Thursday 20th May 2010 Morning
Who’s stolen Ireland?
Such has been the question on the lips of all those competing in the
Normandy Challenge Race, who have been forced to sail ‘blind’ since last
night in a thick pea-souper between the Tuskar Rock and Fastnet lighthouses.
This morning the 8 reindexing Class 40s are scattered between these two
course marks, tacking along the South coast of Ireland at low speed. It’s
proving to be a rather frustrating situation for the ‘sailor-voyagers’ who,
like Pierre-Yves Lautrou on "Groupe Partouche" have not even managed to get
a glimpse of the large Tuskar lighthouse in the paltry 50 metres of
visibility!
As forecast this zigzag course, which systematically involves
alternate tacks at 90 degrees to the route, is causing a compression in the
deficits. Indeed, though Thomas Ruyant and Tanguy Leglatin are this morning
indextaining a lead of nearly 25 miles in the provisional ranking as they
approach the Fastnet, the 7 other competitors are grouped within 81 miles.
Only seven because the English crew on ‘Spliff’, Andrew Dawson and Stephen
Card didn’t go round the Tuskar Rock mark. Sadly alternator problems forced
the crew to signal their retirement last night.
Meantime the race for second place is raging and there are three
protagonists vying for the supporting roles by performing a series of tack
changes on course towards the Fastnet, within a dozen miles of each other.
Halvard Mabire and Peter Harding were relishing their time in second
position this morning on "40 Degrees", but it may well be short-lived as
they tack away from the route once more. This may soon be to the benefit of
the sailors on "Moonpalace", Roelland Franssens and Michel Kleinjans, who
are enjoying the close contact racing.
Alerted last night of a reduction in
the course, like all the competitors, by Race Management and Sylvie Viant,
the two men expressed a willingness to make a stopover in an Irish pub.
Sadly for them, this shortened course only related to the removal of the
Sept îles passage near Brittany. As such the double-handed crews are now
being invited to round the Fastnet and then set a direct course for the
finish line in Caen. This won’t entail big savings in terms of miles, but it
will considerably open up the game of tactics amongst the crews, who are now
more motivated than ever to aim for the top spots. In desperate straits
yesterday after almost dismasting, Yvan Noblet and David Tabouré have
unquestionably pulled off the performance of the night as they are now just
10 miles astern of "Moonpalace"!
Night messages:
Halvard Mabire, (40 Degrees)
"...One thing that isn’t virtual right now is the capriciousness of the wind
gods. You really have to be constantly on the top of your game so, suffice
to say, I’m not getting a lot of sleep. Fortunately it would seem that the
older you get, the less sleep you need (at sea at least, on land it’s
debatable). It’s quite practical on a boat. It might be an idea for the
sponsors to remember that when they’re looking to back the ‘up-and-coming
youngsters’. In offshore racing success really comes down to keeping a good
watch rather than being the best racer. The Figaro race taught us that. It’s
hard to believe the losses you can incur from a moment of inattention or a
silly mistake, which takes just minutes to make but takes hours to make up
for. When you make gains they’re very, very small, but when you make losses
you really take a big hit. What’s amusing is the role of justice of the
peace that the position reports play. It’s like being back at school and
seeing the marks your teacher’s given you. Good, not good, could do
better... Or sometimes it bluntly says "would be better off concentrating
rather than looking out of the window" or worse still "irrelevant".
Pierre-Yves Lautrou, "Groupe Partouche"
"Holiday time is over... I’m writing this short message to you as we make
our way along the Irish coast, close-hauled in a pea-souper, with around ten
knots of breeze oscillating between 210 and 230. Wednesday was a relaxing
day on Groupe Partouche: 15hrs of downwind sailing, the boat nice and flat,
virtually slipping along on its own under spinnaker, with some long siestas
on the menu and a chance to eat away our deficit on the guys in front
throughout the day… It did us the world of good! Since then we managed to
round Tuskar Rock early in the evening, without getting a glimpse of it
because there was scarcely 50 m of visibility. We did hear its rather
sinister foghorn though. Personally, this is a bit of a pilgrimage for me
coming here: we left the Conningbeg light to starboard, a legendary mark for
the Mini-Transat qualifier – which dates back nearly 10 years ago for me...
As far as the rest of it is concerned, all’s well. We’re just waiting for
the fog to clear so we can admire the Emerald Isle ;-) We’ve also learnt
that, due to the removal of the Sept Iles course mark, we’ll have the
privilege of saying hello to the gatekeepers of Land's'End and Lizard Point
again...And close-hauled of course!"
Follow the Normandy Channel Race by visiting :
http://www.normandy-race.com/, an official
position report will be online each day at 5, 8, 11, 15 and 1900 hours
Rights free photos for the press and web by Jean-Marie Liot
www.jmliot.com
User name: media@ncr2010.com
Password: ncr2010
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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