Friday 21st May 2010 Morning
Upwind towards the Scillies
With the exception of Novedia Initiatives (De Lamotte-Galfione) and Groupe
Partouche (Coatnoan-Lautrou) battling it out side by side on their way to
the Fastnet lighthouse, the other 6 competitors in the Normandy Channel Race
are making for the Scilly Isles, a string of rocks scattered about the
South-West tip of England. To the great delight of these sailors, the fog,
which has been tenaciously clinging onto them for the past three days, is
gradually dissipating the further South the Class 40s sail. However, little
else has changed and they’re still canted over against the wind as they make
headway towards the English Channel and Normandy.
"Destination Dunkerque" skippered by Thomas Ruyant-Tanguy Leglatin is
continuing what can only be described as a faultless race, admirably
optimising their course. No pointless tacks for Tom and Tang then, who are
just 300 miles from the finish this morning. Last night’s SE’ly breeze is
likely to ease as day breaks and shift further round to the East. As such
the ETAs don’t see the fleet crossing the line in Hermanville sur Mer before
Sunday morning. In the wake of these solid leaders, the Dutch-Belgian duo
Roelland Frannssens-Michel Kleinjans (Moonpalace) were still battling it out
for second place with Halvard Mabire and Peter Harding yesterday. However,
since then the two boats have split apart with a massive 20 mile lead going
to “40 Degrees”. "Moonpalace” must now keep an eye on what’s going on around
her and in particular the ‘miraculous’ performance by "Appart City"
skippered by Yvon Noblet and David Taboré, which we can recall came close to
dismasting two days ago and has since been sailing with a patched-up rig.
Night message from Halvard Mabire, co- skipper to Peter Harding in the Class
40 “40 Degrees”, currently second in the Normandy Channel Race:
"We can’t really say that we saw a lot of Ireland! The Fastnet? We barely
saw the base of the rock when we went round it. We didn’t even see the base
of the lighthouse. Nothing. You have to wonder a little about how, long ago,
you could have managed to sail this course, almost constantly skimming past
the rocks without ever seeing them. However the GPS doesn’t date back that
long ago. It became fairly commonplace in the early nineties. In 91 we began
to have them on the Figaro, which shook things up a bit. ‘Long ago’, which
does seems a long time ago now (it has to be said that it was during the
last century, in the period of black and white and silent films!), even
before you knew where you were going, you already had to know where you
were. Today we know perfectly well where we are, even if we can’t see a
thing! When you think about it it’s funny to know exactly where you are on a
map, or on a computer screen, whilst in fact you’re nowhere because you
can’t see anything! Where does the reality end and the virtual begin? What’s
staggering is the speed at which things become part of everyday life on a
cultural level. Today nobody wonders about the very recent problems of
positioning because we’re surrounded by GPS systems, which are constantly
telling us not just where we are, but can also track anything or anyone.
Anybody can position any object or any person on a map, without even knowing
which way is North, or without having the slightest idea about basic
orientation in relation to the sun. Once the great mystery of positioning is
no longer there, it becomes more difficult to do something sensational.
Everyone remembers Tabarly looming up out of the fog in Newport to take
victory in the Transat in ‘76. Probably an element of the media success of
this victory stemmed from the fact that it was unexpected and that it came
out of the fog like a divine apparition.
Now you all know where we are and the ranking, which is constantly
displayed, no longer allows you to fill pages with suppositions and
forecasts. I’m under the impression that everyone wonders a bit about what
they’re going to be able to talk about. That’s why they ask us if we have a
‘strategy’. At the risk of disappointing a lot of people, I can tell you
that strategy, that’s to say deciding in advance what you’re going to do, is
a load of hot air for boats like the Class40s. Solely the big multihulls
vying for transoceanic records can really play with the weather, otherwise,
as a general rule, it’s the weather that plays around with the boats. We
find ourselves in a particular place at a particular time and there are not
really any choices to be made. Or rather, if you can choose, it comes down
to trying not to do something silly or avoiding doing something you mustn’t
do on any account and that’s how you ‘give up’ up places to others. When
you’re making virtually no headway at all, you can’t ‘traverse’ the race
zone to hunt down a miracle. That’s why you notice that more and more the
“fleet is right” (which is par for the course with the rising standards) and
that ultimately the winner has rarely strayed far from the most direct
course. The positioning of the race boats really comes down to a series of
reactions in relation to an instantaneous situation, rather than a strategy
decided in advance. All that to say, on 40 Degrees the strategy is not to
have one and instead it’s all about adapting as best you can to the
situations which present themselves."
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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