Yves Le Blevec third skipper to conquer the Atlantic in Transat bakerly
by The Transat bakerly 13 May 2016 10:13 BST
10 May 2016
At 02:45:59 BST this morning, Yves Le Blevec aboard Team Actual became the third Ultime competitor to celebrate beneath the Statue of Liberty, arriving in New York City at the end of The Transat bakerly 2016.
Veteran multihull skipper Le Blevec successfully crossed the Atlantic aboard Actual in a time of 10 days, 12 hours, and 15 minutes - two days, three hours and 21 minutes behind class winner François Gabart on Macif.
"I had great fun aboard Actual," said the 50-year-old skipper on the dock who is a previous winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre in the Multi50 class. "The Ultime is very different from a Multi50, but it's amazing how easily it covers the miles."
For Le Blevec's first solo Ultime voyage, he followed the same almost entirely downwind southerly route from Plymouth to New York in the trade winds favoured by Gabart and second-placed Thomas Coville on Sodebo. The striking red, black and white Actual skimmed across the Atlantic liquid desert at an average speed of 16.91 knots, covering a total of 4,267 nautical miles.
"Compared to the Multi50, the Ultime is super-comfortable," continued Le Blevec. "It's very dry and very nice. But manoeuvring the boat is a big job and it's very tiring. We had two fronts pass over us during the race, and I had to change the sails rapidly – it's gruelling."
"I did my first tack a few days ago, but the gybes were in sequence. To gybe the boat is a lot easier than to tack, but it is still exhausting. You have to be very attentive as you can get caught out very quickly, but I was careful and didn't break anything."
On the approach to the finish line in New York, the wind dropped offering Le Blevec a moment to reflect on his race and his achievements. "While I was waiting for the wind to fill in, I was able to replay the race hour-by-hour and it was at that moment that I realised I had crossed the Atlantic in 10 days!" he said.
"It was a great experience for me, I haven't sailed my boat solo very much, so it was nice to learn about it in some very cool weather conditions – at times it felt like we were heading for Guadeloupe rather than New York.
"I didn't have the close competition that Francois and Thomas had. I didn't give up the pace, but I was completely relaxed and a lot more zen. I'm very happy to be in New York," Le Blevec concluded.
The next arrivals in The Transat bakerly are the leading boats in the IMOCA 60s who are on course to reach New York tomorrow. Armel Le Cléac'h aboard the foiling Banque Populaire still leads the fleet, now 315 miles from the finish line. But never giving up the chase, Vincent Riou aboard the more conventional design, PRB, is just 69 miles behind, with Jean-Pierre Dick (St Michel-Virbac) another 121 miles back in third.
In the Multi50s, Gilles Lamiré aboard French Tech Rennes St Malo maintains his class lead and is also expected tomorrow. Now 427 miles away from the finish line, Lamiré holds a lead of 239 miles on Lalou Roucayrol in second on Arkema, which sustained damage to a daggerboard earlier this week, and 591 miles on third-placed Olmix skippered by Pierre Antoine.
The battle between the Class40s is as tight as ever. Isabelle Joshke on Generali-Horizon Mixité is still leading, with British skipper Phil Sharp aboard Imerys, snapping at her heels just 9.5 miles astern.
With 1,090 miles left to sail, it's still all to play for with Louis Duc on Carac going it alone in the south and making good progress and still a wildcard for the Class40 win. He is currently fourth, 105 miles behind Joschke. The first Class40s are expected to arrive in New York on Wednesday.
Track the race here.
Class Rankings at 0800 BST: (updated every four hours)
ULTIME
1. François Gabart/Macif - 8 days, 8 hours, 54 minutes and 39 seconds at sea
2. Thomas Coville/Sodebo - 8 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes and 2 seconds at sea
3. Yves Le Blevec/Actual - 10 days, 12 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds
IMOCA 60
1. Armel Le Cléac'h/Banque Populaire - 315.2nm to the finish
2. Vincent Riou/PRB - 69.67nm to the leader
3. Jean-Pierre Dick/St Michel Virbac - 189.88nm to the leader
MULTI 50
1. Gilles Lamiré/French Tech Rennes St Malo - 427.1nm to the finish
2. Lalou Roucayrol/Arkema - 239.81nm to the leader
3. Pierre Antoine/Olmix - 591.54nm to the leader
CLASS40
1. Isabelle Joschke/Generali-Horizon Mixité - 1090.4nm to the finish
2. Phil Sharp/Imerys - 9.44nm to the leader
3. Thibaut Vauchel-Camus/Solidaires en Peloton-ARSEP - 20.68nm to the leader
Find out more about the race here.
UPDATE: With two days to go, Le Cléac'h professes himself happy with his foiler
The IMOCA 60 battle in The Transat bakerly, now in its 11th day, has been dominated by the duel between Armel Le Cléac'h on the foiler Banque Populaire and Vincent Riou on the more conventional PRB.
For days now Le Cléac'h has managed to stay ahead of Riou but never quite shake him off. With 450 miles left to sail to the finish at New York, at a position around 200 miles south-southeast of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, Banque Populaire was this afternoon 63 miles ahead.
The two boats were sailing in a dying north-westerly and will then slow down during a light patch before the breeze picks up again from the south. For Le Cléac'h this race was as much about competing as it was confirming his new boat's durability for the upcoming Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race.
The Frenchman today reported that he is happy with what he has found. "With two days of racing left, I'm confident now that the boat is reliable which is a big step forward," he said. "I'm happy with how it has handled and how it works on foils. We came into this (race) to gain experience of big weather and that is what we have had, with some room for rest. It's been a useful experience and has put me in good stead for the Vendée Globe."
