Skipper-Portrait
2.Video v. B.Stamm 12.11.08
15.11.2008
Another race
Cheminées Poujoulat has rounded Cape Finisterre, the first symbolic mark in
the Vendée Globe, beyond which point Bernard Stamm admitted he would finally
feel like he ‘was at sea’. It’s been a done deal since this morning, but at
what price? Alone at sea, Stamm will have to find another motivation now.
To escape the Bay of Biscay, Bernard Stamm opted to sail as close as
possible to the coast of Galicia, thus benefiting from some accelerations in
the wind off Cape Finisterre. Behind it, was a buffer zone which proved
impossible to avoid. Philosophical or fatalistic, Bernard Stamm talks of
light airs. Cheminées Poujoulat is making 8/ 10 knots of headway full and by
in little wind; the seas are flat, the sky is blue and Bernard is dealing
well with his earlier misfortune. And he is going to need to reindex strong
so as he can continue to battle against adversity. Yesterday, whilst his
rivals were slipping along towards Cape Verde with an average speed of 20
knots, Cheminées Poujoulat has had to put up with a zone of high pressure in
the Bay of Biscay since setting out from Les Sables a second time.
“Things haven’t gone as planned, but that’s just how it is. I’m going to
continue to make headway as best I can, snapping up any opportunities as
they arise. Obviously this isn’t the kind of race I wanted to sail; I don’t
have the same conditions as the others so it’s another race. All I can do at
the moment is to try to make headway as quickly as possible, without even a
thought to catching up with the others. The road ahead is a long one, so
we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out. For now I’m focussing
solely on Cheminées Poujoulat’s speed”.
Prior to the start of the Vendée Globe, Bernard Stamm said that the fact
that he’d done three circumnavigations of the globe didn’t mean that he knew
the course. He only knew how things could occur. And as if to prove him
right, the last time he lined up with Cheminées Poujoulat at Cape
Finisterre, it was the start of the Velux 5 Oceans, two years ago. There was
60 to 70 knots of wind and, along with the Japanese skipper on Spirit of
Yukoh, they were the only ones to make it round without suffering damage.
This time it’s in very light conditions that Bernard Stamm is distancing
himself from the Spanish headland.
At 1100 hours Cheminées Poujoulat was 1,270 miles behind Loïck Peyron,
leader of the Vendée Globe for the past three days. He is also 500 miles
astern of Norbert Sedlacek, at the tail of the fleet, whilst Michel
Desjoyeaux had a 600 mile lead over Bernard Stamm.
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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