Oceanracing 2007 - Transat Jaques Vabre 2007

Transat Jaques Vabre 2007
von Le Havre nach Bahia - Start 3. November 2007
www.jacques-vabre.com - www.transatbtob.com - Übersicht

16/11/2007
http://www.bernard-stamm.com
Cheminées Poujoulat in the Top 3 for the final sprint

The intertropical convergence zone has been kind to Cheminées Poujoulat. Having led the race briefly, Bernard Stamm and Tanguy Cariou have emerged from the Doldrums in third place. With 1,200 miles to run to Bahia, Cheminées Poujoulat is preparing for 4 days of intense high-speed racing…

Bernard Stamm and Tanguy Cariou have emerged from the Doldrums third in the Open 60 class. At 16:00 today, they were 26 miles from Michel Desjoyeaux and Emmanuel Le Borgne on Foncia, and 25 miles from Jean Le Cam and Gildas Morvan on VM Matériaux.

This is quite a performance when you remember that Cheminées Poujoulat is a generation older than her direct competitors, but still managed to lead the race for several hours! On board, the atmosphere is very positive, even thought Bernard and Tanguy refuse to get too excited. Both these experienced sailors know that the hardest part of the race is still to come. “The sky is clearer ahead of us now, there's less cloud and Cheminées Poujoulat has been treated rather well by the Doldrums, says Tanguy Cariou. “The second half of the night was pretty tiring, with a lot of squalls coming through. Before that, the wind had been very light and variable, which meant a lot of helming. That's hard work. Added to which, neither of us has had any sleep, because we were constantly helming or trimming. We've not been able to leave the helm since the Cape Verde Islands.”

But all that energy and effort have paid off, because Cheminées Poujoulat has often played a starring role in this Transat Jacques Vabre, even leading her class at one stage. Even so, they still have it all to do.

Having superbly negotiated the last major transition before the finish line, it's almost like a restart for the ten leading boats, and, on paper at least, Cheminées Poujoulat starts at a slight disadvantage compared with her direct competitors.
“Our 2003 Farr design is a great downwind boat. She's really at ease under those conditions, but like all boats of her generation, she has a little less sail area than new boats like Foncia and Safran, but that'll be corrected for the Vendée Globe. For now, we've left the Doldrums on a close reach in 7-8 knots of wind, but we expect trades to build quickly. Then it'll be a four-day test of speed on the final 1,000 mile sprint to Bahia…”

It's a sprint which natural winners like Bernard and Tanguy will take to the limit. As a final twist in a transat that has already seen many, it's certainly not out of the question…