Oceanracing 2005 - Transat Jacques Vabre 2005

Transat Jacques Vabre 2005
www.jacques-vabre.com - Oceanracing 2005

Image © Web Lifted Image

Starts Saturday 5th of November 2005
at 13.00 french time for monohulls
Starts Sunday 6th of November 2005 at 13.00 french time for multihulls

Estimated Finish time in Salvadore de BAHIA around the 18th of november

Bilderbogen und Kurzreiseführer von Bahia

21.11.2005
Roxy finishes at 21:17:42 GMT - happy hour in Brazil!
Roxy appeared over the horizon, pink sails set against a beautiful Brazilian sunset, the last few mile to the line were still fairly physical with a few sail changes before the girls could at last relax and point the bow towards the finish line on starboard tack as night fell on the city backdrop.
The fireworks for their arrival were set off from the CENAB marina at 1817 local time (21:17:42 GMT) as Anne Liardet and Miranda Merron set off their red hand flares to light up the pink indexsail – definitely the prettiest arrival of all!
The only all-female team finished in 8th place in the IMOCA Open 60 class, two days and 21 minutes after the winner Virbac-Paprec, after 16 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 42 seconds at an average theoretical speed of 11.09 knots.

Sunday 13th November, 2005
www.jacques-vabre.com
TWO NEW LEADERS IN ORMA & IMOCA 60FT CLASSES:
SILL ET VEOLIA (MACARTHUR / JOURDAIN) AND GITANA 11 (LE PEUTREC / GUICHARD)

• Two New Leaders at 14:44 GMT: Sill et Veolia (IMOCA 60), Gitana 11 (ORMA 60), Gryphon Solo (Open 50 Monohull), Crepes Whaou ! (Open 50 Multihull)
• Abandon: Monohull Open 50 Défi Vendéen pulling in to La Palma in the Canaries citing several technical problems. There are now 5 Open 50 monohulls racing.

IMOCA 60 CLASS UPDATE
At the 1500GMT position report, the inevitable happened and Sill et Veolia (Jourdain / MacArthur) have nosed in front of Virbac-Paprec (Dick / L. Peyron) by 1.9 miles after taking small chunks out of their lead consistently over the weekend. As they curved round the Cape Verde Islands, Sill et Veolia covered 408m to Virbac-Paprec’s 384m in the last 24hrs, and they are anticipating a relatively fast transition through the Doldrums into the new, well established SE Trades around 5 N.

Bilou had his own thoughts about the marginally worse performance of their nearest rival this weekend in the same weather system: “The last 24hrs has been great, ideal conditions to play catch up. We crossed Virbac’s track and we’re wondering if they have something missing in their sail wardrobe, what’s the story? We’re sure they have lost a gennaker or something, they’ve been sailing a higher course than us, so we think there’s a problem there..”

Jean-Pierre Dick may have been guarded about any problems on board, but was honest about his reaction to Sill et Veolia’s spurt into the lead: “Sill is sailing faster but we’ve been working hard on board, so we’re just trying to assess why that is and then see what we can do in response. There’s nothing to panic over, we’ve got a way to go yet and it’s a complex solution as there are so many factors at play: managing the boat speed, the manoeuvres, sail combinations, our routing, tactics and rest.”

Behind, Bonduelle (Le Cam / De Pavant) has also extended their small lead in third place over Ecover (Golding / Wavre) by 11 miles in the last 6 hours. Report has it that Ecover’s tack line broke this morning, but the Brit-Swiss team is nevertheless in good spirits and positioned the furthest in the West as they anticipate the Doldrums crossing point ahead: “I never like to see things broken on the boat because we are compromised. I am a bit happier with where we are now, but it would be nice to be pulling back real miles rather than just hanging on. Although the Doldrums are not too active we can see a way through while we are not so sure about where Sill and Veolia and Virbac-Paprec are lining up. Hopefully they will slow and we should be able to reel back some real miles.”

