As they race northwards towards the finish line off Martinique where the Transat Jacques Vabre ULTIM race winner is expected around 0100hrs UTC Monday morning, (2000hrs late evening local time on the French Caribbean island) the speed advantage seems to still be with Armel Le Cléac’h and Seb Josse on Maxi Banque Populaire XI.
They have nearly doubled their lead over François Gabart and Tom Laperche on SVR Lazartigue since yesterday morning and now have about 120 nautical miles in hand with just under 1200 miles to finish. Both crossed the Equator last night and are racing downwind on a trade wind corridor between the exclusion zone along the South American coasts and the Doldrums.
IMOCA: two go it alone out to the West
West or South? Prepare for a tough battle or enjoy the sunshine route? Since the start, the question has been on the minds of the skippers, who all agree that it is not an easy decision. However, this morning two duos have broken away on a more direct route to the West, while the majority prefer to stick with the Southerly route. That includes yesterday’s leaders, Jéremie Beyou and Franck Cammas on Charal and Yoann Richomme and Yann Eliès on Paprec Arkéa among others.
Those two boats are neck and neck, but already 110 miles ‘behind’ the crews that have opted for the West, teamwork.net being sailed by Justine Mettraux and Julien Villionand Groupe Dubreuil, Sébastien Simon and Spain’s Iker Martinez who are of course sailing the more direct route. In the former Charal and 11thHour Racing respectively they have reliable boats which are well proven.
“We’re 350 miles East of the Azores, on the Santa Maria side. There was a magnificent sunrise, which changes the atmosphere. Out to the East there are blue skies, while ahead it’s a bit cloudy. We’re entering a more disturbed area,” Julien Villion explained this morning. He has opened up this western route, knowing that it will mean sailing upwind in conditions associated with low-pressure systems. “It took a lot of thinking about. It’s surprising there are only two of us doing this. We looked at both routes, but there was no reason not to take this one. No route is ever easy. Sailing downwind in very light conditions isn’t easy either.” He is sailing faster upwind than his southern rivals who have found themselves downwind in light airs.
Sébastien Simon aboard Groupe Dubreuil,has made a similar decision. “All the competitors have been watching each other for the past few days, and the routing to the West has been the winner. There is a low-pressure system that is stifling the trade winds and our position off further West than the others meant it was hard to cross the high-pressure area, so we are sticking with our position. We have been talking about running into the high for several days and having to make a choice. If we had gone for the South, we would have had a lot of manoeuvres to do. It would also have meant passing behind the competitors, so we decided to stay with our option,” explained Iker Martinez’s co-skipper, who believes we are going to have to wait for four days to judge the value of the options. Such radically different routes mean that the gap from East to West in the fleet could reach 1000 miles, according to the Race’s weather expert, Christian Dumard.
The die is cast for the two leading boats who have gone for the option away from the rest of the fleet, but they may still be joined by others on this route, which is shorter, but bumpier, in particular the small group of boats with daggerboards: Five Group -Lantana Environnement, Freelance.com, Monnoyeur Duo For a Job who have not had their final say. That decision will likely be taken in the coming hours.
CLASS40: the Madeira gang
As for the smaller monohulls, they are to the SW of Madeira. The battle involves positioning, with the leader, Amarris off to the North and West with the rivals in the South off to the East: Alla Grande Pirelli, IBSA, Groupe SNEF… Then, there are those who have chosen the middle way: Café Joyeux, Crédit Mutuel, Project Ressue Océan.
“It was a complicated night with the wind all over the place, black clouds. We couldn’t see the sky. We’re trying to find out way to pass the Canaries and head to the SW to get more stable trade winds. We are where we want to be,” explained Gildas Mahé this morning. However, the wind is taking its time to veer to allow them to sail further west. “We’re waiting for the wind to come from further to the right, but it’s taking it’s time. We should be able to benefit from the wind veering, but it hasn’t happened yet. The weather is complicated. We’re still in front in terms of distance to the finish, so it’s not disastrous for us. The spinnaker is flapping with each wave, as there is a residual swell. We’re sailing downwind at 16 knots under full mainsail and big spinnaker,” added Achille Nebout’s co-skipper, who feels the coming hours are going to be crucial for the outcome of the race.
Ocean Fifty: Full steam ahead to Cape Verde
Further south in the trade winds, the Ocean Fifty multihulls are sailing in conditions that the co-skippers appreciate. The pair on Réalités are not hiding their pleasure at chasing after Solidaires en Peloton on their way to Martinique. Ayméric Chapellier: “Conditions are fine with between 15 and 20 knots of wind. We reach peak speeds of 30 knots and are averaging 22-24 knots. We’re pleased above all to be racing, seeing what has happened since the start. Late today, we should point towards Martinique, which is good news, while Thibaut and Quentin have really pushed their boat hard, as they know her perfectly, so they made their getaway. It’s hard to try to catch them, but we’re keeping at it. When we gybe at the way-point we will head up North a bit to get some more wind, but with the wind directly astern, we’ll have lots of gybes to do. We know too that in the trade winds, there are squalls and lots of manoeuvres. The seas are calm today, which means we can get the speed up to 22-24 knots, as the boat isn’t slamming too much. The wind is set to drop off and we should pass the island in the middle of the night.”