If two-time Vendée runner-up Le Cléac'h does hold on for the win ahead of Riou, it will reverse the finishing positions of the boats when raced two-handed in the Autumn in the Transat Jacques Vabre when Riou and Seb Col brought PRB home ahead of Le Cléac'h and Erwan Tabarly on Banque Populaire.
In the Class40 fleet the battle at the front has made for compelling armchair viewing as the boats skirt the southern edge of the Ice Exclusion Zone, 750 miles astern of Le Cléac'h and co. The leader Isabelle Joschke on Generali-Horizon Mixite, took an interesting hitch to the north, heading straight for the ice zone, before tacking back – a move that has given her a faster angle of attack as the westerly airflow builds in strength.
In her first race in a Class40 monohull, Joschke is bidding to become the first female winner of a professional transatlantic race since Dame Ellen MacArthur won The Transat in 2000. This afternoon she has a lead of 23 miles over Britain's Phil Sharp on Imerys with Thibaut Vauchel-Camus on Solidaires En Peloton-Arsep in third place, another nine miles back.
Sharp is anticipating a rough passage to the finish, still some 1,180 miles away. "I've started the long upwind slog," he reported. "It's seriously uncomfortable. Built for speed, not comfort, the boat slams and shudders on every wave. Only another 1,000 miles upwind – I'll be pushing hard to get it done."
The Class40 race winner has always looked as if he or she will come from the group led at various times by Joschke, Sharp and Vauchel-Camus but they all know that, 200 miles to the south of them, the hugely experienced campaigner Louis Duc on the oldest boat in the fleet, Carac, could yet play a winning hand.
"I think we will see the (relative) benefits of the northern or southern routes in the approach to the finish line," Duc summarised today. Duc has been enjoying his race, particularly the endless variation in conditions that he has had to deal with and he has been enjoying the wildlife too. "Over the last few days I've had dolphins accompanying me. I've also seen whales, spouting water – that was pretty cool," he said.
The Multi50 battle between Gilles Lamiré on French Tech Rennes St Malo and Lalou Roucayrol on Arkema is still continuing, even if the two protagonists are 350 miles apart. But Lamiré retains his edge with a lead of 241 miles and with only 566 miles left to sail to the finish line at Sandy Hook.
The next boat to cross that line in the early hours of tomorrow morning UK time, will be the third and final Ultime trimaran, Actual, skippered by Yves Le Blevec. With 11 miles to go and travelling at 16.6 knots the job was almost done and Le Blevec could reflect with satisfaction on his first big solo outing on an Ultime.
"I've not experienced the hellish conditions that I expected on this transatlantic, but I'm really happy with my first solo Ultime experience," he said. "It's been a really special race following all the effort it took to get to the start. At no time have I felt in trouble or at risk of damaging the boat – it's been very satisfying."
UPDATE: Lalou Roucayrol suffers broken daggerboard
The Transat bakerly 2016 will have a bitter taste for skipper Lalou Roucayrol: this "English" transat bound for New York has defied the Aquitaine-born sailor since he first took part in the race in 2000. In this edition, a UFO has overwhelmed the daggerboard of his trimaran. The skipper and his trimaran are unsettled but not beaten, and the sailor aims to reach New York in race mode.
Contacted on the official radio session on Wednesday 11 May, a few minutes after the damage occurred, Lalou detailed the circumstances of the incident: "I broke my daggerboard this morning. I don't know whether I hit something, because when it happened the boat was not doing any speed. It dropped onto a wave as I was reefing my mainsail. I heard some sort of impact, the noise of carbon cracking. I thought it was a beam, I checked the beams, had a good look round, and didn't see anything; the daggerboard was still in place, so I didn't pay any more attention. I continued with my manoeuver, and as I was setting off again, I realized that something was strange, something was wrong; which is when I saw that the daggerboard had gone.
We don't have foils on the Multi50s and it's a handicap, it's a bit like trying to tackle a glacier without any crampon! We are working with Karine and Eric (Fauconnier and Mas, his routers) on an alternative solution, a route with not too much upwind sailing, as now I can no longer head into the wind properly. We have to find a little gap, a little path that will allow us to make it to New York this way.
It's really disappointing because we were beginning to reap the benefits of setting off from the North, two or three courses were beginning to open up, quite interesting for us. Last night we did well in the front of a low, with a change of tack in the low and picking up speed again all day yesterday. It was all going well, and apart from this particular damage, I haven't got the toolbox out, so in terms of the boat, it was all going rather well too. It's a pity. With the daggerboard breaking like that close to the hull, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an impact with an animal. But I didn't see it, so I can't be sure.
Conditions have settled down and the wind has dropped. However, it's cold as I was heading North before changing tack at the Southern point of the ice exclusion zone, and it has got much colder in the last two days. Otherwise, there's a small ray of sunshine and that's quite nice. We have rather cross seas, but they are getting calmer as the wind drops. I still have around 1000 miles as the crow flies to the finish line in New York. This will depend on the course we will agree on, but it will probably take me four or five days to cross the finish line."
Without this component which is key to handling the boat properly, in particular with upwind sailing, heading into the wind, the skipper and his routers are now considering a new course that will allow the trimaran to reach New York in manageable conditions.
Karine Fauconnier: "We will give Lalou a route in a fall-back mode, and, given that downwind sailing will be more complicated, we will opt for sailing full out. Lalou remains in race mode, firstly because he never gives up, and secondly because it's better to reach New York without delay to avoid staying in a North Atlantic that can still throw us about. The less time you spend at sea, the better."