of sailing. The Vendée Globe was created by legendary French solo skipper Philippe Jeantot after he had won the first two editions of the solo RTW BOC Challenge race, which was competed in 4 legs. First run in 1989 with just thirteen competitors on the start line, the Vendée Globe has now become a high profile international sporting event thanks to the incredible exploits of competitors from outside France such as Pete Goss, Tony Bullimore, and more recently Ellen MacArthur. In 2000/1, the race attracted 24 professional teams with their sponsors, plus a major following from media all around the world. The fifth Vendée Globe starts on 7th November 2004.