Oceanracing 2004 - Transat Québec-Saint Malo

Transat Québec-Saint Malo - 6th edition
Start 11.07.2004 - www.quebecsaintmalo.com - zur Übersicht

Monday 12 July 2004 - 1600 GMT - Press Release N°4

Orma multihull Ranking :
1.Géant (2606.3 miles from finish ; 2.Sergio Tacchini (0.5 miles from leader ; 3.Gitana XI (5.6 miles from leader)
Class 2 multihull Ranking :
1.Crêpes Whaou! (2709.7 miles from finish; 2.Gifi (19.6 miles from leader ; 3.Nootka (21.9 miles from leader)
Class 2 monohull Ranking :
1.Marina Fort Louis-Ile de Saint Martin (2739.6); 2.Branec III (7.2 miles from leader); 3.Ciment Saint-Laurent (9.5 miles from leader)
To consult the ranking, thanks to click here

Transat Québec-Saint Malo:
Géant, Sergio Tacchini, Gitana XI, Groupama
The fearsome four!

Photo : Xavier Dachez© The Essentials…
- At the 1300 GMT ranking it was Géant that had gone into the lead, just 0.50 miles ahead of Sergio Tacchini which has headed the fleet for the majority of the day and third place is Gitana XI. Along with Groupama, the top 4 in the fleet have reindexed in place throughout the day. Deficits are opening up now after less than 24 hours of racing as Médiatis-Région Aquitaine is 137.6 miles from the leader.
- After intense gybing throughout the fleet overnight the 15/20 south-westerly rose to as much as 25 knots at the head of the fleet at the lunch time radio session, dropping off progressively the further back along the river. The head of the fleet should make the mouth of the Saint Laurent river in the coming hours.
- Like Sodebo yesterday afternoon, Banque Populaire suffered broken battens overnight but has made repairs on the hoof. TIM Progetto Italia is seemingly the only boat to have hit a floating object overnight but there was fortunately no damage.
- Crêpes Whaou ! is stretching out a lead in the Class 2 multihulls while Marina Fort Louis - Ile de Saint Martin heads the monohull fleet.
The fleets are advancing more rapidly than planned and are making towards the mouth of the Saint Laurent river in 20/22 knots of wind rather than the 5/8 forecast and is blowing right down the axis of the river propelling the Orma multihull fleet and the Class 2 boats downwind towards the exit into the Atlantic. The leading four have been sailing virtually in view of each other throughout the day. The gybing ballet continues in a wind which is set to drop off slightly as it veers south. The index goal at this stage is to hug the southerly bank of the river so as to round the next marks, the Grande Grave/Gaspé and Percé, placed downwind of the coast. Once the coastal course is passed the playing field is going to be wide open - with pure speed being the key.

After a rather delicate start to the night with the fleet making numerous attempts to leave their pursuers in their wake of phosphorescent plankton, in light winds and the currents of the Saint Laurent against them, sunrise brought with it its share of favourable breezes. Like the leaders SergioTacchini and Géant, the first multihulls to have passed the Matane mark were advancing on flat seas this morning and 25 knots of south-westerly… ideal conditions for unhindered gliding towards the exit of the river.
The first twenty hours of racing have seen considerable transformations for competitors of the Québec St Malo in their gybing battle. With all the manoeuvres, Banque Populaire ended up breaking five battens in the middle of the night, which were quickly replaced after two hours of work on the deck. A setback quickly erased from their minds by the perfect sailing conditions and the beauty of the landscape. " We have a small group of 2, 3 whales downwind of us " comments crew Gilles Favennec.

After an introduction that has been as physically gruelly as it has tactically intriguing, the crews can now think about getting a bit of rest : the river has widened which means that the manœuvres will be less frequent, other than tracking down a vein of wind or sheltering from a current.

At the 0900 GMT ranking, Sergio Tacchini and Géant were in the lead, practically sailing within sight ahead of Groupama, Gitana 11 and Tim Progetto Italia. The frontrunners were sniffing 25 knots of south-westerly under gennaker, the backrunners like Médiatis Région Aquitaine (95 miles behind) had a lowly 10 knots of wind.

This was a familiar scene for the Class 2 boats too who are currently touching a more timid wind. In the 50 foot multis, Franck Yves Escoffier continues to lead, while it seems that his adversary of the night, Pascal Quintin, may have encountered technical problems as he has dropped back to last place. Amongst the monohulls Luc Coquelin is still outpacing his equals.

