16.11.2005
Press Release No. 16
Wednesday 16th November, 2005
www.jacques-vabre.com
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE: GRAND NATIONAL OR STEEPLE-CHASE TO THE FINISH
• Leaders: at 14:52:00 GMT: Banque Populaire 1725m DTF (IMOCA 60), Virbac-Paprec 815.8m DTF (ORMA 60), Gryphon Solo 1033.1m DTF (Open 50 Monohull), Crepes Whaou ! 931.4m DTF (Open 50 Multihull)
• ETAs: The current previsions are for the IMOCA Monohull leaders to arrive before the ORMA Multihull fleet from Saturday 19th November in Bahia during the day, although Open 50 Multihull ‘runaway’, Crepes Whaou!, is going all out to beat the monohulls in – a first!
• Thursday 17th November: The International Media Relations ‘team’ of me (and me) is flying to Salvador on Thursday morning, so there will be no press release tomorrow and limited information going online in English – sorry! Normal service resumes on Friday.
• You can Skype me! I will be on Skype out in Brazil (Search for MaryAmbler) when working if conversation is needed with either myself or an interview with a skipper. My mobile phone should work but you never know.
• Request arrival images: please email me in advance if possible, and also Alexis Courcoux at: acourcoux@penduick.com.
In the IMOCA and ORMA 60 fleets, there can only be two winners, but no predictions can yet be made as the top three boats in both classes are still vying for victory out on the race course under 100m and a few hours apart from each other after carving up over 3,000 miles of ocean already. On the right hand side of the track, three Open 60 trimarans are locked in a tacking battle towards the Ascension Islands, on the left hand side along the direct route the top 3 Open 60 Monohulls have just crossed the Equator and are now pointing their bows directly to Bahia, followed in hot pursuit by the next 3 boats within a 50 mile radius.
With only two boats, the strategy for the leader is simple – to align yourself between the finish line and your adversary to reindex in control. But when there are more than two boats at play, the game goes up a level, and the leader has to decide eventually which adversary is more dangerous than the other…so we see the leading boat in both fleets, Banque Populaire and Virbac-Paprec, repositioning themselves relative to more than one opponent just behind them, albeit the Multihulls are tacking upwind, the Monohulls close reaching on a direct heading SW to the finish.
IMOCA 60 CLASS UPDATE
The ‘Grand National’ for the Open 60 IMOCA class is turning into a three horse race between Virbac-Paprec (Dick / Peyron), Sill et Veolia (Jourdain / MacArthur), Bonduelle (Le Cam / De Pavant) and will turn into a real gallop to Brazil as the wind starts to build to 20 knots off the South American coast now that they are getting into the steady SE Trades. In these slightly more moderate 15 – 20 knot winds than the 20 – 30 knot breeze in the Northern Hemisphere Trades, and sailing downwind, perhaps the Farr designed Virbac-Paprec has a nominal advantage, but when the sailing angle is between 60 and 90 degrees on a reach, the two Lombard boats, Sill et Veolia and Bonduelle, may then have the upper hand. The small separation in latitude East to West between the top three is negligible on this 900m sprint to the finish as the ‘jockeys’ have already played their jokers in the Doldrums and that didn’t shake up the pack.
The only tactical option left if boat speed is relatively level is to wait for the last 250m stretch tacking along the Brazilian coastline between Recife and Bahia, which two years ago was where Sill and Ecover fought a close and passionate battle for 2nd place after 4,000 miles of racing. Whether to sail close inshore or further offshore can make a real difference as the local weather can favour either option depending on the thermal effects from the temperatures between the land and the sea.
The skippers’ reactions differed today as to whether there are any more cards to play nearer to the finish. Le Cam on Bonduelle spoke of steady breeze from here to the finish, “It’s a monotonous monohull race from here on, unless a miracle happens, we won’t see the order change, the breeze is steady, that much we do know.” Whereas Mike Golding had quite opposite views: “It could be a light airs finish, as for our chances of winning still, well with the usual suspects out here it may be a big ask, but you never know!” Leading skipper Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac-Paprec was more open-minded: “It’s amazing the proximity of the performance of these boats, we’ve never been much more than 20 miles ahead of Sill et Veolia all this time, the boat speeds are very similar, we’re studying the weather very carefully, we’ll do everything we can to cross the line first!”
