The 40 IMOCAs will set sail from Le Havre on Tuesday morning. Once out of the English Channel, they will be heading for Fort de France leaving the Azores to starboard. The 3765 miles look like being rough and tactical until they reach the trade winds allowing them to speed towards Martinique.
Fives Group-Lantana Environnement will be the first to cast off at four in the morning (local time) on Tuesday. She will be followed by the 39 other IMOCAs all raring to set off into the Atlantic.
The boats will pass through the Eure Dock and the Bellot harbour basin in Le Havre before the gates open between 0445 hrs and 0630 hrs. They will then make their way out to sea to prepare for the start, which will be signalled in Seine Bay at 0930hrs local time. “The SW’ly wind is forecast to be around 15-20 knots with decent seas for the start and the passage around the Cherbourg Peninsula,” according to Christian Dumard, who has carried out lots of routing analysis over the past few days to establish the course for each of the classes with the Race Directors.
The 40 double-handed crews will not have long to settle into the race after the long wait last week following ten days in the Village in Le Havre. By the morning of Wednesday 8th November, with the final boats rounding the tip of Brittany, a front awaits them with 30 knots of wind, gusting to 35-40 knots. “They will be sailing in the same sort of winds they saw in the Fastnet,” said Christian Dumard. “The seas behind the front will not exceed 4m with a long period for the waves.”
STRATEGICALLY WIDE OPEN
The routing will probably take them via the North across the area of high pressure, which is splitting into two highs, so that they will be able to pick up a second low on Thursday and Friday. The 60-foot boats will be able to get behind the associated cold front to make headway south. The slower monohulls, and those who really want to look after their boat, may decide to go for a more cautious route to the south, but the weather option would take some IMOCAs a fair distance north. That is why the Race Directors have set up an intermediate course mark, the only one before Diamant Rock, at the island of Santa Maria, the most southerly island in the Azores, which the fleet will have to leave to starboard.
In any case, there will be a lot of strategic choices for the IMOCAs with quite a few options and routing choices, as soon as they leave the English Channel. They will face five or six days of upwind sailing or reaching to begin their race, before hoping to be able to sail downwind.
The ETA of the first boats in Martinique is estimated to be around 17th November.
REMINDER:
- Course for the second leg for the Ocean Fifty boats
Lorient-Fort de France: 4200 miles leaving the island of Sal (Cape Verde) to starboard.
The start is scheduled for 1030hrs local time off Talud Point in Lorient.
ETA: 18th November
- Course for the second leg for the Class40 boats:
Lorient-Fort de France: 3750 miles leaving the island of Madeira to starboard.
The start is scheduled for 1045hrs local time off Talud Point in Lorient.
ETA: 22nd November
