Transat Jacques Vabre - Day 7

By Transat Jacques Vabre media 14 Nov 2009 21:29

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Sunday is sun day?

By and large it is back to the business of racing, give or take the chance to tidy up, make running repairs and catch some much needed rest. For the crews on the Transat Jacques Vabre they can look back on a very tough, demanding first week en route from Le Havre to Costa Rica, and forward to a whole new set off challenges as the weather picture suggests there will be rewarding spells of fast sailing in the sunshine.

It is the leading IMOCA Open 60's who will profit most, according to the weather models, but the scenario is still changeable with slightly complex pattern when normally crews might be looking forward to, as double Vendée Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux put it before the start of this race, 'putting a heavy rock on the accelerator pedal'.

In fact it is Desjoyeaux-Beyou on Foncia, Boissières-Riou on Akenas Verandas and the group to the south and east who face the more variable weather patterns although their time may come.

The final third of the track, across the Caribbean can be riddled with potholes under certain meteorological influences, as race director Jean Maurel, Mike Golding and W-Hotels's Pepe Ribes, all united to point out at different times during today's radio vacation from Paris Race HQ.

Charles Caudrelier and Marc Guillemot on Safran could scarcely conceal their relief after emerging from the bad weather with a decent lead of over 40 miles on Mike Golding and Javier Sanso on Mike Golding Yacht Racing. Guillemot admitted their problems were minor, a repair to their rudder which had been tricky and some work required on their mainsail, but their position at the head of the IMOCA Open 60 fleet looks strong.

Mike Golding conceded that he had been happy to be to the south of Safran on Mike Golding Yacht Racing, but their position had weakened marginally as their French rivals were, he believed, getting a little more wind pressure.

Pepe Ribes of W-Hotels reported that they had crash tacked twice with the keel on the wrong side of the boat and waves crashing over them.

Marc Thiercelin and Christopher Pratt took the hard decision to head back to France today, the third IMOCA Open 60 to retire, after discovering a problem with their keel mechanism on DCNS 1000.

The Sabbath may be a day of rest for some, but forecasters predict speeds to rise among the leaders as the weekend progresses, a return to brochure conditions.

Four hourly positions reports at www.jacques-vabre.com/en

Quotes:

Mike Golding (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing:

"We are just dealing with some quite shifty winds and a complete lack of instruments so it is quite tricky to know what we are dealing with."

"Obviously we are very pleased to be out of the bad weather and very pleased to hear that the team on BT are OK. It has obviously been a very bad gale by any standards and so we feel pretty lucky to have got away with a few broken bits of electronics, the boat's fine the sails are fine. Obviously we had plenty of advance notice and so the boat was prepared for the worst, but it was pretty damaging conditions and I think it was a bit of a surprise because it was even worse than we saw on the forecast files. We were expecting 40-45 knots not 65...and periods of a full 50.

Javier is a very experienced sailor and it has not taken him long to settle in to a rhythm and it is working well, and where we are in the fleet says it is working really well. He is a pretty easy going guy and has a lot of experience with my previous boat Ecover 2. There is a great deal in common between the two boats and so it is quite natural for him to step on board and operate at 100% straight away. He is a tough cookie, no question about it and a good man to have alongside you in a storm, that is for sure.

Positioned to the left of Safran and we were pretty happy being south of him, but we seemed to have lost our south advantage, or a lot of it which is slightly disappointing, maybe it is less important now. But as the breeze rotates and we get lifted there might be some advantages to being where we are, but at the moment we are in slightly softer pressure, maybe a couple of knots.

So I am pretty happy with our position, but there is a long way to go and plenty of sections of the course where things can happen, and I know that Safran is equally quick and so is Groupe Bel.

We will be trying not to get bogged down in that and just concentrate on keeping the boat going at 100% and concentrate on seeing what we can do later on in the week.

Alex, I looked a few days ago at his routing, and he actually came out on top. But a lot of things have to work out exactly right for that plan to work, so it is still an unknown and we will have to wait and see. "

Pepe Ribes (ESP), W-Hotels:

"We are good, just getting through it and south of the Azores. It was very tough because the forecast was totally right and there was a lot of wind. We had for an hour 50 knots constant and so we went through all the sail combinations and we stuck in the reef four and the storm jib and then we had a problem in that we were not very fast and the waves broke over us. We had two crash tacks with the waves breaking over us and the keel on the wrong side, with water coming in the hatch. It was tough, yes.

At the moment we don't have too many problems with the boat, we had some electronics problems but today it is all good. We had a spare compass on board and we replaced the compass and the boat is fine and we are ready to go. We are ready to go.

No the truth is we are very, very tired. This morning we were dealing with a very light wind spot, so we have both been on deck for half the night. So we need to start to work on sleep and eating and take it easy a little bit.

It is so different with two. Here when you have a very little problem it becomes a massive problem in a very short time. With ten people you can fix problems with ten people in heavy winds, with two people it is just dangerous. Crash tacking with two people is just unbelievable. There is not much you can do. One has to hold the helm and the other has to do all the jobs. And the waves are breaking over you, and so a little problem becomes a huge problem."