These three will also be watching their wing mirrors as in the West, Ecover, Skandia and Pro-Form are flanked under 70m behind, guaranteeing that the end of this race will be down to the wire. Brian Thompson on Skandia and Marc Thiercelin on Pro-Form were both realistic in determining that they are unlikely to get to the front of the fleet with the stabilizing winds, but as Brian puts it: “We have a great 3 way tussle for fourth place on our hands for the next 1000 miles. Ecover has a 10 mile lead and Pro-Form is supposedly 25 miles back, but the reality is that she is abeam of us by 65 miles and has a big advantage in being able to crack off on this close reach across the SE trades. I'd put her at least level with us at present.”
Behind these 6 boats, UUDS (Laurent / Massot) are indextaining their slim lead over Roxy (Liardet / Merron) as they head towards the Doldrums, giving the girls another chance to hopefully regain their lost position if they negotiate this patchy zone better. Miranda was positive about their situation: “Today has been a definite improvement on yesterday, though the cost of being becalmed is a close race between us and UUDS for now. Since early morning, we have had 17-24 knots of breeze, sailing under big gennaker, getting some good surfs down the waves. Worth enjoying while it lasts, because in a few hours we will be in the Doldrums. It looks like our classmates in front got through relatively unscathed…”
OPEN 50 CLASS 2 MONOHULL UPDATE
Gryphon Solo (Harris / Hall) is still 175.9m ahead and well in control of nearest rival Vedettes de Bréhat (De Broc / S. Escoffier) as the leading Open 50 skirts round the Cape Verde Islands to the West, but the skippers can see that it’s going to be more difficult to defend from the front with now Artforms (Stone / Owen) attacking from behind on the western side of the race course. Joe Harris explains: “One of the advantages Kip has is that he can see what’s happening to us and he can avoid some of the pitfalls. Kip has made a distinct move to the west gybing down the rhumbline and has so far successfully avoided this calm patch. For now we are working hard to plan our strategy for the doldrums where we expect to be later this week.”
Kip Stone responded today with an invitation for Joe & Josh to make their race even more nail-biting: “It’s better and better out to the West of the competition. We’ve had some big breeze which has allowed us to close the gap on Gryphon Solo. If you could tell Joe and Josh from me that if they’d like to pull into the Cape Verde’s for a night on the town, we’ll pay for it, I made the offer at the Canaries and they didn’t take up on it, so this time I’m happy to make sure there’s no expense spared, I’ll hand over my credit card number in advance!”
MULTIHULL UPDATE: ORMA 60 FLEET
On the other side of the race course, the race is more of a Steeple-chase between the top three ORMA 60ft trimarans. They still have another day of tacking into the SE Trades with a fairly choppy sea-state to contend with on their track before they are released around the Ascension Island turning point. The game is not played out on a straight line as each boat picks their own strategy for when and where to tack to the East or South. Banque Populaire has a relatively small 63m lead, and like her rivals is not yet out of the woods when it comes to the chance of structural damage or technical handicapping in these tough upwind conditions
Bidegorry and Lemonchois in the lead have repositioned themselves now furthest in the East nearer the rhumb line ahead of their rivals, Gitana 11 and Géant, after tacking to the East to retain their controlling position in relation to the mark and the next two boats. Desjoyeaux and Destremau on Géant have responded with a counter-tack to the East to mark Gitana 11 and aim to make gains on Banque Populaire before they round Ascension Island. Le Peutrec and Guichard on Gitana 11 are following suit but prefer to stay a little more east in order to round the mark from the East on a faster sailing angle.