Skandia (Thompson / Oxley) has held fast to their 5th place and caught up a precious 3 miles on Ecover, whilst holding off the charge admirably from Pro-Form (Thiercelin / Drouglazet) just 28 miles behind on the inside track. Further back, UUDS (Laurent / Massot) declared that they lost their gennaker when the halyard chafed apart in a particularly strong gust, which has rendered them slightly handicapped until they can find calmer conditions to shin up and fix a new halyard. They do have another gennaker with the same surface area, but until they get the new halyard fixed, they are losing miles on their nearest rivals, Roxy (Liardet / Merron) in 7th place.

11.11.2005
• Abandon: Multihull Open 50 Acanthe Ingenierie abandoned the race overnight after dismasting off the African coast. There are now 4 Open 50 multihulls racing.

• Groupama 2 update: Franck Cammas and Proffit were both airlifted off Groupama-2 before midnight last night and taken by helicopter to La Palma, where Franck was admitted to hospital with broken ribs. A salvage operation to tow the inverted boat ashore is already underway, managed by Groupama-2 shore team manager, Stéphane Gilbaud. Franck Cammas’ interview describing the incident is online in English.

09.11.2005
Abandon: Cheminées Poujoulat (Stamm/Elies) has just announced their official retirement from the race. They arrived in Sanxenxo, Spain at around 11pm last night to assess the damage to their starboard rudder system; Branec IV officially retires from the race after suffering extensive damage to her port float during the heavy weather. Seven boats have officially retired from the race now.

• Sodebo update: The trimaran Sodebo, under tow from a fishing vessel, arrived in Douarnenez under tow from a fishing vessel at around 0700hrs French time.

• Brossard left Guernsey at 1600hrs local time yesterday, destination either Camaret or Port La Foret, being towed by a motorboat skippered by Laurent & Yvan Bourgnon. On Friday, the boat builders at CDK will begin to survey the hull and evaluate the process of repairing the boat. The boat’s architect and build team will also try to determine the cause of such major structural damage, in view of the fact that her sistership, Banque Populaire, did not suffer any similar damage.

• Stops & Restarts: Groupama-2 made a 5 hour technical pitstop in Porto Santo, Madeira, between 0400 – 0900hrs today to make several repairs to the steering and rudder systems, relinquishing their lead to Banque Populaire.

Fotografen Copyrights
Gilles Martin-Raget, Eric Bretagnon, Yvan Zedda, Jean-Marie Liot, Pauline Marcel, Gérard Cazade, Jacques Vapillon, Gérard Beauvais, Billy Black, James Boyd, Philippe Plisson, Thierry Chesnot, Mark Turner, François Mousis, Gilles Petipas for Pen Duick, Benoît Stichelbaut, J.P Habold, Jean Claude Roca et Christophe Chevalin pour TF1.

26.11.2005 - OPEN 50 MONOHULL PODIUM COMPLETE

25.11.2005 - GRYPHON SOLO BIG WINNERS

23.11.2005 - TJV 05: OCEANIC MATCH RACING OPEN 50 CLASS

21.11.2005 - Roxy finishes at 21:17:42 GMT - happy hour in Brazil

20.11.2005 - BANQUE POPULAIRE WINS ORMA 60 MULTIHULL RACE

19.11.2005 - SKANDIA WINS BATTLE WITH 5TH PLACE

19.11.2005 - The Anglo-Saxons arrive in Bahia 28 minutes apart

19.11.2005 - FROM ELLEN AT THE FINISH

19.11.2005 - IMOCA OPEN 60 PODIUM COMPLETE

19.11.2005 - VIRBAC-PAPREC TAKES VICTORY

18.11.2005 - JOURDAIN AND MACARTHUR RACE AGAINST THE ODDS

18.11.2005 - UNDER 1 HOUR BETWEEN VIRBAC-PAPREC AND SILL