Caffari and Thompson ready to race Aviva in the Transat Jacques Vabre

With the worst of the demanding conditions that have tested the IMOCA Open 60 fleet behind them, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva are relieved to be changing their tactics from survival to racing in the 4800 mile Transat Jacques Vabre.

The dramatic rescue of Seb Josse and Jean François Curzon on board BT, highlighted the severity of the conditions the Open 60 sailors have had to contend with over the past three days. As the northerly group of the fleet passes the Azores they will be expecting more comfortable sailing with useful breezes and warmer temperatures. Caffari and Thompson will use this opportunity to ensure that everything is in order on board Aviva and to turn their focus to racing in an attempt to close the gap on the race leaders.

The 10h00 race ranking positioned Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva, in seventh place, 190 miles behind race leader Safran.

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson’s latest diary entry received on 14 November 2009 at 0720 GMT:

“For those that have seen our boats from the dockside, they look pretty big and for those that have taken a look onboard, you realise that much of the 60 feet is cavernous space filled with nothing, sails or water ballast. The reality is we live in a very small area of the yacht, normally centred around the navigation station and the hatch. On Aviva this started a neat minimalist area with everything in its place and a place for everything. Now after a few days bouncing around suffering drama after drama whilst still trying to either race or survive depending what position to the weather you are, this space has turned into a dark tardis. We have lost stuff into this tardis maybe forever or at the very least until the next dry comfortable sailing that allows household chores to be done. So I would have loved to have sent you wonderful photographs from our time onboard but unfortunately I last saw the camera when we had breakfast with Groupe Bel at the beginning of the week. We shall keep looking!”

Dee and Brian

To win, first you have to finish

It was good to hear from home (the race organisation tell us little) that Seb and Curzon were airlifted to safety from the damaged BT. This whole incident sounded horrific and any rescue in these conditions must have been highly dangerous. The Portuguese Navy deserve much praise as this will have been a really tough rescue/recovery.

Anyone, absolutely anyone, would tell you that it is daft to run a yacht race acoss the N Atlantic in November! It all the more silly then to be a competitor in it! Certainly, if the TJV had been sold to us as a package holiday we woud be asking for our money back right now! Of course, we all know that the classic TJV is not like this, it's a sensible route with a bit of rough and tumble at the beginning in Biscay then settling into trade wind sailing as the fleet heads for the sun! At least it was when we went to Brazil! Don't get me wrong, the destination change is a good thing but I have to wonder if, in hindsight, it would have been better to force the fleet south in some way.

Still, here we are and with our race heads on having sailed the first Atlantic section more like a classic Transat (which is in June). Bubi and I have had much to cope with since the start, it has certainly been a baptism of fire for him but fortunately for both of us, he has the advantage of experience from sailing on our previous boat ex ECOVER 2 as Mutua Madrileña in the Barcelona World Race. These two boats are broadly similar, just with with more ballast, sail and power on the MGYR 60. Bubi is settling into the routine well and despite the tough going our current second position indicates that the partnership is working well.

It has however been interesting racing, I don't think I have ever seen such a wide range of strategies at play. We initially saw little option but to take the southerly route which Mich Dej has sailed, but then the weather model showed a down grading of the severity of the system, so we went with a route closer to the rhumbline. Frankly, this southerly route could easily be a winning strategy as to finish first, you have to first finish. At the other end of the spectrum we have Alex who sailed closer to the inital optimum routing - certainly a ballsy call and could still be winner if he can keep the boat together over the next few hours. In our little bunch of middle-of-the-roaders, it has been very close since the start and whilst we are ahead of the others the forecast is still not very clear. With the Atlantic split between gales in the north and calms in the south who knows what will happen as we move away from this enormous weather system.

We have at last emerged from the worst part of the storm that has loomed heavily in our thoughts during the first days out. I would like to report that it was better than expected - but it wasn't, in fact it was far worse. The first squall of the system we recorded 67kts and that really set the trend for the next 18 hours of hellish broadly upwind sailing. After that we don't know any num bers as both masthead wind units were broken off (and the windex) so we are left with having to sail the boat without the information stream that we generally rely on to keep the boat at peak performance and safe.This was especially frustrating as just a few hours before we had found the network problem, which had prevented the instrument/autopilot system from working properly since the start. Still the squalls kept on coming until the point where it all blended into a oneness and 40kts seemed like easy street.

It's the middle of the night n ow, MGYR (I can't really get used to not calling the boat ECOVER!) is still reefed down and seas are still breaking over and around the boat, but the worst is definately behind us now. It is clear overhead and the lights of the Azores island Faial are just ten miles away to port. Bubi is asleep, I had a good catch up earlier. Tomorrow [Saturday] will be a day of jobs as we put the boat back into some sort form of race shape and we can begin some yacht racing rather than survival.

Mike

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