Mich Desjoyeaux on Géant described succinctly the situation: “I think Banque Populaire has roughly a 6 or 7 hour advantage over us right now. I can say for certain that the tension in this race has never come down since we left Le Havre, this course is particularly exacting, and apart from one nice afternoon off Portugal I don’t think in all my life I’ve spent so long at sea being so punished by the big blue ocean like this! It’s more like mountain-climbing than sailing out here...”
As soon as the first boat is round they will be throttled up to 25 knots boat speed careering downwind in the SE Trades and so this mark rounding is absolutely critical for determining the eventual order into Bahia even though with 1,450m still to run there is still plenty of sea for circumstances to change. Two years ago Alain Gautier and Ellen MacArthur on Foncia were 2 hours ahead of Groupama and 5 hours ahead of Fujifilm and yet it was Groupama and Fujifilm arriving first and second into Bahia after the final gybing battle off the Bahian coastline.
CLASS 2 OPEN 50 MULTIHULL FLEET
Open 50 Multihull Crêpes Whaou ! is on a mission to be the first boat into Bahia…in the whole fleet. Franck-Yves and son Kevin Escoffier have been by far the most positive and exuberant skippers throughout this tough Transat, truly loving the experience of racing their new Van Peteghem / Prévost 50 foot multihull. “I have so much faith in this boat, it’s uncomplicated, a real zippy machine, I wouldn’t change a thing, I love sailing 50 footers. We’ve got 22 knots of wind, one reef in the indexsail and staysail up, we’re building up to a crescendo finish for this Transat Jacques Vabre!”
WEATHER by Louis Bodin
The ORMA 60 multihulls are climbing upwind in a 15 – 20 knot SE Trade wind. The sea state is quite choppy, not dangerous but nonetheless tiring on the boats and the skippers. They will continue to tack towards the Ascension Island for another 24hrs, trying to make small but significant gains on the lead in relation to the wind direction which may vary slightly.
The first IMOCA Open 60 Monohulls are now into the SE Trades but the breeze is not yet fully stable and today reindexs variable between 5 – 15 knots. However, they have at least got back on to a direct heading for the finish line. The leading Open 60 Monohulls should benefit from a gradually building breeze from 15 – 20 knots, as they cross the Equator, and then 20 – 25 knots at around 5 degrees South. Their boat speeds should begin to rise as they reach the stronger breeze nearer the South American coast.
For the fleet behind, the Trades in the Northern Hemisphere are still quite irregular thanks to the disturbance from cloudy and stormy conditions off Cape Verde Islands. They must get out of the weaker winds between the Canaries and the Cape Verdes. The NE Trade winds are well established at 22 West. The shortest route is not the fastest for them and the comeback of Artforms from a more westerly route is proof of this.
Official Rankings at 14:44:00 GMT
IMOCA Open 60 Class:
Pstn / Boat / Lat / Long / Hdg / DTF / DTL
1 Virbac-Paprec 1 52.84' S 30 27.48' W 14.4 213 815.8 0.0
2 Sill et Veolia 1 44.68' S 30 28.28' W 15.6 211 836.1 20.4
3 Bonduelle 0 56.88' S 29 59.20' W 14.4 211 892.1 76.3
4 Ecover 0 00.12' N 30 38.64' W 13.6 201 923.3 107.5
5 Skandia 0 16.68' N 30 44.68' W 12.6 200 935.7 119.9
6 Pro-Form 0 11.64' N 29 34.16' W 11.6 194 963.7 147.9
NL Roxy
Open 50 Monohull Class 2:
Pstn / Boat / Lat / Long / Hdg / DTF / DTL
1 Gryphon Solo 18 03.52' N 25 49.28' W 6.0 173 2033.1 0.0
2 Vedettes de Bréhat 20 14.36' N 23 18.28' W 7.0 240 2209.0 175.9
3 Artforms 22 18.76' N 26 16.76' W 9.1 160 2271.2 238.1
4 Top 50 Guadeloupe 21 49.88' N 19 55.24' W 6.5 187 2375.5 342.4
5 Polarity Solo 25 00.80' N 26 55.92' W 9.0 194 2418.3 385.2
ORMA Open 60 Class 14:44:00 GMT:
Pstn / Boat / Lat / Long / Hdg / DTF / DTL
1 Banque Populaire 5 05.04' S 17 34.56' W 14.6 092 1725.9 0.0
2 Géant 4 16.28' S 18 16.16' W 15.4 083 1789.4 63.5
3 Gitana 11 4 01.08' S 18 02.96' W 14.4 085 1790.8 64.9
4 Gitana X 5 09.28' N 19 47.40' W 12.7 207 2317.7 591.8
