Figaro Solo Transatlantic race 2005 10.04.2005 DAY 8: SKANDIA IN 5TH AS FLEET PASS THROUGH AZORES... Skandia is a leading provider of long-term savings and pioneer of the highly successful multi-manager investment approach. IN BRIEF: * SKANDIA MOVES UP THREE POSITIONS TO 5TH AS FURTHER PLACE CHANGING TAKES PLACE AMONG THE LEADING EIGHT BOATS... * THE FLEET WILL SPEND TODAY NAVIGATING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE ISLANDS OF THE AZORES... * "I WAS SURFING REALLY FAST AND THE DOLPHINS COULDN'T KEEP UP!"... * BOSTIK HAS AN IMPRESSIVE 20NM LEAD ON CERCLE VERT 2ND & AQUARELLE.COM 3RD... IN DETAIL: SKANDIA moved up three positions to 5th as further place changing took place among the leading 8 boats. BOSTIK is now in 1st and has an impressive 20nm lead on CERCLE VERT in 2nd, and AQUARELLE.COM in 3rd. After a fast day sailing yesterday onboard SKANDIA, Sam managed to gain some valuable miles on the leading boats, helped along by a few accompanying dolphins, "I was surfing really fast and the dolphins couldn't keep up, they only stayed with me for about 5 seconds and then it was like they were thinking 'this is too much like hard work I'm not staying with her any longer!" After a good sleep last night, Sam is ready for the day ahead navigating her way through the islands, "I haven't really slept properly like that so far. I think 40mins was the longest length of time that I actually stayed asleep. Maybe I should sleep more but coming up to the Azores there may be ships and pleasure boats which might not have radar and might not show up on my active-echo so I want to keep a decent watch." Today, as the fleet navigate their way through the islands and commit to their route through, they will find out if their tactical decisions have paid off. The fleet must pass the island of Flores to starboard. At 1000hrs, Sam was 34miles away from Graciosa, the island she will pass closest to. Dominic Vittet was the first boat to go through, passing the island Terceira very closely to starboard. The majority of the fleet are passing on the north of the middle group of islands while Yannick Bestaven (AQUARELLE.COM) and Armel Tripon (ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM) continue on their southern track. The fleet will spend the day in a southeast wind of 15-25 knots trying to avoid wind shadows around the islands and preparing for the 2nd stage of the race. The next race mark is passing by the Turks Islands in the Bahamas, north of Haiti. EMAIL LOG FROM SAM (0822hrs) Hello! Yesterday continued to be fun - fast spinnaker reaching. I had made too much South the previous night (for weather reasons that ended up not working as forecast) so I had some "runway" to burn with my spinnaker up (when the others will be under genoa!) This was a good way to catch back up the miles I lost by going south! Yee-ha! Sometimes with speeds in excess of 20 knots (yes - that is possible in a Figaro (just)) we hooned down towards the Azores. It was a little bit crazy for the autopilot to drive, so as it got dark I changed from asymmetric spi to the small spi... That didn't actually change much, but the pilot had a go at "sending it" off down the waves! Not bad, but I had to make a couple of "rescue" missions on deck to exit from wipeouts and I knew I would not sleep like that, so in the end I changed down to genoa - difference in boat speed not really huge, so it was OK. And then boy - did I sleep? Wow - it was FANTASTIC to sleep! I slept several times of 20 min sleeps, and then a couple of longer sleeps. The alarm and active echo were on, but I am not sure how long it took for the alarm to wake me up! As a result, I am feeling GREAT now. Will put the small spinnaker up soon! It is funny as we approach the Azores I am starting to see birds again, so I know land is not far. It will be strange passing these islands without stopping, almost disappointing, for me because I have never visited the Azores. Hopefully I will see my parents today as I whizz past. They are based at Horta with their home "Ninita" and I am letting them know my positions so that they can sail out to wave! I hope I see them because I have never seen their boat, and I haven’t seen them since last summer! Other interesting things I have seen - dolphins trying to keep up with me when I am surfing at 18 knots (funny- they don't stay with you so long as when you are only doing 6! Are they not fit?) The coolest was when I was surfing down a wave and I had a dolphin jump out of the same wave each side of me! Clear out of the water! I also saw a turtle - about 1m long - huge thing - just wallowing along minding his own business. I had to swerve to avoid him! That would be a bit of a shock if I hit him - not sure who would come off worse?! They should have nav lights on turtles! Better go, because I want to eat something and drink a tea before spinnaker roller coaster express begins! S xx TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO WITH SAM How was yesterday and last night? "It was really good fun yesterday and I think I gained some miles which is good but it was pretty tiring. The sail combination I had was nice but it limited me in getting the height that I wanted so I had to hand steer, so everytime I needed to do something like go on the phone or check the positions report I had to bare away but generally it was worth doing. I had the asymmetric which is the big spinnaker so I changed down to the small spinnaker and there was hardly any difference but just enough that it was almost safe for the pilot so I let the pilot go for a while in the dark. I ate some dinner but I couldn't sleep because I had to keep running out to ease everything off and bare away again. Luckily the wind came forward aswell so I didn't need the height anyway so it was perfect timing. Then I went to sleep and I slept so well! The alarm was going off and I was fast asleep! I don't know how long the alarm had been going off! [just the sleep alarm]. I nearly missed my compulsory vacation. I woke up and it was 0314 and I was supposed to call at 0310. I went straight to the phone and called Lionel Pean (Race Director) and said I was really sorry! I couldn't speak properly because I was still half asleep so he probably thought that was really funny!" (Failure to call race HQ at the designated time results in 30min time penalty added to the elapsed time - with the fleet so close it could make all the difference) How important is it to have a good sleep like that? "I haven't really slept properly like that so far, not for so long. I think 40mins was the longest length of time that I actually stayed asleep or maybe a little bit longer than that. I should probably sleep more like that but right now I don't really want to. Coming up to the Azores there may be ships and pleasure boats aswell, which might not have radar and might not show up on my active-echo so I want to keep a decent watch. I'm not really in a position now to shut my eyes for 2 hours without looking out, I can do that after the Azores!" Do you think that everyone has decided on their route through the Azores by now? "I guess so, I'm quite interested in looking at the position report to see how many people have gone windward of them. I wasn't sure whether to go windward or not, because obviously they're volcanic islands and the relief is quite high and I'm not sure about the wind shadowing but I think with the south-easterly and the alignment of the islands there might almost be more acceleration of wind through the islands than what you would get if you went to windward of them so I don't know. I'm going quite close to the little one [Graciosa] but I don't think it's quite as high there and it's only 6 miles long so it should be ok" Are your speeds a bit more normal now? "I just put the spinnaker up again because the wind had just come up again which is nice and then dropped off again. I slowed down a bit this morning and slept a bit too much. Just before I phoned you I just put the small spi up and now we're going along nicely between 10-14 knots." You make the spinnaker changes sound very simple . Can you explain what it is like? "The worst thing about a spinnaker change is that's the most dangerous time when you could get a wrap around the forestay or you could trawl the spinnaker in the water. If you did have one small knot in the guy or in the halyard or a small problem - that can turn in to a major and that's normally when people break things or lose things - it's not during the sailing but during the take down or the hoist. Especially changing now because we're hoisting bare headed [without headsail] and there is no genoa so you have to be really careful. If I do a bare headed change and it's a tight angle like that I wool my spinnaker before I put it up which takes a bit of extra time and effort inside the boat. I always wool them after a drop so they're ready to go up. I think that's really important. The worst and scariest moment in hoisting a spinnaker is that it can just flick just once around the forestay and then you're stuck. If you have that confidence that it's not going to do that because it's woolled, then you end up changing back up the big spinnaker sooner and end up getting a bit more boat speed. It's a bit full on...The asymmetric is a big and it's really heavy cloth and normally I envelope drop it between the foot of the indexsail and the boom like on a Volvo boat. This works really nicely and is completely safe but because I had a reef in last night I couldn't do that as the reef was in the way, so it was a bit more full on." Hhow long does it take to change spinnakers? "If you're organised and you prepare everything in advance for the new one before you put it up it can be over in 5 minutes but if you have a small problem it can take half an hour. The whole procedure though including the preparation and re-woolling is about an hour of your time not doing anything else. If you're good you're only sailing bare-headed for 5 minutes but the time and effort of the skipper side of things is a little bit longer." In your email this morning, you mentioned seeing dolphins - what was that like? "They were so cool! I was surfing really fast and the dolphins couldn't keep up, they only stayed with me for about 5 seconds and then it was like they were thinking, 'this is too much like hard work I'm not staying with her any longer'. They come up and they think it's really cool and then they realise you're going really fast. When I was surfing, there was one time when I went down this massive wave and a dolphin jumped out each side of the boat, just off the front of the same wave. It was incredible - really cool." How close were you to the turtle you saw? "I would have smashed right in to him if I haven't seen him and swerved to avoid him. It looked like a piece of wood in the water and I swerved to go round it and a little head popped out, he was just cruising along and flapping, going no particular direction, no part speed. I'm sure they should have nav lights - at night that could be quite a hazard going 15 knots. That was one thing I was thinking about last night when I was inside the boat, in the pitch black and going fast, I was wondering what would happen if the Figaro did smash in to something cause obviously at night you can't see anything - something floating... They're not carbon, like so they're probably a lot more fragile." Listen to the full audio from Sam at Audio/Video section of website Communications thanks to BT Broadband LATEST POSITIONS 1000 BST 10/4/05 (boat name / average boat speed /distance to leader) 1. BOSTIK / 10.1kts / 3023.0nm to finish 2. CERCLE VERT / 10.6kts / +21.2nm 3. AQUARELLE.COM / 8.7kts / +44.8nm 4. CREDIT MARITIME - ZEROTWO / 9.4kts / +58.4nm 5. SKANDIA / 9.6kts / +78.5nm 6. TOTAL / 8.8kts / +78.6nm 7. BANQUE POPULAIRE / 9.8kts / +85.5nm 8. COUTOT ROEHRIG / 9.1kts / +97.8nm 9. LITTLE BLACK SHARK / 9.2kts / +116.6nm 10. ENTREPRENDRE AU PAYS DE LORIENT / 8.9kts / 185.4nm 11. GEDIMAT / 8.7kts / +201.8m 12. ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM / 10.0kts / +227.9nm Click here for full positions report Official race website: http://www.trophee-bpe2005.com (French only) 2005 FIGARO PROGRAMME 3 April: Trophée BPE 2005 (St.Nazaire – Cienfuegos, Cuba) 6-25 June: La Generali Solo 2005 1-28 August: La Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro 2005 PARTNER OF THE DAY : MCMURDO Official Supplier of Safety Equipment to Sam and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team http://www.samdavies.com/mcmurdo Email powered by Active 24 For more information visit http://www.samdavies.com/skandia or contact : Josie Robinson (English) josie@offshorechallenges.com T: +44(0) 870 063 0210 Caroline Muller (Francais) bienvenue@welcomeonboard.fr T: +33 (0)6 80 40 00 24 Other information sources online: Finistère Course au Large Classe Figaro Bénéteau Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE