Thursday 15th November 2007 - afternoon
‘Doldrummed’!
Safran has hit the doldrums running, enabling them to get back with the
frontrunners. At 1600 hours, Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier were back up
to 5th place with just a 15 mile deficit on the new leader, Cheminées Poujoulat
(Bernard Stamm/Tanguy Cariou). Yesterday morning, they had a 95 mile deficit! An
incredible battle rages…
Fasten your seatbelts
Eight competitors within 50 miles of each other! This 8th Transat Jacques Vabre
is quite simply incredible… With 1,400 miles to the finish, the last four days
of racing are likely to be particularly tense for these eight crews, all
legitimate pretenders to victory. In the middle of this group, Safran has sailed
a blinder by being systematically the fastest boat at every position report
today. Clinging firmly to Cheminées Poujoulat and Foncia (Desjoyeaux/Le Borgne),
Safran is catching up with everyone. Fasten your seatbelts, the end of this race
promises to be an exhilarating ride! The doldrums are currently in the process
of reshuffling the cards. Below is a little explanation of this rather special
zone…
Buffer zone
In the Northern hemisphere, the wind rotates in clockwise fashion around an area
of high pressure. In the Southern hemisphere, it turns the opposite way. Between
the two zones is a zone of transition known as the Inter-tropical Convergence
Zone, better known as the doldrums. “It’s a complicated zone to get through. You
need good information and good satellite images in order to find the best
passage”, Marc Guillemot explained to us last Monday. “It’s a really special
place! It feels like you’re entering an enormous zone which is empty of life.
Nothing goes there. The wind is shambolic. There are no animals, no marine
mammals, no birds, no flying fish… A very lugubrious place.”
A compromise
The doldrums stretches out in a cone shape from Brazil to Africa - the narrowest
part being towards Brazil. As a result, the further West you go - like VM
Matériaux at the moment – the less wide a section you have to cross. The only
disadvantage you have to take into account is the ‘après doldrums’. In the
Southern hemisphere, the tradewinds come from the South at the level of the
equator. Those who have crossed too far to the West of the doldrums find
themselves sailing very close to the wind, whilst their adversaries with an E'ly
separation, may open their sails rather earlier and hence accelerate away more
quickly. An impossible equation! Ideally then, you need to find the best
compromise between crossing the doldrums in an area which isn't too thick but
which still enables you to get a fairly good angle to the wind in the Southern
hemisphere. To make things even more complicated, this zone is not motionless.
It moves between the equator and the 10th parallel North and also varies in
thickness (between 200 and 400 miles on average).
Hellish times for the sailors of yesteryear
The doldrums are characterised by enormous black clouds, storms and downpours,
which are as violent as they are sudden. The wind there is virtually
non-existent and then rises steeply to over 40 knots in the space of a few
seconds as a squall passes through. You have to be on your guard so that you are
not taken by surprise, in danger of having too much sail hoisted and breaking
your boat. For the time being, the lack of moon is making this vigilance even
trickier at night. “You can spend night after night without any wind, with a
chop and flogging sails, says Marc. I imagine that 200, 300 or 400 years ago,
sailors passing through the area must have wondered where on earth they were.
It's not a particularly cheerful place!" For the sailors of yesteryear, the
passage of the equator signified not only a change of hemisphere. It also marked
the end of these hellish doldrums and was a veritable deliverance. To thank
Neptune for letting them escape this hell, they celebrated the passage of this
imaginary line with rituals, offerings to the sea god and the ragging of young
cabin boys, who were crossing the line for the first time…
The Atlantic, at last
It was with global relief amongst the fleet, that the skippers have successively
bid farewell to the Mediterranean. Last night Paprec-Virbac led the way through
the gateway of Gibraltar at 0225 hours GMT, closely followed by PRB (0245
hours), then Estrella Damm (0733 hours) and Temenos II (0959 hours).
With the Gibraltar Straits now in their wake, each of the participants are
hoping to leave behind them the capricious weather, which has brazenly toyed
with their nerves with little let-up since the start. Of the 500 miles or so
which separate Barcelona from the Straits of Gibraltar, the average speeds
haven’t exactly been anything to write home about, but they may well have a
deciding role during the boats' return. Though it’s fairly rare to see the final
ranking turned upside down during the final sprint of a finish decided on the
Atlantic coast, we can well imagine that in the Mediterranean, the hegemony of
the leader may be contested all the way to the finish line in Barcelona, unless
they have a very comfortable lead.
This morning, a number of skippers were hoping to quickly put thoughts of their
final night in the Mediterranean behind them. This was the case for Jérémie
Beyou aboard Delta Dore, trapped on the approach to the Spanish coast, who
conceded over 60 miles to the leaders, PRB and Virbac Paprec, authors of a great
start to the race. Situated at the front of the fleet, these two monohulls are
continuing to reap the benefits of more favourable conditions, which should
enable them to stretch out their lead.
