Figaro Solo Transatlantic race 2005 13.04.2005 DAY 11 : SKANDIA IN 5TH AND GAINING ON LEADER... Skandia is a leading provider of long-term savings and pioneer of the highly successful multi-manager investment approach. IN BRIEF: * SKANDIA HOLDS 5TH POSITION AND GAINING VALUABLE MILES ON BOSTIK... * ETA BAHAMAS PASSAGE IN 10 DAYS..."I THINK IT CAN STILL BE QUITE CLOSE..." * "I'VE BEEN COMPARING THE DIFFERENT ROUTES AND IT SEEMS TO GAIN A LITTLE BIT FROM THE SOUTH BUT NOT IMMENSELY. I THINK IT WILL BE A BIT OF A LOTTERY..." * VIEW SHORT VIDEO CLIP SENT BY FROM SAM THIS MORNING AT AUDIO/VIDEO SECTION OF WEBSITE Sam Davies - dritte im Offshore Challenges Team Photo: OC/Sam Davies IN DETAIL: SKANDIA holds 5th place after being the fastest boat in the fleet yesterday, averaging 11.4 knots of boatspeed. This has enabled Sam to gain some miles on the race leader Charles Caudrelier (BOSTIK) and pull away from TOTAL in 6th who is 9 miles behind Sam. The fleet are continuing to average speeds of around 10knots, spinnaker sailing in a southeast wind of 10-20 knots. BOSTIK has stretched his lead to 26 miles but with only 30 miles separating the leading three boats, more place changing occurred this morning as CREDIT MARITIME-ZEROTWO snatched 2nd place, now 3nm ahead of CERCLE VERT in 3rd. The 2 boats furthest south, Armel Tripon (GEDIMAT) & Dominic Vittet (ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM), lost a few miles overnight but at 1000hrs this morning ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM was the quickest boat in the fleet so could make up some of that up... Antonio Pedro da Cruz, skipper of the most northerly boat LITTLE BLACK SHARK has electronic problems with his autopilot which is making it impossible for him to sleep. He is working on repairing it but until it is completely fixed, he can't trust it...The autopilot is essential to continuation the race and the sanity of the skipper. Early this morning he confirmed his greatest fears, "I know that without the pilot, I am not really in the race anymore, but I will continue for everyone who is supporting me." Sam has estimated that the fleet will be passing the Bahamas in about 10 days time, but will the fleet be as close as they are now or will the gap have widened? “I really have no idea, I think it can still be quite close. I hope it will be quite close because it will make it fun and great for everyone watching. I’ve never sailed round there before so I don’t know whether there’s opportunities or passing lanes but I believe anything can happen right to the finish.” There is less than 2500miles to the finish, but as Sam said earlier today, "It’s such a long way to go, at the moment I’m not thinking too much about positions in the fleet, in terms of finishing because there’s so many things that could happen between now and Cuba..." EMAIL LOG FROM SAM (0600HRS) Hello! I know I keep saying this, but this is SO cool! What perfect race this is - we have been fast spinnaker reaching for nearly one whole week. I don't know what the average speeds are, but we must be doing pretty well. For SKANDIA, today was a brilliant day. We were the fastest boat in the fleet all day, which is good because we must be making miles up...I am happy with my option to be south of the "pack" I am in, because it looks like there will always be a bit more wind. I think that my boatspeed is also due to the set-up I have on SKANDIA. I played with trying different spinnaker combinations, and realised that the Asymmetric is definitely the best kite for these conditions. I seem to have found a nice trim for me to drive to (adjusting spi sheet, vang) and a different trim that suits the pilot to drive to, so I alternate between the two. I am not sure who is fastest! (I should run my "sail testing" software Aquilon and I could do a test, but I don't want to find out that my pilot drives better than me!) The only problem with fast reaching is that it is damp. Everywhere on deck, all the time - no running out to change the trim "just quickly - it'll be OK" - that is guaranteed to get the best wave of the day directly into the cockpit! I haven't taken the risk because I haven't enough clothes to get one set drenched! I resorted to drastic measures for drying my socks (don't tell health and safety) which works pretty well! The trick is to fill the kettle quite full to leave plenty of hot water inside after you have made your tea, then it stays hotter longer and your socks dry more! (See photo!) Luckily, it is getting warmer (sleeping gloves have been made redundant) and slowly there are signs that the sun will come out. I helmed last night through the sunset (behind the clouds) and it was beautiful - I had "Dire Straits" playing at the same time. Since then, the sky has cleared and it is a dream night - with the black sky full of stars. It is a pleasure to be on deck, although with no moon yet, it is still pretty dark and difficult to steer, but the darkness intensifies the stars. I am dying to go on deck and lie on my back to watch the stars. The only problem at the moment (apart from flying squids) is that I am likely to get a facefull of water! I am sure that as the wind drops in the next few days I will have the opportunity. Sam xx VIEW SHORT VIDEO CLIP SENT BACK FROM SKANDIA THIS MORNING at Audio/Video section of website TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO WITH SAM (1000HRS) How has your morning been? “It's almost warm now - it's nice. Not bikini weather, unless you want a wash but apart