Sunday 18 July 2004
PRESS RELEASE N°10
Orma multihull Ranking : 1. Sergio Tacchini (à 236,4 miles from finish) ; 2. Groupama (à 96,5 miles from leader) ; 3. Géant (à 98,8 miles from leader)
Class 2 multihull Ranking : 1. Crêpes Whaou ! (à 1261,5 miles from finish) ; 2. Bonjour Québec (à 144,1 miles from leader) ; 3. Jean Stalaven (à 223 miles from leader)
Class 2 monohull Ranking : 1. Marina Fort Louis-Ile de Saint Martin (à 1857,3 miles from finish) ; 2. Branec III (à 36,3 miles from leader) ; 3. Ciment Saint-Laurent (à 47,5 miles from leader)
The Essentials :
- With a lead of nearly 100 miles, the only woman in the Orma multihull fleet, Karine Fauconnier is continuing to stretch away across the Irish Sea which it should escape at around 1800 GMT. She is closing down on the Scilly Isles, already just 70 miles north-west of Wolf Rock at 1300 GMT, Groupama and Géant only just past the Fastnet, merely 2.3 miles separating the latter duo.
- At the Fastnet four boats Groupama, Géant, Sodebo and Tim Progetto Italia were grouped into 17 miles.
- There is still everything to play with very complicated conditions in view for the Scillies and the Channel in particular, battling with the effects of the coasts and the currents. Forecasts suggest that the frontrunners will hit light winds at the end of the day but whether Sergio Tacchini will have a big enough lead to hang onto first place reindexs to be seen but it may well be possible for Groupama, Géant, Sodebo and Tim Progetto Italia to come back.
- Current ETAs for tomorrow’s Orma finish in Saint Malo are particularly difficult given the light conditions (southerly winds veering south/east) forecast for the Channel but we imagine (and hope) that it will be daylight.
- Franck Yves Escoffier (Crêpes Whaou!) has a 144 mile lead over Mike Birch (English sound available) and Marina Fort Louis Ile de Saint Martin continues to streak ahead of the monohull fleet.
The top trio are clear of the Fastnet now tackling the waters of the Irish Sea. Géant passed very close to Mizzen head on the south-western tip of Ireland in anticipation of the Fastnet, with Groupama just below. Sodebo’s much more southerly position came as a bit of a surprise at the 1300 GMT ranking, around 8 miles upwind of the infamous rock, perhaps in search of thermals offshore, but rest assured that it has now passed the mark at the time of writing, 1530 GMT.
On the approach to the Scillies leader Karine Fauconnier talked of “things getting quite heated around the weather files, trying to find the key to the next part of the programme. There aren’t any worries for going down to the south-western tip of England, but we’re working on the channel crossing. The navigation is going to take some working on but we have to take the current into account, the coastal effects and the thermal breezes, so we’ve got our work cut out, putting our neurons together! For now we’re inside the record time despite the light winds which await us. We can feel the finish getting close now so there is always a little excitement and stress.”
96.5 miles behind the leader, Franck Profitt said that “the wind is beginning to ease, but it will be lighter at the end of the day. We’ve been with Géant and Sodebo for over 24 hours. It’s just Tim Progetto Italia who is missing but it shouldn’t be much longer before he gets back with us. There’s a real regatta at the moment!”
Same scene aboard Géant with Figaro sailor and 60’ specialist Vincent Riou in attack mode. “Groupama passed us in a squall just recently. We are ahead off the Irish coast, the sun is shining and it’s magnificent. We’re in full regatta mode. Everyone is on deck. We have 10 knots of south-westerly, neck and neck with Groupama. It looks set to continue like this as far as Saint Malo too.”
Loïck Peyron on Sodebo was equally as hopeful 106.6 miles off the pace. “It’s a nerve-racking regatta. We’re battling in fairly light, even very light wind. I think Karine (Fauconnier) has got some favourable conditions and is likely to have less difficult conditions than those behind, like us! What is interesting is that there are always possibilities to play catch up in light winds.”
Holding onto the chasers Soldini is still very much in contention and Foncia has now repaired its starboard rudder closing in slightly on the leader with some fairly good averages, nonetheless nearly 200 miles away. Behind them are Banque Populaire and Sopra Group and Marc Guillemot (Gitana X) had set its sights more on passing Philippe Monnet’s boat.
“We broke our second rudder attachment (that enables the rudder to be moved backwards and forwards), and it was Erwan Leroux, our onboard Mr Fixit that stuck it back together.” said Guillemot. “During this time though we managed to get a lead on Banque Covefi. We have what wind we need to worry Sopra Group in the next 24 hours though. 18 knots of wind is just what the boat likes to work really well and that’s what we’ve got right now.”
At the rear of the Orma fleet, Yves Parlier was in better spirits today and has decreased it deficit today thanks to the best 24hour average of the fleet, 461.6 miles. He is located 656.1 miles from the leader.
Franck Yves Escoffier (Crêpes Whaou!) has a 144 mile lead over a buoyant Mike Birch, finally able to be contacted today. “Well it would be really nice to be eating Crêpes Whaou! (French brand of pancake and sponsor of Franck Yves Escoffier’s boat) just now but they’ve had a great race. We were impressed how well we did downwind too to start with. We were keeping up with them then, vying with Jean Stalaven for second place the whole length of the Saint Laurent river. We were so happy to be going fast we didn’t really think about the nav. Ultimately we haven’t been looking at the weather enough and were suddenly 100 miles behind. I think this compares with the previous five Transat Quebec Saint Malo I’ve done but I have to say that I can’t remember them all! One for sure is that the boat is ok and it’s the best crew you could wish for – we’re having a ball.”
In the monohulls Marina Fort Louis Ile de Saint Martin continues to streak ahead of the fleet.
Author: Kate Jennings
CLASSEMENT DU 18/07/04 13:00:00 GMT
RG
Nom
Skipper
Lat.
Long
Dist.
Vit.
Cap.
MULTI 60 Open ORMA - Date retenue pour calcul classement estimé : 18/07/04 13:00 GMT
1
Sergio Tacchini
Karine Fauconnier
50 30.40' N
7 23.36' W
236,4
13,00
119
2
Groupama Franck Cammas 51 22.32' N
9 33.24' W
332,9
11,50
111
3
Géant Michel Desjoyeaux 51 23.56' N
9 36.40' W 335,2
11,40
114
4
Sodebo Thomas Coville 51 17.80' N
9 45.04' W
343
11,30
102
5
Tim Progetto Italia Giovanni Soldini 51 27.44' N
9 58.56' W
349,6
11,30
118
6
Foncia
Alain Gauthier
52 25.72' N 11 41.60' W
432,9
18,60
123
7
Banque Populaire
Lalou Roucayrol
52 41.00' N
13 37.72' W
484,8
17,80
112
8
Sopra Group
Philippe Monnet
53 08.24' N
16 47.84' W
619,1
19,10
130
9
Gitana X Marc Guillemot 52 06.32' N
21 08.84' W
765,6
16,90
93
10
Banque Covefi Stève Ravussin 52 18.88' N
21 27.04' W
777,2
19,90
98
11
Médiatis Région Aquitaine
Yves Parlier
50 34.08' N
24 19.60' W
892,5
20,50
78
ABD
Gitana XI
Frederic Lepeutrec
MULTI 50 - Date retenue pour calcul classement estimé : 18/07/04 13:00 GMT
1
Crêpes Whaou!
Franck-Yves Escoffier
48 51.80' N
34 09.00' W
1261,5
14,80
124
2
Bonjour Québec
Mike Birch
48 09.08' N
37 37.24' W
1405,6
9,20
50
3
Jean Stalaven
Pascal Quintin
48 39.17' N
39 54.48' W
1484,5
11,10
40
4
GIFI
Dominique Demachy
47 33.00' N
45 21.76' W
1714.3
9,20
65
MONOCOQUES - Date retenue pour calcul classement estimé : 18/07/04 13:00 GMT
1 Marina Fort Louis de Saint Martin
Luc Coquelin
46 39.08' N 48 36.44' W 1857,3
11,00
97
2 Branec III
Roger Langevin
46 16.88' N 49 20.40' W 1893,6
8,90
85
3 Ciment St-Laurent
Georges Leblanc
47 14.68' N 50 18.00' W 1904,7
9,00
80
PRESS SERVICE TEAM :
Press Attaché: Laurence Dacoury
Tel: +33(0)1 47 72 81 41 - +33(0)6 18 41 30 28 Email: ldacoury@wanadoo.fr
head of the Press Department in the town of Saint-Malo: Françoise Hilaire
Tel: +33(0)2 99 20 86 07 francoise.hilaire@ville-saint-malo.fr
Press release writer + internet site: Camille Elbeze
Tel: +33 (0)6 60 62 60 71 Email: camille.elbeze@wanadoo.fr
Radio Chat Session host + writer, press releases and internet site: Pierrick Garenne
Tel: +33 (0)6 16 99 03 33 Email: pgarenne@club-internet.fr
Press release writer + internet site + international press relations: Kate Jennings
Tel: +33 (0)6 16 43 80 08 Email: katejennings@free.fr
Our correspondant in Quebec: Dominic Bourgeois
In charge of the internet site, media conferences and press relations with the radio: the team from Windreport :
Corentin Duroselle by email cod@windreport.com +33(0)2 40 84 27 28.
quebecsaintmalo@windreport.com
Aurélie Uchard +33 (0)1 55 37 03 76 au@windreport.com
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Yannick Perrigot 33 (0)2 40 84 30 00 yp@windreport.com
E-mail Press HQ : quebecsaintmalo@relationpresse.org
Logistics contact for the Race HQ / Press HQ : Philippe Granier (Royale Production) :
Tel : +33 6 22 15 00 10, e-mail : pgranier@royale.fr.
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