Aboard Temenos II, the night also brought its fair share of manœuvres, shifting
of moveable ballast, becalming, violent and unexpected gusts, and counter
currents. Even though the latest forecasts show a small depression stirring
things up as far as the Canaries, the exit from the Mediterranean is still
viewed as a ‘deliverance’ for Michèle, contacted early this afternoon. With the
help of a wind which finally looks like it’s going to establish itself, and
prior to tackling the umpteenth change of tack, the sailor provides us with a
bit of news from onboard.
“We’ve just finished eating. I’m going to try and sleep a little as nearly 12
hours have gone by since my last stretch of sleep. It was a hellish night! We
were becalmed for a large part of it and the current even made us go backwards
at one point. Later we found ourselves with 30 knots of wind on the nose in
boat-breaking seas, even though the grib files were showing 20. The seas were
bad and the boat was slamming violently. We've struggled to extract ourselves
from the Straits of Gibraltar and it looked like the Med had decided not to let
us go. We’re happy to be back in the Atlantic again; it's a real deliverance. We
haven’t stopped since yesterday, concentrating simply on making tack changes one
after the other according to the current and the wind variations. If I were to
add up all the moveable ballast we've shifted, it wouldn't be far off a tonne!
For the time being it's rather like a souk on board. We’ll leave the tidying up
till later! For now, we’re focussing on negotiating the passage of the
depression on zone, either rounding to the North of it or cutting through it…”
PRB and Paprec-Virbac have clearly adopted two different strategies and we can
see their courses have been diverging since this morning. Prior to being able
benefit from the tradewinds, the boats will first have to find them, as for the
time being, it looks like another meteorological brain teaser is emerging before
the skippers in the Barcelona World Race…
Job done: Franck Cammas and Stève Ravussin have brilliantly led Groupama 2 to
victory in this Transat Jacques Vabre after ten days of intense sailing,
enabling them to improve on their previous record by nearly 48 hours, a record
originally held by… Franck Cammas and Franck Proffit since 2003.
Presented as the favourite at the start in Le Havre, the crew of Groupama 2
didn’t let the side down. Authors of the best start, the two men continued to
stamp their mark throughout this transatlantic race. Leading as they rounded the
Western tip of Brittany, they greatly reduced their sail area during the brief
but intense gale encountered off Cape Finisterre. Though their direct rivals
made the most of the situation to steal ahead, Franck and Stève opted instead to
spare both the equipment and themselves: “As we passed Spain, we eased right off
the pace" confirmed Stève in Bahia.
Still in downwind conditions during the descent towards the Canaries
archipelago, Groupama 2 regained control of operations, despite a very fine W’ly
option by Gitana 11.
Next, it was en route to Cape Verde that the outcome of the race was decided.
Tactically better positioned, the future winners were marked by the fact that
the one of their hottest contenders would have to make a few hours’ pitstop to
replace a foil (Gitana 11) or a rudder on one of the floats (Banque Populaire).
From then on, Groupama 2 continued to extend their lead, quickly stretching from
a 50 mile advantage to over 300 miles: “Groupama 2 is a solid, well prepared and
validated boat. We certainly worked it hard though in order to get the lead we
needed" adds Stève, who hasn’t always had the opportunity to race on such high
performance trimarans.
Like other champions, Cammas and Ravussin are hard to dethrone once they’re in
the lead: “It wasn’t easy to manage our lead as we don’t necessarily know what
rhythm to adopt. To keep attacking with the risk of breaking the boat would have
been stupid. At the same time, these trimarans are fantastic machines which
require the utmost concentration. When crossing through the doldrums, we were
surprised by a squall in which the wind increased from 10 to 35 knots. It was
pretty dicey" recalls the skipper of Groupama 2, a thought which was soon
confirmed by his accomplice: “The nights were very dark without any moon at all.
We had no idea when the squalls were going to kick in”.
Whilst some of the former multihull skippers have now opted for monohull
sailing, Franck and Stève appreciate the true value of this victory, after a
disastrous Jacques Vabre in 2005 (dislocated boat for Stève and a capsize for
Franck): “This victory clearly makes us feel good” analyses Franck simply. Stève
echoes this: “It’s a great revenge and it will enable us to move on with our
spirits raised".
Eyes sparkling, a smile on the lips and talking nineteen to the dozen, our two
winners didn’t tire in sharing their enthusiasm, both with the spectators and,
perhaps more surprisingly, between themselves too. “We didn’t cross paths a
single time below, other than when we were changing over helm, we didn’t get the
opportunity to speak to each other much. We're making up for it now though"
jokes Stève who went on to say: “In 1999, during our first double-handed
transatlantic aboard the first Groupama, Franck woke up readily and often came
up on deck. This year, I had trouble waking him up on several occasions. For me,
it’s proof that he has total confidence in me”.
Numerous interviews are now in store. Between two meetings with the Swiss and
French media, the winners add: “Marcel Van Triest, our weather advisor, did a
really great job, as did our shore crew. We thank them all very much".
Race time: 10 days and 38 mins
Average speed: 19.18 knots
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
|
