La Route du Rhum - La Banque Postale http://www.routedurhum.com
Press Release
Thursday 11 november
Lining up for the French West Indies
With 500 miles to go to the finish, Marc Guillemot and his fellow
competitors are having to work flat out once again to deal with winds that
are very variable in direction and strength. There are still no trade winds
established down here and it is in a southerly breeze that Safran is having
to sail by tacking upwind to make her way to Guadeloupe.
Since the tropical depression Tomas formed to the north of Haiti, the
sailing conditions in the whole of this south western corner of the North
Atlantic have been particularly difficult to interpret: winds that fade
away, breezes that suddenly swing around, choppy seas appearing out of
nowhere, heavy rainfall and then blazing sunshine, unexpected gusts… In
short, the solo sailors in this Route du Rhum-La Banque Postale are really
being put through the wringer. After eleven days of sailing, the body is
starting to get tired, particularly seeing the sailors are unable to get any
sleep because of the rapidly changing conditions with alternating calms and
breezes.
Weather charts and reality
“The weather charts are not that clear. They can’t agree between the
American and European models and they don’t reflect what is going on out
here on the water: So it’s certainly no easy matter trying to work out how
to tackle the last few miles… The wind I have right now, is what I was
expecting in two hours time. At one point during the night, the wind got up
and I was sailing along at more than twelve knots, but an hour later, there
was not a breath of air. It’s hard, as you have to switch between Code 0 and
genoa, then back to Code 0 before hoisting the genoa again. I’m not worrying
about what my rivals are up to. They are where they are. I’m just trying to
get to the French West Indies as quickly as I can. It’s tricky managing
things on the boat and very demanding at the moment, and that was
particularly true last night. At the moment, there is a south-easterly, but
the further Safran goes towards the Caribbean, the more the breeze will come
from the right as it veers south-westerly. So we’re in for some upwind
sailing, then we will change tack and finish upwind on the starboard tack.
Everything is really unpredictable with this easterly pattern, which is
shutting off the normal trade wind flow,” explained Marc Guillemot at 9.30
a.m. this morning.
Coming ashore this weekend
Guadeloupe is still some way off. The trajectories taken by the six
competitors in the north show that nothing has settled down with a wind
fluctuating from the south-east to the south-west. Each sailor is trying to
get out of these areas of calm. The two frontrunners Roland Jourdain (Veolia
Environnement) and Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air), as well as Marc Guillemot on
Safran, are trying to do this by going for an option towards the south west.
Others like Vincent Riou (PRB), Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3) and
Christopher Pratt (DCNS) are attempting to take a short cut, by increasing
the number of manoeuvres. Who will be right, who will be wrong? That we
cannot say for now, as the weather forecasts are not accurate enough for us
to look two days ahead.
“Physically, I’m feeling fine, even if I have missed out on some sleep. But
now is not the time to take it easy as the sails need trimming and we need
to make adjustments with each variation. It is still not that warm: it even
rained during the night and when it’s cloudy, the temperature falls right
off… It’s difficult to say when we will reach Guadeloupe, maybe on Saturday.
The two frontrunners are starting to get some way ahead and it’s going to be
tough to catch them in these wind conditions. But we’ve already got a great
battle going on with Vincent Riou and Jean-Pierre Dick!”
Huge calms over the French West Indies
While Safran and the other IMOCA monohulls in the north were benefiting from
a moderate southerly breeze on Thursday, that is all down to an area of
lower pressure moving off north eastwards and filling. But behind that,
there are more light headwinds coming up, unless they move off to the west
and pass through the Caribbean islands hoping to pick up a light westerly
air stream. It would certainly be unusual for the competitors to finish this
race by coming down from the north-west via the Caribbean.
Rankings at 4 a.m. on 11th November 2010:
1- Roland Jourdain 342 miles from the finish
2- Armel Le Cléac’h 76 miles from the leader
3- Jean-Pierre Dick 130 miles from the leader
4- Marc Guillemot (Safran) 169 miles from the leader
5- Vincent Riou 184 miles from the leader
6- Christopher Pratt 289 miles from the leader
7- Michel Desjoyeaux 581 miles from the leader
8- Arnaud Boissières 636 miles from the leader
Retired- Kito de Pavant
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