21.11.2008
Stamm reduces his deficit
During the past four days of racing, Cheminées Poujoulat has continued to
make gains on all her rivals, making the score more even along with Foncia
helmed by Michel Desjoyeaux. Bernard Stamm isn’t boasting though, far from
it in fact. Instead he is awaiting his own passage across the equator before
he makes his assessment.
A few figures
Since 16th November, Cheminées Poujoulat has been dropping southward,
relentlessly clawing back the miles on his closest rivals, as well as the
head of the fleet. As such, at the 1100 hour ranking this morning, Stamm was
just 120 miles astern of the next boat, skippered by Norbert Sedlacek, which
means he has made up 468 miles on him in the past four days. He was 654
miles behind Foncia, it too the author of a fabulous comeback, but Cheminées
Poujoulat has covered 83 more miles. With these boats not yet slowed by the
Doldrums, they have made significant progress. As regards the head of the
race, Gitana Eighty is 927.8 miles ahead of Poujoulat, which means Bernard
has made up 475 miles on the leader.
Luck of the draw with the weather
Bernard Stamm errs on the side of caution when you refer to these figures.
“It’s a real shame I tripped up on leaving Les Sables, because the boat’s
going well, that’s for sure. Today, to stand a chance of getting back with
the fleet, my index hope is that the weather conditions will favour me. You
have to be a bit careful as regards analysing the reduced deficits. We can
only really assess the gains and maybe the losses once I’ve got through the
Doldrums. We’ll be able to get a better picture of the situation once we’ve
crossed the equator”.
For the time being, Cheminées Poujoulat is preparing to round the Cape Verde
islands, which should be astern of her tonight. After this it will be time
for the Doldrums, which haven’t been overly disadvantageous for the
frontrunners. What will it be like for Bernard? It’s still too early to tell
what conditions he’ll have to deal with, but Stamm is clearly keeping a
close eye on the grib files. Beyond what is rather an unpopular zone amongst
sailors, Bernard is interested in the Saint Helena High. “There may be a few
options on that side…”
With the wind on the beam, Cheminées Poujoulat is powering along at 14
knots; “I’m getting the boat making headway, without being subjected to the
pressure of close contact racing”.
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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