from that it's fleece and foul weather gear. I'm quite hot though because i've just changed sails - well it was an auto-change really. I was thinking it's getting really tight and every time we surfed down a wave the spinnaker was collapsing and I wanted to stay south. Then I was going to change to genoa but didn't want to be slow - I couldn't decide. The sheets blew off the tack just as the Sparcraft blew open so the spinnaker was flying like a flag off the front so I had to drop the spinnaker anyway so that was obviously fate - so I put the genoa up! So I'm hot because I've just been running around!" Your south position has meant you’ve been a lot quicker than other boats… "Well I seemed to be yesterday, I haven't looked at positions this morning but it seemed to pay off. I think I gained a few miles on Yannick Bestaven” How are you feeling about your position now? "I don't know, I've been playing with the routing software to compare the different routes and it does seem to gain a little bit from the south but not immensely. I'm not holding my hopes out too much because the depression that is going to go over top of us has an cold front and there's a light patch. It seems to be that every grib I get, every different weather model seems to decide to put the light patch in a different place. I think it will be a bit of a lottery who gets the least wind for the longest amount of time. It definitely re-establishes itself from the south so hopefully it should pay off.” This morning you’re 5th and have made up another 5 miles in last 4 hours… “That’s cool, good! I’m happy! It’s such a long way to go, at the moment I’m not thinking too much about positions in the fleet, obviously I’m am thinking about positioning myself north and south in the fleet, but in terms of finishing or anything like that because there’s so many things that could happen between now and Cuba and especially between Turks and getting to Cuba. It could change everything. I’m just thinking about sailing fast, racing fast!" How many days do you think you have to the Bahamas? “My latest estimate is about the 23rd April, 10 days time.” Do you think everyone will be fighting for positions until then or do you think fleet may have spread out by then? “I really have no idea, I think it can still be quite close. I hope it will be quite close because it will make it fun and great for everyone watching. I’ve never sailed round there before so I don’t know whether there’s opportunities or passing lanes but I believe anything can happen right to the finish.” This race is closer than other transatlantic races. How does this compare to your last solo transatlantic, the Mini-Transat , when you didn’t receive any positions at all? “It’s great and makes it a whole lot more interesting. In the Mini-Transat there was nothing, but it’s probably just as well – in my Mini-Transat the pilot didn’t really steer it very well so I was at the helm the whole time! This race is a lot more tactical and it’s about balancing the boat so the pilot can steer while you can be working out if you’re in the right place, taking the positions, sending back emails and photos so it’s makes it a lot more interesting. I guess it’s the next level up.” Have are your feet warm now you’re socks are dry?! “The thing is the boots are wet in inside so you dry one pair then you have dry feet for about half an hour and they’re warm. Then they get wet because they’re wet from the inside of the boots so then you have to start the cycle again. I’m hoping that one day my boots will be dry from the inside so I’m saving some clean socks for that occasion.” So, when it gets to bikini weather – will it be bikini and trainers, or bikini and boots?! “Bikini and boots probably although I do have my trainers. I like my boots!” Did you manage to have a wash yesterday? “No - too wet, too cold! And it was cloudy yesterday- not really inspiring to remove any layers at all! Today I’m already nearly not in my foul weather gear and the sun’s out so it’s gotta be time!” Have you found any other victims since Sid the squid? “I checked in my spinnaker bag, I left it in the same place again and there was no road kill to be seen this morning. Except I did find an ancient road kill…when I put the genoa up there was a rather shrivelled looking whitebait which has been compressed between 2 folds and it’s now stuck on the boat. I hope it’s fallen off by now! Those are the nasty ones that you don’t really like finding – especially if you put your hand on it in the night. So I’m quite glad I put the genoa up in the daylight!” Listen to the full audio from Sam at Audio/Video section of website Communications thanks to BT Broadband LATEST POSITIONS 1000 BST 13/4/05 (boat name / average boat speed /distance to leader) 1. BOSTIK / 8.4kts / 2356.5nm to finish 2. CREDIT MARITIME - ZEROTWO / 7.9kts / +26.1nm 3. CERCLE VERT / 7.0kts / +28.9nm 4. AQUARELLE.COM / 8.8kts / +44.5nm 5. SKANDIA / 8.9kts / +81.9nm 6. TOTAL / 9.9kts / +90.4nm 7. COUTOT ROEHRIG / 8.6kts / +101.4nm 8. BANQUE POPULAIRE / 9.5kts / +102.4nm 9. GEDIMAT / 9.5kts / +159.2m 10. ENTREPRENDRE AU PAYS DE LORIENT / 9.3kts / 218.8nm 11. LITTLE BLACK SHARK / 8.4kts / +224.7nm 12. ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM / 10.1kts / +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 : SONY Official Supplier of IT and Digital Imaging Equipment to Sam and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team http://www.samdavies.com/sony 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