Wednesday, 30th July 2008
CREPES WHAOU! EXPECTED TO BE THE FIRST TO FINISH TOMORROW IN SAINT-MALO
- Crêpes Whaou! expected tomorrow (Thursday) early in the afternoon, at around 14h local time in Saint-Malo
– The other multihulls and the leading Class 40 boats making headway in strong winds blowing in excess of 30 knots
- Mistral Loisirs, followed by Pogo Structures, is hanging on to the lead in the Class 40 boats
- Behind, the crews are still struggling to find any wind
It’s either one thing or the other: a choice of two extremes. A ridge of high pressure annoying you or a deep low over your head. Today, at the start of the tenth day of racing and on the eve of a triumphant finish from Crêpes Whaou!, the fleet taking part in the seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo is exposed to one of two extremes on the Atlantic. Out at the front, the multihulls and leading Class 40 boats are weathering the storm on seas that are full of potholes in a 35-knot NW’ly (gusting to 40 knots). Further back, things are very different. Mostly in light airs, they are trying to find a way out of the persistent calms, which are really slowing them down, while Crêpes Whaou! is roaring along towards a great victory, which now seems almost certain…
Where is the way out? With 1450 miles to go to the finish and more than 430 miles from the leading Class 40 boat, the crew of 40 Degrees, seventh in the 15h GMT rankings, are not attempting to hide their impatience. Hey are truly fed up with this ridge of high pressure, which continues to stretch out the isobars leading to persistent calms and wind holes. Alongside Peter Harding, Miranda Merron explains: «It has been a frustrating 24 hours - we have been trying to get through the ridge to the wind beyond, and got very close, with the wind in the right direction, only to get overtaken by the ridge again. The past few hours have been totally windless, and we are just starting to move again.» The speeds clearly indicate what is happening. Averaging 4-5-6 knots over the past few hours, the boats at the back can only huff and puff with frustration to give some air to their sails and accelerate away, while those at the front are easing off on the pedal in a strong NW’ly flow, which
continues to push them forward. Then, there are the upwind conditions the boats furthest back are enduring, like Fermiers de Loué-Sarthe (François Angoulvant), who is bringing up the rear of the Class 40 boats 500 miles from the frontrunners.
To the front!
At the front, the leading Class 40 boats and those chasing after Crêpes Whaou! are facing a very different scenario. They are indeed seeing action at the front. During the night, the crews experienced a big storm, a real blow. Mountainous seas, howling winds, it was time for some severe conditions, which suited those used to such a battle, in particular the crews prepared a fight on the edge of a low. With 1000 miles to go to Saint-Malo, the youngsters on Mistral Loisirs (Oliver Krauss), used to this exercise, are setting the pace in conditions that impose caution and vigilance. Paying attention not to swerve off course and closely watching the trio on Pogo Structures, who are clawing back the miles and certainly have not yet given up. Halvard Mabire’s skilful team has been achieving an average speed of 15 knots and drawing ever nearer to the leader. Over the next few hours as the low evolves the crews are likely to be punished with no other choice but to weather out the
storm...
As for the multihulls, they too are not finding it that easy in these conditions, which can easily lead to bearing off and other such problems. They are all putting up with it waiting for the wind to calm down, and for the seas to ease off. « We’ve hardly any canvas hoisted. For the past couple of hours, we have been under staysail only. The wind got up during the night and particularly this morning: we’ve around forty knots of wind and some heavy seas, which we’re having to weather. Prince de Bretagne is trying to keep things quiet and waiting for the wind to ease off before hoisting some more sail again, but that’s not going to happen for the time being, as what is happening now is quite nasty!» said Hervé Cléris, before adding: «Now we’ve less than 1000 miles to go to the finish, we would really like some nice conditions. For the moment, we have only one goal, and that is to overtake Imagine, because that is something we can do. We’re not
giving up.. » Let’s hope that real racing gets underway again soon!
We can note the fine performance from the leading FICO monohull, An Ocean of Smiles, the only one to have hopped on to the low to fight it out with the leaders in Class 40. Christophe Bullens and his crew are making headway, like the first Class 40 boats in the middle of a storm, where they have no choice but to weather it out and ease off, while waiting for conditions to improve. Which boat out of the leading FICO and the Class 40 frontrunners will make it first to the Vauban Basin at the foot of ramparts in Saint-Malo? A race within the race is on between the leaders in these two categories…
Crêpes Whaou!: ETA Thursday at around two local time
To finish, one we cannot forget. In the lead, Crêpes Whaou! is way out alone at the front on the way to the finish line and a win that is now almost certain in less than 24 hours. Ahead of a low and away from all the other conditions, Franck-Yves Escoffier and his crew only had 340 miles to go in the 15h rankings. « We’re sailing very quickly. We’ve had some great average speeds since the middle of the night. We’re regularly reaching 20 knots. The current conditions are perfect, with in particular a strong swell enabling us to make gains of 15-20% surfing along,» according to the captain. With his three fellow crewmen, he is due to cross the finish line off Saint-Malo early in the afternoon…
50-foot Open multihulls
Eric Sorel (Forget Formation) : «We’ve brought all the canvas down. We’ve 35-40 knots of wind with 4 to 5 metre waves, so we have just one foresail up and are waiting for it to ease off. We’re hoping for an improvement in the middle of the afternoon. Meanwhile, we’re getting shaken about. One positive thing is that the weather is fine and the sun is peeking out.»
