Pro Sailing Tour

The Ocean Fifty already fly around Gran Canaria

The Pro Sailing Tour fleet starts the 24 Hours Challenge

The third episode of the Pro Sailing Tour began this morning with the start of the 24 Hours Challenge, a tour that will take the oceanic trimarans Ocean Fifty to circumnavigate Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura. The teams will have to negotiate a complete menu of conditions, with sections of hard wind and moments of calming down that will determine the possibility of setting a new record on the return to Gran Canaria.

The third episode of the Pro Sailing Tour is already underway. The seven ocean trimarans Ocean Fifty left the docks of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Sports Pier this morning to head to the starting line and start the 24-Hour Challenge, the first of up to 11 scoring events that will run until next Sunday in their historical visit to the archipelago.

The weather forecast has been fulfilled, and the fleet jumped onto the pitch punctually at 11:00 am under cloudy skies and with winds around 12-15 knots north. After a slow initial section towards La Isleta, the northernmost point of Gran Canaria, the boats set course for Punta de Sardina, the first of the two compulsory passage beacons set by the organization; the second awaits you in Maspalomas, at the opposite end of the island. They will sail under the influence of the trade winds.

“On the west coast they will sail astern and with enough wind, the intensity will rise due to the effect of the coast, so they will move fast and with the big gennaker,” explained the race director, Gilles Chiorri, before going out into the water. “In the south of the island we hope the wind will drop completely.”

The management of these areas of calm in the shadow of the island will condition the order of the provisional. “If one of the boats can escape and catch the wind before the others, it will make a difference,” Chiorri advances. The final stretch of the circumnavigation awaits you with a strong head wind and considerable wave, a challenge for the crews on their way to the mark located in front of San Cristóbal, where they will complete the return to Gran Canaria “predictably around 9:00 : 00h “. From there they will head northeast towards Fuerteventura, with the anticipation of circling the island in a clockwise direction before returning to Gran Canaria, where they will be expected around noon tomorrow.

Possibility of record
One of the objectives in the minds of the participants is the possibility of setting a new record back to Gran Canaria. The current brand was established by Arkema in November 2019, in 10 hours and 22 minutes. The same skippers that hold the brand to beat, Quentin Vlaminck and Lalou Roucayrol, participate in the Pro Sailing Tour, this time aboard a new version of the Ocean Fifty, the Arkema 4. The ship with which they set the record sails today under the colors of The Arch. “The possibility of a record will depend on the conditions at the back of the island, where there is a fairly large wind shadow,” explains Benoît Marie, co-patron of The Arch. “On the other hand, the boats are fast When we compete seven on the same route we are all going full throttle, so it can happen ”.

In Quentin Vlaminck’s opinion, another variable may condition the assault on the record: “It will be difficult to beat it because we have waypoints and that implies that we will take a longer route, but we do not rule it out, because the conditions are good.” The Ocean Fifty can sail at speeds of over 40 knots, although as Vlaminck indicates, “the key is to maintain a good average and find a compromise between speed and safety so as not to break anything.”

The Arch breaks his major
Just three hours after starting the tour, and when the fleet made a series of gybes on the west coast of the island, The Arch broke the largest, causing its immediate withdrawal from the 24 Hour Challenge. The boat was heading ashore to assess the damage and the team is confident of being able to rejoin the competition for the weekend tests. The incident did not cause personal injury.

The regatta, live
The evolution of the boats can be followed live through this link on the official website of the Pro Sailing Tour. The application developed by Georacing offers live data about the relative position of the boats on the map, their speed, distance between participants, heading and wind conditions.

At the time of writing this information, the fleet negotiates the southern coast of the island concentrated in just two nautical miles as a sign of the great equality between the ships. Sam Goodchild’s Leyton is the provisional leader, practically paired with Sèbastien Rogues’ Primonial, followed by Erwan Le Roux’s Ciela Village, Quientin Vlamynck’s Arkema 4, Thibaut Vauchel-Camus’s Solidaires in Peloton – ARSEP and Gr