Morning vacs in full
IMOCA Sébastien SIMON (GROUPE DUBREUIL): “We hesitated about whether to take this option to the West. All the competitors have been watching each other for the past few days, and the routing to the West has been the winner. There is a low-pressure system that is stifling the trade winds and our position off further West than the others meant it was hard to cross the high-pressure area, so we are sticking with our position. We have been talking about running into the high for several days and having to make a choice. If we had gone for the South, we would have had a lot of manoeuvres to do. It would also have meant passing behind the competitors, so we decided to stay with our option. We’re giving it a go, but we might lose. We tried to find an intermediate route, but the routing suggests we should get through. It doesn’t look too chaotic. It is closer to the direct route and therefore favourable, because it is shorter. We’ll find out in 4 days if it was a good option or not.”
IMOCA Julien Villion (TEAMWORK.NET): “We have headed West. Not the most direct route, which would have been further North. It took a lot of thinking about. It’s surprising there are only two of us doing this, but that’s fine with us. We looked at both routes, but there was no reason not to take this one. We’ll be in a SW’ly wind going up and down between 15 to over 20 knots. It’s under the influence of the High, but on the other side, we’ll pick up another system to allow us to speed towards the French West Indies. No route is ever easy. Sailing downwind in very light conditions isn’t easy either. We’re 350 miles East of the Azores. There was a magnificent sunrise, which changes the atmosphere. Out to the East there are blue skies, while ahead it’s a bit cloudy.”
Class 40, Gildas Mahé (AMARRIS): “It was a complicated night with the wind all over the place, black clouds. We couldn’t see the sky. We’re trying to find out way to pass the Canaries and head to the SW to get more stable trade winds. We are where we want to be. Those behind us made a lot of gains during the night, but later, they will find it harder. We’re waiting for the wind to come from further to the right, but it’s taking it’s time. We should be able to benefit from the wind veering, but it hasn’t happened yet. The weather is complicated. We’re still in front in terms of distance to the finish, so it’s not disastrous for us. The spinnaker is flapping with each wave, as there is a residual swell. We’re sailing downwind at 16 knots under full mainsail and big spinnaker.”
Class 40, Aymeric Chappellier (Réalités): “Conditions are fine with between 15 and 20 knots of wind. We reach peak speeds of 30 knots and are averaging 22-24 knots. We’re pleased above all to be racing, seeing what has happened since the start. Late today, we should point towards Martinique, which is good news. Thibaut and Quentin have really pushed their boat hard, as they know her perfectly, so they made their getaway. It’s hard to try to catch them, but we’re keeping at it. Viabilis is just behind us, which is exciting. We’re pleased about that. The trade wind is not very steady towards the North. When we gybe at the way-point we will head up North a bit to get some more wind, but with the wind directly astern, we’ll have lots of gybes to do. We know too that in the trade winds, there are squalls and lots of manoeuvres. The seas are calm today, which means we can get the speed up to 22-24 knots, as the boat isn’t slamming too much. The wind is set to drop off and we should pass the island in the middle of the night.”
Class 40, Brian Thompson, T’quila, “It has warmed up here. It is cloudy. We are very firmly downwind now with the A2 big spinnaker up with full main and staysail which is hopefully a set up for while. It was a tactical night last night which is good as we have caught up with some boats. I think the tracker shows us sixth or something but that is an illusion as we are still with our group between 10th and 14th. We are in the Goldilocks zone now – not too hot and not too cold. We are looking forwards to some clear skies coming up and then probably tomorrow afternoon we will see the Canary Islands and then at night going between some of them to get the acceleration that you get between the big mountains on the islands.”
IMOCA Alan Roberts (L’Occitaine en Provence): “The big decision was north or south. We have to leave the Azores to starboard, the optimal route was then tacking up and searching for the low pressure system and really attacking the windshift. That would mean more violent conditions upwind to the end before we could dive down south, We decided to stay south for the trade winds which should be a more constant wind all the way across. One driver for us has been safety for the boat, the upwind conditions as we saw coming out of the Channel are brutal for the boat as we saw the number of boats dropping out. And the main thing is miles for Clarisse and doing the race back, the Return to the Base race. So that is our reason for our option and we are happy to see most of the fleet making the sensible decision with us.”
Class 40, Ambrogio Beccaria (Alla Grande PIRELLI): “Yesterday was champagne sailing, as Nico says. It’s a pity we saw our position to the south become a nightmare. We kept losing miles and it was slow. Now, we have the trade winds, it’s warm and the sea is calm. The spinnaker is finally up. To relieve the pain of losing so many miles, we got out the pressure cooker and I did some pasta, red beans, garlic and anchovies. Fortunately we don’t have any dates with a lady, but it was good. The boat is doing well. We took advantage of the calm to do a few odd jobs. We had a leak in a tube from the ballast tank. A pulley lashing was about to break, but we caught it in time. Nico has the challenge of repairing the rope locker. We’ll see how it goes.”