Loïc Escoffier (Laiterie de Saint-Malo) : «We lowered everything during the night, when the wind got up above 35 knots. The boat bore off in a wave. Without rudder we were running free. It’s a rather strange feeling not being able to control the boat. Now, the ORC is unfurled, sheeted in and we’re all inside. We’re waiting for it to ease off. The seas and wind are pushing us along. It should start to calm at 20h GMT this evening. We then hope to be able to hoist some sail and trim to get back with the great average speeds we were doing in spite of the damage.»
Class 40
Oliver Krauss (Mistral Loisirs) : «We went through some particularly strong squalls. Over the past few hours, we have reduced the sail. We have slowed down somewhat, but we don’t want to take the risk of breaking anything. We don’t have a storm spinnaker like the Italians. We had a great night surfing at 18 knots and the wind started to get up at daybreak. We had up to 40-45 knots. It was a bit tough, as the seas were nasty and crossed in every direction. We kept at it. We hope that the others (Télécom Italia and Novedia Group) won’t catch us up again. Tomorrow afternoon, we will have to make a choice between two options. We shall see... »
Giovanni Soldini (Telecom Italia) : «We’re sailing quickly and getting very wet! We spent the night under spinnaker in strong winds. We just hope now that the wind won’t get up still further in the coming hours. Tomorrow, the conditions will be very different. I’m feeling neither optimistic nor pessimistic. We made up some ground during the night and we shall have to wait and see. But being left 55 miles behind is already painful, even if there is still a long way to go to the finish and a lot can still happen... »
Tanguy De Lamotte (Novedia Group) : «Things aren’t going too badly. We managed quite a lot during the night. We were sailing quickly and on the right track. It was a bit scary at times, as we had up to 38 knots and it was pitch black. The three of us took it in turns at the helm. This afternoon, the wind is likely to strengthen, but we’re ready! We’re not far from Giovanni Soldini and we’ll be fighting it out with him to the finish. A little further south, Mistral Loisirs and Pogo Structures seem to be in the best place for the wind. In the latest rankings, we saw that Telecom Italia has clawed some ground back from the two frontrunners. Will it work out? We’ll see. One thing for certain is that we’ll be downwind right up to the finish, which is no bad thing!»
Pierre-Marie Bazin (Rêv' 86) : « Like many others, we were becalmed and at the moment, we’re finding it particularly tricky with the weather charts. There was a little more air than forecast, which was a nice surprise, but it isn’t really from the right direction. So we’re sailing upwind. The wind is blowing at 17 knots and we hope to be a bit further south than the rest of the fleet, taking into account the arrival of another low late this afternoon. The problem is that our electronics are not working and we don’t have any working pilot left on board. Luckily there are four of us! In any case, we should get some excitement in the night and take greater advantage of that than the others to get back up with the pack.»
Manuel Castilla (Appart City) : « Yesterday it was quite tricky. We were scared at not passing the ridge, and ending up on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction. However, in the end, it all went well and we’ve picked up some wind. At the moment, we have around twenty knots of wind from the NW and we’re averaging 14 knots. It’s going well, even if we’re rather frustrated about not hopping on to the same system as Lamotte (Novedia Group - SET Environnement), although we got through in around the same place. Tomorrow, the wind will be backing westerly. We will have to gybe as there will be a SW’ly flow to pick up, although there may be a ridge, but that isn’t certain. In any case, we would like to grab fifth place.»
Jacques Fournier (Esprit Large-Talmont Saint Hilaire) : « We’re following a southerly route and hope that it will lead us out of this glue-pot. We hesitated before coming to a decision. There are five solo yachtsmen on board and we all talked it over. We came to a collective decision. We’re having to make do without the large spinnaker and chose the route, which is most suitable for our reindexing sails. We’re quite satisfied, even if we know it’s going to be tricky and we shall be facing much stronger winds in a few hours... »
François Angoulvant (Fermiers de Loué-Sarthe)
« A downwind transatlantic crossing? More or less since the start, we’ve been upwind with more upwind to follow! When it isn’t foggy, it’s raining! Can’t wait for the summer! Since yesterday we have been sailing upwind in 15/17 knots coming from the SE. The rain hasn’t stopped for more than 24 hours... Although the weather is becoming increasingly difficult, everything is fine on board Fermiers de Loué-Sarthe… »
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