31.07.2008
Franck-Yves Escoffier on his way to a great victory
Victory is definitely on its way now. Expected to reach the finish line for the seventh Transat Quebec-Saint Malo at around 19H30 GMT on Thursday 31st July, the 50-foot trimaran, Crêpes Whaou! is back in the English Channel and is bounding towards a marvellous victory after a little over 11 days of sailing. Having set out on 20th July, Franck-Yves Escoffier and his crew on board the most recent addition to the fleet of multihulls, have led the race since the first day, continually increasing their lead with a comfortable gap of more than 500 nautical miles separating them from their nearest rivals. A leading figure in the race, the yachtsman from Saint-Malo is getting ready to repeat his success from 2004 with a crew on this West to East Atlantic crossing. Already triple winner of the Route du Rhum (1998, 2002 and 2006), twice winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre (2005 and 2007), as the deep sea fisherman passes under the ramparts in Saint-Malo, he is going to add another line to his
list of achievements, which is the fullest for this category of boat…
The only potential problem is the unreliable weather, which may delay the arrival of Crêpes Whaou! at the finish line off the Noires harbour wall in Saint-Malo by a few hours. In a westerly wind strengthening to force 4-5 late this afternoon, there is the risk of it easing off again early this evening on the Northern coast of Brittany, thus making the time of arrival difficult to estimate…
Franck-Yves Escoffier contacted by phone at 14h GMT:
ĢIt’s been a great day: rain and winds that have been very unstable. We’re currently off the Seven Islands, 65 miles from Saint Malo and the current is still helping us. We’re making 15 knots headway. We shall see whether the wind continues to blow. It could continue until la Horaine and then we will have to fight against it. We don’t really know what it’s going to be like going across Saint Brieuc Bay: the crossing could last 2h30 or 6 hours. It would only take a few squalls to pick up the speed again and sail above 20 knots. We’re doing our utmost to finish as soon as possible. The latest estimations based on the wind strength give us a finish at around 19H30-20H GMT in Saint-Malo… ģ
In the wake of Crêpes Whaou!…
While Crêpes Whaou! is on her way to almost certain victory, the race is on again in her wake. The low-pressure forced both the 50-foot multihulls and the 40-foot monohulls to ease off, but today the crews have stepped up the speed and are trying to gain a few miles over their rivals.
In the multihulls, Pierre Antoine on board the Imagine trimaran can boast a good average of 15 knots over the past few hours, which just shows how keen he is to grab second place. But there is no stopping Hervé de Cléris on Prince de Bretagne just yet: less than 60 miles behind, he swears he will not give up. The race is well and truly on between these two trimarans…
Hervé Cléris, Prince de Bretagne: "For the past 24 hours, we’ve had a bit of everything. We were a bit worried about the arrival of a cold front, which did bring very rough conditions with 45-knot winds and huge, dangerous seas for a fifty-foot multihull. Consequently, we brought everything back down except the staysail and we filled the ballast, then watched the waves to avoid hitting them side on. There was one particularly tricky hour, but we got through it quite well. Yesterday afternoon, things started to improve and we took it in turns at the helm to get the most out of the boat. During the night however, the automatic pilot coped pretty well. Since this morning, we have been hoisting sails and we’re making good headway. The aim now is to find the best possible angle to the wind, taking into account that we are in the same system as Imagine. It’s going to be very close."
There is a similar scenario in the Class 40 category, where the contenders are continuing to stoke up their machines averaging a fine 13 knots. At the front, the duel between Mistral Loisirs (Oliver Krauss) currently in the lead and Pogo Structures (Halvard Mabire) is getting increasingly exciting with fewer than 800 miles to go to the finish. The latter is going all out in chasing the leader. Now only four miles separate them! Time for some tactical choices with some important strategic options coming up, promising an exciting situation where anything could happen.
Everything is to play for and the suspense is building for the four leading crews, those on Mistral Loisirs, Pogo Structures followed some fifty miles back by the pair of Telecom Italia (Giovanni Soldini) and Novedia Group (Tanguy De Lamotte).
Halvard Mabire (Pogo Structures): ĢIt’s certainly no worse and you could say things are better now. After the cold front went over yesterday, things are gradually sorting themselves out: the wind has eased off a bit and the sea is calmer. We’re back in race conditions and are no longer in survival mode. We’re hard at it trying to catch Mistral Loisirs, who appears to be having a great race. Oliver is not a newcomer and has not made the slightest mistake until now. I can’t see why he would make one now either! The same goes for Giovanni Soldini. We shouldn’t rule him out too soon. That is also true of Novedia Group, who has already shown us that she can fly like a rocket! The conditions in the English Channel look like being rather special with some spring tides. I shan’t give away our strategy, but we’re going to have to juggle between the long term to get in the right position and the medium and short term to take advantage of the changes
in the direction of the wind. It looks like being a highly exciting end to the race…
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