Jules Verne Trophy
ORANGE CODE ACTIVATED, A NEW START AT THE END OF 2020?
A month ago , the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was forced to turn around and interrupt its first record attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy after a collision that damaged the rudder and foil of the port float. This incident, which occurred relatively early in the waiting period established by Gitana’s team, heralded a new beginning as soon as the repairs had been made, but above all for a favorable weather window. The latter could appear from next Tuesday until Thursday, December 31 inclusive.
Orange is the new black …
After a long return to its base in Lorient dictated by unusual North Atlantic weather, the men of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild had entrusted the 32-meter behemoth to the expert hands of the technical team in early December. Shortly before the end of the year holidays, the last Gitana was ready for battle again thanks to the remarkable work and responsiveness of the team led by Cyril Dardashti. The only thing missing was the weather sequence that was expected to depart at the theoretical 21,760 nautical miles of the great planetary loop.
Since then, the meteorological unit made up of the two skippers, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, and their router Marcel van Triest, has been scanning the forecast files in the morning and at night to find this famous “window.” A possibility that could lead to a line crossing Ouessant between 29 and 31 December is currently being studied. Consequently, Gitana’s team will switch to code orange this Sunday!
The Dutch router, the true seventh man of the crew, deciphered for us the unusual situation in which the six sailors could leave on Tuesday; a window that is far from perfect, but is now attracting all the attention a few days before switching to 2021:
“It is not an extraordinary time interval as we expected at the beginning of the stand-by, but it is an interval that should be taken seriously because it offers decent lap times in the first third of the route. Currently, the weather is very harsh off the coast Brittany with storm Bella sweeping the Atlantic coasts and La Mancha. The wind will turn northwest and should weaken from tomorrow night. The state of the sea should also become more passable again. These harsh and excessively compromised conditions They are blocking any exit for the moment. But we will not have to walk too much because in the next few days if the models only see a depression forming in the west southwest of the Canary Islands, in the middle of the Atlantic, and its movement towards the African coasts could be completely broken the trade winds … »Staying alert, opportunistic and ready to go, these are the slogans of the Gitana team.
The six sailors of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and the team that accompanies them in their quest for the Jules Verne Trophy, will gather at the Lorient base of the team of the five arrows for a busy program. Between a weather briefing with Marcel van Triest, the PCR tests, the loading of the refueling and the preparation of personal effects, the start of the week will be on wheels, like the challenge that Franck prepares to face once again. Cammas, Charles Caudrelier, Yann Riou, Erwan Israël, Morgan Lagravière and David Boileau.
