Saturday, November 09, 2013
News Flash:
Damage to Multi 50 Maitre Jacques
heading for La Coruna
The Multi 50 Maitre Jacques which was challenging for the lead of the Multi 50 class of the Transat Jacques Vabre double handed race from Le Havre to Itajaí, Brasil is making for La Coruna, NW Spain after the two co-skippers Loïc Fequet and Loïc Escoffier suddenly realised they had sustained damage to the front of their trimaran’s starboard float. It was around 13:30 UTC early this Saturday afternoon when they were sailing in big seas at speeds of between 20 and 28 knots on starboard tack in 25 knot winds and 4-5 meter waves, when the French duo suddenly heard two cracks and realised that the front section of the their trimaran’s starboard float was damaged.
Together both skippers immediately dropped the indexsail and are currently only under ORC (a small headsail). The two sailors did not set off their Sarsat beacon or request help and are on course for La Coruna which was 130 miles to their SE where they should reach early tomorrow morning (Sunday)
Loïc Fequet skipper, Maitre Jacques, joined by radio this afternoon reported:
"We were making between 20 and 28 knots at 30 degrees to the wind . We heard a loud crack followed by a second and immediately saw that the starboard float was damaged, between its front and the crossbeam. There were 4-5 meter waves. We are on the way to La Coruna. It stops at the crossbeam which is the most reinforced part but it moves a bit in the waves bit it is not getting worse at the moment. No one is hurt, the boat, well we will see. We are very disappointed, but the index thing is no one is hurt. Last night was hard but we took gusts of 40kts and big seas. There was no particular shock, but the boat is from 2005.”
Biscay: Breaking Away and Breaking Back
Taking an option to get through a front in the early hours of this morning seems to have given the Vendée Globe winning duo Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart on MACIF the chance to extend their lead in the IMOCA Open 60 fleet on the Transat Jacques Vabre during the third afternoon of racing, since leaving Le Havre on Thursday.
Gabart and Desjoyeaux, widely held to be pre race favourites, were quickest through much of a difficult Friday night and Saturday to build their margin out to 52 miles. And on the 1000hrs UTC position report this morning MACIF was sailing more directly towards the south with a noticeable speed edge over second placed PRB (Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam) with Cheminées Poujoulat (Bernard Stamm and Philippe Legros) holding third at just less than four miles behind.
While the MOD70 duo are entering much more favourable conditions, having tacked around Cape Finisterre this morning, relishing the prospect of getting south into the NE’ly Portuguese trade winds to reach at speeds more normal for the high speed 70 foot multihulls, it was the Multi 50s and the IMOCAs which will bear the brunt of the Biscay gale and big seas. But while the MOD70’s escaped the worst of it, Oman Air-Musandam’s skipper Sidney Gavignet still reported that the combination of confused sea conditions and gusty, squally winds added up to some of the worst conditions that he had yet encountered with Oman Air-Musandam.
“The night was really hard; there was a huge seaway so we tried to protect ourselves by hugging the coastline, finally reducing sail to the third reef and the code three jib (the small headsail). The boat was literally taking off and we were not going very fast.” Gavignet said,
“It is very hard to get any sleep; being so close to the coast, the one that is not helming is navigating. We have hardly slept at all. We are tired, but as soon as we get past the Cape, things will improve quite quickly. We will be doing a straight line south and we will be able to get some rest. Our immediate goal is to win back the eight nautical miles that we lost to Edmond de Rothschild overnight. At the moment, we can’t see them; they must be about 10nms ahead of us.”
The poor conditions will last until Sunday for the Multi50s and IMOCA Open 60s as this deep low pressure which has emanated from Newfoundland and is tracking quickly makes life very testing for the Multi50s especially. This is exacerbated by the wind shifts between SW and W with more than 30kts average and much more in the gusts, the crossed seas make it very bouncy and unpleasant for the multihulls. ?
In the Multi 50 Class it is still Actual (Yves Le Blevec and Kito de Pavant) which holds the overall lead but Maitre Jacques (Loic Fequet and Loic Escoffier) have worked up to second place, some nine miles behind the leaders who won the class in 2011. Key for the Multi 50’s has been their trajectory and timing to deal with the front at the most favourable point, avoiding the worst of the winds and seas.
After their enforced weather halt in Roscoff last night and today the 26 boat Class 40 fleet will restart from 0300hrs early tomorrow morning. Starting in the order of finishing into the Breton haven, GDF SUEZ (Sébastien Rogues and Fabien Delahaye) start just under 20 minutes ahead of the Spanish pair Alex Pella and Pablo Santurde on Tales Santander 2014. They will head into strong NW’ly winds initially with over 30-35kts to start with.
“Across Biscay we will be mostly upwind on starboard in about 20kts of wind but at the start and out to Ushant it looks like it will be windy with big seas, 30+ knots for sure then it will begin to drop away.” Brian Thompson, skipper of Caterham Challenge explained in Roscoff today, “ To start with we will have winds north of NW and so we should be reasonably fast and able to punch through. The race is to get out through the front which is kind of stalled at the moment. The longer it takes you to get through it the lighter the winds will be to the east of it, and so there is a rich get richer scenario, or a bit a of a double whammy for the later starters if you like.”
They said:
Mike Gascoyne, co-skipper Caterham Challenge:
“We were reasonsably happy with the first leg but got some fishing net, perspex and weed around the keel which Brian had to dive to get it off about two hours before we got into Roscoff, so we kind of reckon that cost us two or three boats, but whatever we were happy with the way we sailed the boat. For most of the time we were with the fast pack, so we were happy. It’s just a shame the first leg was not about 5200 miles longer.”
Brian Thompson, skipper, Caterham Challenge:
?“Across Biscay we will be mostly upwind on starboard in about 20kts of wind but at the start and out to Ushant it looks like it will be windy with big seas, 30+ knots for sure then it will begin to drop away. To start with we will have winds north of NW and so we should be reasonably fast and able to punch through. The race is to get out through the front which is kind of stalled at the moment. The longer it takes you to get through it the lighter the winds will be to the east of it, and so there is a rich get richer scenario, or a bit a of a double whammy for the later starters if you like.
We have about six boats all starting within around 15 minutes of us and in all I think we will be in a ten boat pack or something like that, so it is great, really close racing, we are back in full sprint mode.”
See positions
http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/fr/classement
Follow the race:
Internet
Live tracking updated every 30 minutes.
Race Tracker URL: http://tracking.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/
Positions will be updated every 3 hours: 0400hrs / 0700hrs / 1000hrs / 1300hrs / 1600hrs / 1900hrs GMT
Sabina Mollart-Rogerson
International Press
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