Open 50 Multihull Class 2 14:44:00 GMT:
Pstn / Boat / Lat / Long / Hdg / DTF / DTL
1 Crêpes Whaou ! 1 11.08' S 28 31.60' W 18.6 212 931.4 0.0
2 Jean Stalaven 21 31.52' N 21 08.48' W 4.8 192 2328.9 1397.5
Quotes from the Boats:
Monohulls:
Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec): “We’re on great form, have finally got some proper rest where you don’t have to get up every 5 minutes now we’re out of the Doldrums. I’m learning so much sailing with Loick, and we’re having to study the weather carefully as Sill et Veolia are very close behind and we’re going to do everything we can to finish first! In fact our boats are very similar in boat speed, each one has its weaker points but we’ve never been more than 20 miles apart after 4,000 miles, the proximity of the performance of these boats is amazing! We can’t see anyone, though, you can’t really see anything more than 3 or 4 miles away. We had a very pleasant Equator crossing, although Loick was asleep at the time…we’ll have to wait for the finish to drink some champagne!”
Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle): “It’s more or less a motorway south, we’re just eating, sleeping and reaching on a straight line, no real tactics to play, it’s pretty much a procession now, quite monotonous really. It’s not resignation on our part, just that with only 48 hours left sailing in a very stable weather system, unless a miracle happens, the order isn’t going to change. Even if we sail 1 knot faster than Sill et Veolia we will arrive only just behind them. I reckon we’ll finish in 2 days and 14 hours time…”
Mike Golding spoke to Sir John Holmes, the British Ambassador in France, who attended the Transat Jacques Vabre satellite phone-in show in Paris this morning: “It’s all going well onboard Ecover, as of a few hours ago we got clear of the clutches of the Doldrums and are on our way into the Trades. We had a reasonable Doldrums crossing except for the fact that we were free-hoisting our sails as the furler system has broken, so it was pretty hard work. We’re happy where we are positioned, we’ll be racing for another 3 or 4 days I think. The gaps between the boats are very small, and we could slow up on the approach to the line, it could be light airs to the finish so we’re pushing on as ever, hoping that the rudder isn’t too much of a hand-brake. We’re going to do our best, as for winning, well, against all the usual suspects out here, it’s a big ask, but you never know!”
Marc Thiercelin (Pro-Form): “We’ve been crossing the Doldrums at supersonic speed! The conditions change all the time, which means we’re having to change sail combinations quite often, but the clouds continue to follow us around, and so does the wind. It’s been raining non-stop, and the humidity on board is unbearable. I don’t think we’ve seen the sun since the Canaries. It’s pretty uncomfortable, I’m now just desperate to arrive so I can dry out. We need to negotiate the wind rotation towards the West very carefully so we can head towards Salvador. We can’t compete with the new generation boats on pure boat speed, but it’s great to know that we are just in their wake, and that we should arrive just a few hours behind them. Since the start, Eric and I have gone all out, lots of manoeuvres, hand-steering…It’s been full on! We always race to win, it reindexs our objective, but if we’re in the top 5 without losing much in terms of distance from the leaders then we’ll have sailed a good race.”
Brian Thompson (Skandia): “We have been cutting into the leaderboard the last 2 days as we had a better Doldrums crossing. Now the leaders will extend as the wind slowly favours them by backing. Realistically, in these stable conditions, its hard to see us getting to the front, but we have a great 3 way tussle for fourth place on our hands for the next 1000 miles. Ecover has a 10 mile lead and Pro-Form is supposedly 25 miles back, but the reality is that she is abeam of us by 65 miles and has a big advantage in being able to crack off on this close reach across the SE trades. I'd put her at least level with us at present.”
