Route du Rhum-Banque Postale Start 29. Oktober 2006 - St.Malo www.routedurhum.org - Übersicht 11/11/2006 CALM FINISHES FOR THE IMOCA, ONE MORE LOW TO FACE IN 40-FOOTER. The IMOCA 60-footers are finishing the race in very light winds. These are the same winds leading pack skippers of the 40-footers will have to deal with as they approach the arrival line. Most of the skippers talked about unusual weather conditions that definitely gave an advantage to those who pushed their bows in the west to the most northerly route (a few places up in the ranking or a notch to the lead) to meet dreadful weather. After this exhausting passage, the front runners now have to position themselves and store as many miles as possible before entering the new low to come. Even if, after 12 days at sea, the objective to reach warmer weather and land is quite expected, it seems difficult to get rid of the wet suit: once it protects – as much as possible – from the rain and the wet, they now use it to protect themselves from the sun. After the radical race of Lionel Lemonchois, Thierry Duprey du Vorsent was quite frustrated on his results, which is understandable, as a competitor. Nevertheless, it did not erase the fact that most of them cut the earlier record by several hours or even a day. ORMA 60 multihulls Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (Gitana XII) cut the line after 12d 14 h 52’. Frustration reindexed after he cut the line as he thought that without that much breakerage he could have passed a few of the trimarans (and Franck-Yves Escoffier 50 footer) that finished in front of him. IMOCA 60 mohonulls Three skippers of the IMOCA class have now celebrated their arrival in Guadeloupe. This is a good opportunity for them to unveil a few stories that they would not have let out in their radio communications as they conveyed information for their opponents. After the news about the broken boom – and repairs at sea, – of Sill et Veolia, Jean Pierre Dick announced, once on dock, that he had destroyed a spinaker. It’s also time for some of the skippers in this class to wave good bye to their “old” boats after numerous days of intimacy with them at sea. With the next Vendée Globe in sight, (2008) new units are already being built and no doubt the skippers will implement them with the lessons they’ve learned during this 8th edition of the Route du Rhum – La Banque Postale. The fast pace of the race – Dick compares to the one sustained in a Transat Jacque Vabre double handed sailing race. Brian Thompson will arrive early morning tomorrow – winds permitting- in 6th position for his first participation in the Route du Rhum. Stilgerechter Karibikspaß Roland Jourdain Erster der Monohulls Jean Le Cam 2nd Monos IMOCA Piere Dick noch auf dem Podium 40- footer monohulls After their passage in the violent low-pressure systems of the last few days, the 6 skippers more to the Northwest of the fleet went through a new front overnight. The winds and seas were less fierce than those seen previously, but the skippers had to reindex on deck, in the dark, under pouring rain and shifty winds, with no visibility at all. Conditions “just to make sure you feel miserable” commented Phil Sharp, still in the lead (70 miles in front of Morvan), but who has a difficult challenge ahead of him to prevent Gildas (Oyster funds) from gaining on him. At 10:00 AM this part of the fleet was sailing upwind in 20 knots of wind and a bit of sea, heading South and expecting a shift during the day to convert to downwind sailing. In the South the boats are litteraly “parked”, not getting any wind to fill up the sails. They should put more South in their tracks to try to catch Southeasterly winds. But their chances of getting them are vanishing with their lack of speed. Not a good place to be so far ! For the leading pack a new low pressure system is on the way, (-one more !) – and then a nerve wracking finish in weak winds. It is, therefore, the time for the leaders to make as many gains as possible before the low system. QUOTES OF THE DAY Phil Sharp / philsharpracing.com It’s been all over the place overnight. Going through the front seemed to go on and on forever with wind conditions up and down. We had a lot of rain as well, just to make sure you get cold and wet and miserable whilst keeping the boat moving. There were a lot of clouds so the beginning of the night was very dark. There was no moon so you couldn’t see anything at all and try to sail the boat with a lot of sail out for the maximum performance. I was pushing hard to gain as much distance as possible and get through the front as fast as possible. I couldn’t even see through the rain to manage, and could not achieve sleep at all. Then we’ve came out the other side of the clouds so we had clear skies and I’m looking forward to lying down. But the wind is quite light for the finish which is not ideal for me. I don’t like light finishes because they can be a lottery sometimes. You can get trapped in an area with no winds and then someone make big gains on you very suddenly. I am not looking forward to it. The whole fleet can “park up” which can make racing interesting but that is not pleasant for those in the front because they can be eaten up ! I speak to my router twice a day and we lay everything down. If there are things not unfolding according to the plan, then I improvise along the way. At the moment things are quite difficult to predict. I’ve made the decisions myself because the conditions here are quite different from the predictions, which makes everyone crazy. Ian Munslow / Bolands Mill It is raining outside, and it is horrible ! So I am inside the boat taking it easy. Last few hours were upwind, quite easy, nothing awful at all. And before it was downwind wasn’t it ? I can’t even remember the day. I damaged two sails earlier in the race so my code 0 and my small spinnaker are dead. So I really do lose there in terms of wind angles. Upwind and light downwind are still good for me because I have the good sails. I am waiting for a shift of wind to the Northwest about here now and I am going to tack to starboard, heading South to where Phil Sharp is, basically. Nice day really. The North and West is all a decision of the weather router. They make all the decisions and I just sail the boat as hard as I can where they tell me to sail it to. I went down (in the boat) at night and got up at daylight. Bit lazy but I needed it, I was very tired. It was really very windy up in the North, really interesting sailing, very fast but dangerous also. But the boats are designed to take it ! Brian Thompson / Artemis It’s a beautiful day, light winds though – maybe up to 8 knots of wind. The good news is that I am going to see Guadeloupe today. I had a bad 12 hours’ day when I was stuck in a lot of rainfall, like Dominique was the day before . I was only doing 2 knots for quite a bit of time because all the rainfall was killing the wind. I had to go to the West side of Guadeloupe where there are no winds in the dark. From this morning on, I was going quite fast. We are making the best progress we can but everything is good on board. I ‘ll have to be very close to the shore to get the light winds but that’s good because you can smell the land and the trees. I’ll be able to enjoy the beautiful settings that I am sailing in. Class leaders 4 :00 PM polling Class 3 multi :Imagine / Pierre Antoine Class 1 mono : Jeunes Dirigeants / P.Y Guennec Class 2 mono : Artforms / Kip Stone (US) Class 3 mono : Roaring Forty / Michel Kleinjans (BE) Class 40 : philsharpracing.com / Phil Sharp Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE