JULES VERNE TROPHY.
THE WINDOW CLOSES, RETURNS TO STANDBY MODE
Yesterday at noon, at the end of the weather talk with their router Marcel van Triest, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier knew that their chances of leaving in the next few hours to attack the Jules Verne Trophy were slim, if not minimal: We estimate that there is a 5 % probability of departure tomorrow, but from one file to another this percentage can double or completely collapse, so you have to try and allow yourself a few more hours to decide, “he explained. the sailor of Aixois. Unfortunately, the patience of the six Maxi Edmond de Rothschild crew and the entire team that supports them has not been rewarded; At least this time! Because if the period spent waiting in search of the mythical record is seriously underway,
None of the three criteria met
The six sailors of the flying maxi-trimaran would have perfectly seen the last page at sea this year 2020. But it will be different! The narrow window foreseen for a few days now represents too many areas of uncertainty for little profit, that is to say intermediate lap times too far from the goals set by the team.
“Yesterday at noon, the odds were very low but they still exist. We knew the North Atlantic was not going to get any better, but we could always hope that the South would pay off. The latest weather forecast files that we have at our disposal have not shown no noticeable improvement. The crossing times at the equator are much longer than we intend: from 5 days 18 hours to 6 days 10 hours compared to 4 days 15 hours, which we could legitimately target with a good window. Especially since Despite this unattractive climate, the road to get there seems difficult to us with a predominantly coastal route and full of obstacles due to the chains of islands to negotiate. And now it is added to this that in the South, the transition we must make to arrive quickly to southern latitudes no longer seems safe. There is too much randomness and too little certainties to attempt the story in this window. These round trips are part of the record game … “Put Maxi Edmond de Rothschild’s co-skipper in perspective, although he was naturally disappointed to have to stay on the dock for a few more days.
Do not miss your opportunities
The discussions were provided because the stakes are high, but the decision was unanimous! “We may have more ambition than this window offered us. It is never an easy decision to return to the waiting state, but we must not spoil our chances of breaking this record by wanting to leave at a bad time. We are all looking forward to getting out there and expressing ourselves on this course, which is what makes the wait quite long… And the weather is not the most pleasant this year. From the beginning we have had to deal with a rather unusual North Atlantic for the season. There are depressions that descend very far south, heading towards the Azores and west of the Canary Islands.
At this stage of their wait at the Jules Verne Trophy, the men of Gitana 17 must be particularly vigilant and not confuse speed and haste … This proverb acquires its full meaning today, as explained by Charles Caudrelier: “The end of stand-by, we cannot afford to do a test drive, it has to be correct! “