Miranda Merron (Roxy): “Today has been a definite improvement on yesterday, though the cost of being becalmed is a close race between us and UUDS for now. More interesting though. Luckily it was quite a cloudy day as it is getting rather hot in this part of the world. Chocolate stays melted at night.. Since early morning, we have had 17-24 knots of breeze, sailing under big gennaker, getting some good surfs down the waves. It's now the middle of the night, full moon, and much the same. Worth enjoying while it lasts, because in a few hours we will be in the doldrums. It looks like our classmates in front got through relatively unscathed. There are loads of flying fish, though not many suitable specimens have found their way on deck. Still, there are plenty of miles left for flying fish sashimi!”
Kip Stone (Artforms): “It’s better and better out to the West of the competition. We’ve had some big breeze which has allowed us to close the gap on Gryphon Solo. If you could tell Joe and Josh from me that if they’d like to pull into the Cape Verde’s for a night on the town, we’ll pay for it, I made the offer at the Canaries and they didn’t take up on it, so this time I’m happy to make sure there’s no expense spared, I’ll hand over my credit card number in advance! Merf and I have fallen into a good sleep pattern, we sail as two solo sailors, overlapping on the gybes. This is the first day we’ve dried out the boat and seen some sunshine for a while. We’re staying focused and getting ready for the big push to Bahia..!”
Multihulls
Pascal Bidégorry (Banque Populaire): “Last night we were up on deck the whole time on manoeuvres. We hardly rested and we’re pretty knackered now…The sea is quite choppy too. I really want to just get to Ascension Island now, crack off the sheets, sail on a more comfortable angle for these boats. We should get there in about 30 hours. This morning we took our feet off the pedal in these boat-breaking conditions, it’s already been ten days we’ve been out here bashing these boats around.”
Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant): “Since the middle of last night, the wind has risen above 22 knots. We had 30 knot squalls come through, even one at 33 this morning. As we don’t have a huge amount of sail area up it’s okay, but you still have to watch out for them all the same. I think Banque Populaire has roughly a 6 or 7 hour advantage over us right now. I can say for certain that the tension in this race has never come down since we left Le Havre, this course is particularly exacting, and apart from one nice afternoon off Portugal I don’t think in all my life I’ve spent so long at sea being so punished by the big blue ocean like this! It’s more like mountain-climbing than sailing out here...”
Fred Le Peutrec (Gitana 11): “We’ve just tacked on a wind shift. Ascension Island is like the windward mark, really, and we’re just gritting our teeth a bit as the upwind conditions are not kind on the boat, and we’re starting to bounce a bit on quite a choppy sea. We’d love to play the shifts all the time but without a full crew it’s impossible to tack as often as we’d like. We have little chance of catching Banque Populaire, they must be 5 hours ahead of us, so we’re trying to arrive at the Ascension Island at the same time as, or at least as close as possible to Géant, and for the boat to be in the best state to attack the rest of the race.”
Franck-Yves Escoffier (Crepes Whaou !): “This was Kevin’s first Equator crossing and we haven’t had a moment to crack open the champagne but we will! Having 4 or 5 monohulls ahead of us is motivating, I hope you don’t mind if we try to beat them into Brazil! I have so much faith in this boat, it’s uncomplicated, a real zippy machine, I wouldn’t change a thing, I love sailing 50 footers. We’ve got 22 knots of wind, one reef in the indexsail and staysail hoisted, we’re building up to a crescendo finish for this Transat Jacques Vabre!”
International Media Relations:
Mary Ambler
Email: mary.ambler@xalt.co.uk
Mob: +44 (0)7887 643 583
Paris Tel: +33 (0)1 414 149 77 or 78
TV Media Relations:
Anne Millet
Email: millet-anne@wanadoo.fr
Race web site: www.jacques-vabre.com – click on the Union Jack flag to go to the English version
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