Ahead of the fleet lies a ridge of high pressure that is likely to slow them up leaving the ranking wide open...
Kate Jennings

Quotes from the Boats
Karine Fauconnier/Sergio Tacchini:
"We're going along quite nicely, reaching on flat seas, making good progress. I can see two boats behind. It was quite a stirred up, sporty night with a good 40 or so gybes. The Saint Laurent is very narrow in places. The wind went from light, medium to good now with 26 knots of wind and 25 knots of boat speed. All of us will be on deck for the first 24 hours of racing - it's like a grand prix with the wind right on the axis of the river. In one area last night there was more current than wind and there were lots of channels between the islands so we had a lot of tactical choices to make. The forecast was light but the local effects are really channelling the wind. It's been interesting racing so close because you get to see how homogenous the fleet is. TIM was very good at the start, their speed surprised us.

Vincent Riou/Géant:
"We started off fairly quickly, criss-crossing the rest of the fleet through plankton and various floating objects... it's been a great discovery for all of us. It looks like we're going to have good conditions till we get out of the river too. We currently have 25/6 knots of wind and the sun is coming up."

Franck Proffit/Groupama:
"We're under gennaker with the sun rising - perfect conditions for multihulls. It was an eventful, difficult night of reaching which was pretty difficult to control. We have Sergio and Géant just ahead so we must be doing well. It's a super course with quite a few traps. It's nice to be in contact with the others too. It's not finished either. There's not too much sea so we're not too wet - real regatta sailing. We may have an older generation boat but we've made a lot of modifications. The hulls on Sergio and Géant clearly go faster so we're doing well and just trying to go straight. Conditions ahead look likely to see a ridge of high pressure in the Atlantic but we've currently got a south-westerly down the axis of the river.

Thomazo/TIM:
"We haven't slept much - we're making 26 knots and we've passed the Bouée de Matane. Everything is fine - we haven't broke anything though we did hit something last night. There doesn't seem to be any damage though. We're under gennaker the whole time. It's not too cold and we began our watch system last evening. It's a bit dangerous with the floating objects but its really beautiful."

Franck-Yves Escoffier/Crêpes Whaou!:
"We're under a light spinnaker and the sun's been up for a bit. We haven't been too affected by the current. We've got 20 knots of wind but they seem to have more air up front. It's unfortunate for Anne that she's not officially racing as she's just behind us. Getting to the Bouée of Matane is going to be hard work but that's all part of the game. At the moment we're gybing every three quarters of an hour with the current on the nose and we're more than happy with our new centreboard."

Thierry Demachy/Gifi:
"Very very good night. We've had the wind with us virtually the whole time but it did ease off a little during the night. We're under spinnaker with a super sun. We had an enormous amount of gybes against the current and played out strategy well. The landscape is fabulous and there were people right out on the islands applauding us. We've got 8 knots of wind, and the Matane mark is about 7hrs away."

Chantal Foligné/Marina Fort Louis - Ile de Saint Martin :
" We're progressing well and it's always nice to be leading. There's lot of boats and some passages are pretty close."

Jacques Vincent/Sodebo
"We were positioning ourselves for the start when we made an involuntary gybe and got wind on the other side of the sail which broke six of our battens. It was simply an error on our part. It was good decision to change the battens though and we didn't lose too much time - it took 3 hours to repair everything. If we'd have continued with the spare batten we have on board there just wouldn't have been enough and they wouldn't have been as high performance. Even under gennaker alone we got back with Yves Parlier and we're really happy to have got back with the fleet. It was always positive aboard and we all repaired the battens together in good humour. Just before sundown we saw Banque Covefi which cheered us up. It has to said that the trimming was fairly bizarre and we passed some boats with pure speed. For the conditions to come there looks like 10, 15 knots of south-westerly wind, veering south."

Yves Parlier/Médiatis Aquitaine
"It's going well. We've got around 10 knots of wind aft of us and there seems to be more wind up front. More wind would be good - ideally 35 knots. At the moment we've got two gennakers up at the same time to get a better VMG and we've had a watch system going since the start of the night."

Marc Guillemot/Gitana X:
"The start didn't go to bad. We had some problems at the passage of the Matane mark as the conditions were difficult for the boat. Medium conditions with a slight chop make up the boat's black point and we were caught up a bit by Banque Pop. 10/12 knots of reaching are forecast so it's going to be a difficult day. Banque Populaire is really coming back hard on us. We have relayed a bit but we only slept a bit in the cockpit."

Gilles Favennec/Banque Populaire:
"In the middle of the night we broke some battens after a bad gybe. It is really clement. We're sailing downwind and it's a real pleasure to be on the water. We get on well as a crew though we are disappointed to have lost the others a bit with our batten problems. We've had 2/3 whales downwind of us this morning. We've very content with the boat's speed - we have no worries there. We're hoping to get back with the rest of the fleet but the wind is likely to ease. The forecast shows that we are not far from a centre so we'll have to go either one side or the other of it. We're not quite sure how the thermals are going to work here so we're listening to the local weather forecast with the VHF."

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