Oceanracing 2009 - Transat Jaques Vabre 2009

Transat Jaques Vabre 2009
Le Havre - Costa Rica - www.jacques-vabre.com - Übersicht

23.11.2009
Press Release
The Safran monohull expected in Costa Rica tonight

Leading the race for eleven days, the duo of Guillemot - Caudrelier Benac are expected to finish in Costa Rica in the middle of the night (between midnight and 0300 hrs CET, according to the latest forecasts). Second in the last edition of the race, third in the last Vendée Globe, Safran is getting ready to grab first place on the podium.

There is thunder in the air, with lightning flashing across the tropical night sky above the big spinnaker, which is propelling Safran along towards Puerto Limon, although she is now “invisible”. Like Groupe Bel, the boat chasing after them, Marc and Charles have switched to stealth mode for this final stretch of the race. So there will be no positions for the two doing battle before they reach the finish, which means that the tension has increased a notch, with the trade wind changing. Surfing along as they did in the past few days at more than twenty knots where there is the permanent threat of damage now belongs to the past. Marc is tired, but he knows now that the hardest part is behind him. “We still have a few more gybes to go and the final 50 miles look like being rather sluggish, but the lead we currently have allows us to reindex composed. The lead over Groupe Bel could be cut, but we’re certainly not going to give anything away now.”

A great track
To be in with a chance of winning, you do not have simply to sail quickly but also in the right direction. This is a well-known principle in ocean racing, and Marc and Charles have applied it to the letter. Since they made their way out of the English Channel on Monday 9th November, Safran’s track has been perfectly smooth. There have been no hesitations, even in the heart of the storm that Safran had to brave. “We know that we have left a smooth trail in our wake. As not everything can be done by the two of us together, concerning the weather it was Charles, who did most of the work picking up and analysing the data”, explained Marc. “Then, we took decisions together. We always agreed about them.”

Safran pushed to her limit
In the lead since Thursday 12th November, or in other words for eleven days, Safran has not only shown the others the way, but has also set a cracking pace. Groupe Bel never managed to find any greater potential to catch them up. But perhaps the best measure to show this high speed pace is to look at Mike Golding’s 60-foot boat. After the storm, as they sailed north of the Azores, the British sailor was just thirty miles behind Safran. Now he is more than 300 miles behind. “With one or two exceptions, we always sailed with the maximum amount of sail. That requires a lot of energy. It really drained our reserves to carry out these manoeuvres and there were many of them. If we do manage to win, it will certainly feel good, as we really gave it our all throughout this race.”

No damage to report
A big spinnaker torn just before they passed through the Antilles, a indexsail that was slightly damaged in the worst moments of the storm... that is the only damage that Marc and Charles have to report. The boat itself did not experience any damage, even if she is known to be the lightest of the fleet of 60-foot IMOCA boats. With the finish coming up, she truly deserves her nickname of “the jet fighter”. Two years after she was launched, she is in the process of achieving her first major victory.