Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe - Day 5
by Sabina Mollart Rogerson 6 Nov 2014 18:38 GMT
6 November 2014
Mid Term Report: Very good work Peyron, keep it up
Early this afternoon (Thursday) about thirty miles off La Coruña, Bob Escoffier, the 65 year-old skipper from Saint Malo, was airlifted to safety by the Spanish Navy from his modified Sydney 60ft monohull Guisnel Grouo which was racing in the Rhum class of La Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.
Bob Socffier's boat had been taking in water due to an unknown reason. He was transferred, safe and in good health, to the Spanish base in Vivero. Escoffier was engaged on his fourth race participation and has also completed three successive Transat Jacques Vabre races between 2001 and 2005. He was a late replacement for his daughter Servane who pulled out of the race in early September for medical reasons. His helicopter evacuation is the third such rescue after those of François Angoulvant who lost the keel of his Class 40 during the first night of racing and that of Pierre Antoine whose Multi50 was struck by lightning. The drop out rate has always been closely monitored on this four yearly passage from Saint-Malo to Guadeloupe. The usual average rate of skippers abanding is around 30 per cent but has been as high as half the fleet in editions such as in 1986 and 2002. So far there have now been 21 abandons with 70 skippers still racing in the five divisions.
Loick Peyron can feel satisfied with his work to date on Maxi Solo Banque Populaire VII leading across the theoretical midway point of the race today with a margin hovering still around 170 miles to the finish line in Pointe-a-Pitre. With 1700 miles to go his delta has held steady at 10 per cent of the distance to the finish. In light, poorly established trade winds today, Peyron should lead Yann Guichard's Spindrift out of the light winds zone and extend away again. On deck it is summer, 25 degrees with gentle breezes with a full moon at night. In the three cornered battle of the Multi70s Sebastien Josse eased clear of Sidney Gavignet again today but Yann Eliès struggled in a very light zone, conceding distance to his two rivals and was 140 NM behind Gavignet's Musandam-Oman Sail this evening.
Off Finisterre this evening conditions are forecast to be tough for the ten Rhum class racers and the back markers in Class 40 as a new low pressure sweeps across Biscay. Gusts up to 55kts are predicted with big, bad seas.
IMOCA 60
François Gabart increases the gap. Looking in the mirror from time to time to monitor three times La Solitaire du Figaro winner Jeremie Beyou, Francois Gabart carries on with his near perfect race.
Beyou came back at him yesterday but Gabart is 45 miles in front again this afternoon with Marc Guillemot in third 77 miles behind. They have been sailing through a high pressure ridge but tonight their breezes veers NW and it will be a chance to set gennakers again. And while their worst weather is behind them, Tanguy de Lamotte (Initiatives Coeur) had 30kts was upwind and in big seas.
Multi50
Game On. The skipper of FenetreA-Cardinal, Erwan Le Roux warned he was hunting down long time leader Arkema (Lalou Roucayrol) and has pushed hard these last 24 hours closing the gap between the top two boats to just six miles. They now race head to head less than 19 miles apart on the water though Le Roux is significantly quicker this late afternoon. Five of the 50 foot multis are still racing.
Class40
Thibault Camus Vauchel, leading to the trade winds. After going upwind in headwinds of 15-20kts the leaders are back reaching. The pacemaker remains transatlantic rookie Thibault Vauchel-Camus on the Sam Manuard designed Mach 40 Solidaires en Peloton. Despite being on his first solo race across the Atlantic, the skipper from Saint Malo, is more of a multihull expert from the ORMA and Multi50 world and before that F18 Raids. He leads past Solitaire du Figaro winner (2002) and Transat Jacques Vabre runner up Kito de Pavant on the Tyker Evolution3 Otio-Bastide Medical with Spain's Alex Pella still nicely poised in third on the Botin design Tales 2.
Pella reported today: "Everything ok aboard the "Tales II" I finally had the chance to sleep a little on the bunk. I even got in the sleeping bag. Yesterday afternoon the wind went down and I had to repair many things!! This left me once again, a few hours without being able to attend the boat. However, everything's rolling now!! Now upwind!! Very unstable!! Let's see if I go through the correct place... Now "Tales II" is perfect!! Me too!! Except for my hands and feet... due to so much sea water!!"
Class Rhum
Battle of Cape Finisterre. Several of the Rhum class skippers have chosen to head to a haven to see out the worst of this weather. Portuguese Ricardo Diniz (Parisasia.fr) was en route in to La Coruña as was Benjamin Hardouin (Krit'R V) who shadowed Bob Escoffier during his rescue. Christophe Souchaud (Solitaire-Rhum) is in Bayona. Finn Ari Huusela (Neste Oil) should avoid the worst of it, being further to the south, but he reported this afternoon: "It's really heavy here now, I just changed the jib to stormjib and now the main thing is to keep the boat safe through into tomorrow morning!" Second placed Anne Caseneuve (Aneo) has the chance to get south and increase the longitudinal separation with leader Italian Andrea Mura (Vento di Sardegna) who always leads but is now 250 miles further north. But the guts of the battle is a four way tussle between Wilfrid Clerton (Cap a Cap Location) Pierre-Yves Chatelin (Destination Calais), Jean-Paul Froc (Berto Group) and Robin Knox-Johnston (Grey Power).
ETA Guadeloupe:
- Ultimate: Monday, November 10 at noon
- IMOCA: November 15
- Multi50: November 16
Quotes:
Yann Guichard Ultime Spindrift 2: "It was never going to be easy. What is good right now is that we have had not had so many manoeuvres and so I have been able to get some rest because the trade winds are not so well set up. There is a little calm bubble that is in front of us and that is why Loick has slowed. But I have managed to get out a bit and escape from Prince de Bretagne and the groupe behind them. The trades are not that strong but there are still gusts. Meantime I try to reduce the manoeuvres and save energy for later."
Marc Guillemot, IMOCA, Safran: "Once the wind drops a bit into the trades I have one job to do to climb up the mast to recover and unwind my spinnaker halyard which has a wrap around the mast. It also seems like the halyard ripped off the VHF and AIS antenna and so I am invisible. I can see a pink sail though (Lalou Roucayrol, Multi 50) who is about two or three miles from me."
Vauchel Thibault Camus, Class40, Solidaires en Peloton: "I'm really happy. I trusted the race strategy I had for the first 46 hours. I also enjoy the support of some of my competitors like Nicolas Troussel and Sebastien Rogue. The position I have been looking for is good and while I was upwind before I am ready to get the spinnaker up. At first it was quite tough and sporty. We had some surprising gusts more than 40 or 50 knots."
www.routedurhum.com
Yann Guichard relentless all the way (from Spindrift racing)
"Physically, it's like climbing Mount Everest," Yann said in yesterday's video recorded onboard Spindrift 2, the largest boat in the Ultimes class. Yet his clear, calm and collected voice could not hide the tired look on his face, clearly affected by his lack of sleep since leaving Saint-Malo last Sunday. The skipper knew only too well that sailing this boat, initially designed for crews, would be one of the most difficult challenges of his career. Now, halfway through the race, he says that he did not expect it to be so physically challenging. Lying in second position, Yann still has a chance of winning the race. He is pushing back the boundaries of physical endurance by the day and his performance so far is an incredible feat.
Spindrift 2 was the first boat to escape the area of low wind yesterday afternoon. Since then he has been averaging around 25 knots, driven by the Azores High weather system. Yann is gliding along the water with a sail area of 800 m", the largest in the fleet. "I've not performed many manoeuvres over the past few hours, which has allowed me to get some rest," he said at around midday. "I can honestly say that I never imagined it would be so physically challenging. Now that I'm into the trades, I'll have to choose the right routes with my routers to minimise the number of manoeuvres I perform so that I can keep going until the end of the race."
Half way to Guadeloupe
Loïck Peyron has already reached the midway point, and Yann will pass there shortly. Spindrift 2 has stabilised the gap to the leader at around 170 nautical miles and has pulled well clear of the rest of the chasers. Lionel Lemonchois, in third position, is now more than 300 miles behind the leader. "Loïck broke clear," explained Yann, "but I've managed to escape the calm-weather area better than my close rivals. I'm travelling in winds of 12 to 20 knots. The boat is making good headway in warm, 25-degree waters, with bright sunshine and a typical trade-wind sky with small cumulus clouds."
"The plan now will be to take advantage of moderate winds before making a sharp turn," explained Richard Silvani, one of the Yann's offshore routers, this morning. Yann will thus head towards the heart of the anticyclone before gybing at just the right time to maintain the pressure and adopt a good angle of attack, avoiding the calmer conditions at the centre of the high-pressure system. On the map, the trajectory will look like that of a seagull's wing. "Over the next few days Yann can expect to be busy with gybing manoeuvres in full sail," explained the meteorologist, who is working alongside Erwan Israël to find the right balance between performance and the conservation of Yann's energy levels.
En route to Pointe-à-Pitre
The leaders are expected to reach the finish line on Monday. Although this prediction should be treated with caution, it leaves no doubt that Yann will have to keep on pushing while protecting his travel-weary boat and body. "We'll have to find a good route across the Atlantic, but I also need to sleep and eat as best I can to reach the end of the race. Mentally, it's not a problem, but physically it most certainly is."
Furthermore, true to tradition, the Route du Rhum will end with a tour around the north side of the island of Guadeloupe, which is usually in very light winds. The competitors need to anticipate these final stages by saving as much energy as possible for this final challenge before the finish line.
After a night of light airs, Musandam-Oman Sail and Sidney Gavignet are swept up in the trade winds and off – destination Guadeloupe! (from Oman Sail)
After a frustrating night of light airs (7 knots) and slower boat speeds, Sidney Gavignet was well rested this morning when he called, but chomping at the bit to get going again. He was wrestling with the transition zone and gybed before calling to try to hook into the stronger northerly that the larger of his fellow 'Ultime' Class competitors had managed to reach during the night, and by the end of the morning, he was back up to speed doing 20knots towards the Caribbean with the transition zone firmly behind him.
"I am well, the boat is also doing well – I hurt my arm quite badly during the rough stuff at the start of the race, it has been very swollen and painful, but today is the first day that it feels better, so things are looking up! I am very well rested; I just needed some wind and now I have it!" said the skipper this morning via sat phone.
Negotiating the transition to the trade winds is never easy as Sidney's router Jean-Francois (Jeff) Cuzon points out: "The two bigger 'Ultime' multis, Banque Populaire and Spindrift, managed to hook into the northerly during the night, they were positioned to the west on the edge of the high pressure and were able to get the higher winds sooner and to escape. The rest of the Class was bunched together within about 40 miles heading south – the wind was unstable and very light with a few squalls coming through."
A well-timed gybe was critical: "We needed to gybe at exactly the right moment to reach the wind zone. We positioned ourselves inside the others; in an attack position because the wind zone was not well defined at that point so we needed to keep our options open.
"We gybed, Gitana reached the wind before us, Idec was still in the transition phase, and Sidney had a very tough moment immediately after he gybed with barely a zephyr (3-5knots at the most) and a big swell right on the bow – the swell was good news as it heralded the wind to come," explained Jeff.
Thirty minutes later, the northerly filled in and Musandam-Oman Sail was off again doing 20 knots!
Conrad's Blog, Thursday 06th November 2014 (from Cat Phones)
After the relative calm of yesterday, we've got another storm today. I had a great day sailing downwind on Wednesday but the conditions this morning are pretty horrible.
We've got 25 knot winds on the nose and the sea state is lively so I'll be bobbing along for most of today. I'm sailing west at the moment and hopefully I'll be through this cold front later this afternoon so I can tack back south.
I've done a bit of spring cleaning this morning because everything on Cat Phones is soaking. I haven't taken my Musto wet weather gear off since I left Saint-Malo; I've even been sleeping in it. We expected #ruggedsailing and we've got it-in bucket loads!
But I'm feeling pretty good. I'm well rested and I had a very nice meal last night – Asian Thai Noodles from Expedition Foods, which went down very well.
I'll feel even happier when I'm on the other side of this cold front!