IMOCA-Race: ECOVER BtoB 2007 www.transatecoverbtob.com - www.imoca.org - Übersicht Wednesday 28 november 2007 Start at 1400 GMT for fifteen solo sailors for fifteen days at sea: the Transat Ecover-BtoB will set off tomorrow, Thursday 29th November from Salvador de Bahia for 4,200 miles, destination Port la Forêt, Brittany, NW France. The state of play a day from the start... Race Management has set a time of 1100 hours local time (1400 GMT) for the start of the Transat Ecover-BtoB. Fifteen solo sailors will take the start line off the Bahia Yacht Club. From there they will round the Santo Antonio mark, five miles South of All Saint's bay, prior to returning to the Atlantic for over 4,200 miles of racing. This little ‘introduction’ should take place in around ten knots of NE’ly downwind conditions, and may be disturbed by a stormy zone set to skirt Bahia tomorrow morning. However, once they’ve rounded this one and only course mark the fifteen solo sailors should benefit from a steady NE’ly fifteen to twenty knot tradewind, forcing the monohulls to make northing with the wind on the nose. An initial opening is likely to appear between those following a course close to the Brazilian coast, and those opting for an offshore option in order to benefit from a more stable breeze. The tradewinds should then clock round progressively to the East from the latitude of Recife, 400 miles to the NNE of Salvador de Bahia, from midway through the second night at sea. The pace will very quickly speed up as a result of the solo sailors easing their sheets for a long stretch of reaching en route towards the equator, 500 miles away: the leaders should then tackle the doldrums positioned between 3° and 7° North over 30° West, from the evening of 3rd December. Fotos: onEdition 2007© Upwind… In these relatively normal weather conditions, the fifteen monohulls will therefore have a lot of upwind ahead of them in rather messy seas… The tradewinds in the Southern hemisphere (orientated to the East) will then see the boats heel over, followed by a little post-equatorial pause. From this point it will be time for the tradewinds of the Northern hemisphere (orientated to the North-East), which will take over in at least four days time… Given the initial battles between these fifteen monohulls, it would seem that the latest two Groupe Finot designs (Brit Air and Generali) are more at ease in breezy, upwind conditions thanks to the power and the beam of their hulls. It reindexs to be seen if the new Ecover 3 is equally as dangerous an adversary in this configuration, as the Owen-Clarke design was only launched a few weeks prior to the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre. Mike Golding’s previous boat, of which Derek Hatfield’s Spirit of Canada is a virtual sistership, was fearsome on this point of sail, as is Cheminées Poujoulat (Farr design) and Maisonneuve (Lavranos design)... However, will the differential in speed or the heading be enough for one of the boats to steal ahead of the others when up against the new prototypes, such as the two VPLP-Verdier designs (Safran and Groupe Bel) and the two Farr designs (Gitana Eighty and Foncia)? For the other monohulls from the previous generation including Roxy, as well as Aviva, Akena Vérandas, Cervin EnR and Great America III, this configuration isn’t very favourable for them and their focus is likely to be on ‘limiting the damage’ up to the Cape Verde islands: the progressive orientation of the tradewinds to the East, will then enable them to ease their sails and probably choose a more high performance heading-speed compromise for these monohulls. The solo sailors will then have the choice of heading due North towards the Azores, with the aim of catching up with an Atlantic depression as quickly as possible, or continuing to follow a direct course by sailing close to the wind in order to reduce the distance to the finish… Interestingly, the fifteen monohulls in the Transat Ecover-BtoB will pass by their nine counterparts in the Barcelona World Race off the Brazilian coast, as the first duos in this double-handed round the world race were off Recife earlier this Wednesday… One bunch of potential Vendee Globe racers en route to Brittany, the others heading towards the Cape of Good Hope… Participants in the Transat Ecover-BtoB: *Akena Vérandas: Arnaud Boissières (Groupe Finot 1998) *Aviva: Dee Caffari (Groupe Finot 1998) *Brit Air : Armel Le Cléac'h (Groupe Finot 2007) *Cervin enR : Yannick Bestaven (Groupe Finot 1996) *Cheminées Poujoulat : Bernard Stamm (Farr 2003) *Ecover 3 : Mike Golding (Owen Clarke 2007) *Foncia : Michel Desjoyeaux (Farr 2007) *Generali : Yann Eliès (Groupe Finot 2007) *Gitana Eighty : Loïck Peyron (Farr 2007) *Great America III : Rich Wilson (Nivelt 1999) *Groupe Bel : Kito de Pavant (VPLP-Verdier 2007) *Maisonneuve : Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Lavranos 2005) *Spirit of Canada : Derek Hatfield (Owen Clarke 2006) *Roxy : Samantha Davies (Groupe Finot 2000) *Safran : Marc Guillemot (VPLP-Verdier 2007) Marc Guillemot (Safran) “My objective is clear: to qualify for the Vendée Globe, without putting the boat at risk, but if the conditions allow me to perform well, I’ll get down to that with pleasure. It’s my first single-handed race on the monohull Safran and I'm approaching it very calmly: I’m under no pressure whatsoever! The only difference from the Transat Jacques Vabre is the automatic pilot and a little more work, but ultimately there are no big discoveries in the pure running of the machine! Safran is a very reliable boat… It will be really good training because between the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Transat Ecover-BtoB, we’ll have raced 9,000 miles of the Vendée Globe course, that is the first and last section of this three month race. This time we’re not routed but I’ve been working for several days with Sylvain Mondon, my meteorologist.” Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) “The boat is in perfect condition and I hope to get it home in the same way... There is a chance that we'll have better conditions than on the trip down, especially sailing solo. Furthermore, it is time to validate Gitana Eighty’s performance in more extreme situations than those in which we launched the boat, after an Indian summer in Brittany and a rather light Transat Jacques Vabre! We should have at least a week of upwind in some steady tradewinds of over 20 knots and we’ll very likely have a depression over the end of the course in December… The boat is going well and the fleet is fairly homogenous with a few boats that go a tad faster in moderate downwind conditions and others who look to be fearsome upwind. They are complicated monohulls and the ‘trim tab’ system, which we have fine tuned (mechanical distortion of the aft hull section) is proving to be very interesting. The Transat Ecover-BtoB is not simply a qualifier because everyone will be motivated and nobody wants to put themselves in 'delivery mode'. However, the best way to win a race is to finish it: it’s a basic principal which applies as much to the Vendée Globe as to this return race. As regards the weather, it will probably be a 'little train' from Bahia as far as the Cape Verde islands, but then there will be a few choices opening up. There could be some large lateral differences there by that point. As no routing is permitted, we'll really be racing under the same conditions as a circumnavigation. It’s a bit of a warm-up for the Vendée Globe! This is all the more true given that half the future competitors are in this race…” Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) “I’m very happy that there is this return transatlantic race, not simply to qualify for the Vendée Globe but also because there are fifteen of us setting out in good shape after the double-handed transatlantic race. It'll be a good battle and this time it'll be in solo configuration… With a short down time, it’s a good introduction to a circumnavigation, on a similar course at the end! I’m going to be able to test myself over a long distance and check that everything is okay on Brit Air. We are going to have favorable conditions for the boat, with some close-hauled sailing in the breeze for a good while. Manœuvring the boat single-handed isn‘t the same thing as doing it double-handed! I’ve never raced this course in this direction before but it looks like we can expect some options on the Azores side… How are we going to get past Cape Finisterre? It’s a good question, especially without routing: I'm going to find myself in the navigation conditions of a Figaro. The boat stood up well to the transatlantic race down to Bahia so there’s no worries there. The small technical problems I had have been sorted out in Bahia. It will be good to see how the gear fairs in a single-handed transatlantic race spanning over 4,000 miles… And all that will precede the work over the work.” Downloads http://blanconegro.extranet-e.net/public/SKIPPERS.jpg Click to download Copyright : Vincent Curutchet / DPPI http://blanconegro.extranet-e.net/public/B2B_071124_07.jpg Click to download Copyright : Vincent Curutchet / DPPI Radio sessions As from November 30th and until the race’s arrival, radio sessions with the competitors will take place, daily, at 3:00 pm (french time). These radio sessions will be broadcasted, live, on the race’s website every day a 3:00 pm. As from November 30th until December 9th, the radio sessions will be opened to the public and will take place, live, on the Brittany region’s booth (STAND Hall 1 N92-R111) at the Paris boat show. www.transatbtob.com Right free photos for uncommercial use - 10x15 cm max. Compulsory Copyright : V.Curutchet / DPPI Press Contact Brasil Agence Blanco Negro e-mail : media@transatbtob.com Florence Elizalde FRANCE +33 (0) 6 34 18 66 54 Kate Jennings E-mail : katejennings@free.fr Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE