It is certainly not the 50th birthday present that Groupe Bel skipper Kito De Pavant was looking for, especially not ‘second time around’.

Such is the ironic timing of the Laughing Cow’s crossing of the international date-line later today and tomorrow that De Pavant was passing his first 50th Birthday concerned about the weather situation but tomorrow he will facing up to the formidable tropical cyclone Atu when the ‘second edition’ of his 50th birthday comes around.

Both De Pavant and Spain’s Pepe Ribes, who both left Wellington on Tuesday night together on Groupe Bel and Estrella Damm, expressed their concern about how they would best deal with the trajectory and force of the challenging weather system which will propagate very strong winds and big, confused seas. Their key decisions will be based around the speed at which the system moves and both duos have been tracking the system consistently since before they left the Kiwi capital.

“ We don’t really know which way to deal with the problem: either by the south or by the north. What we do know it that it lies right on our course.” SaidDe Pavant this morning, “ It is a pretty violent and unpleasant character, not what you want for your birthday. The cyclone brings with it a lot of rain, a lot of wind, and big seas. It is a small but very compact phenomenon which can damage the boat, very risky.”

Pepe Ribes said this morning: “ The passage of the Atu cyclone will be very complicated and neither Alex nor I have ever been confronted by such strong winds and I don’t really know what it will do to us and we are worried to look after the boat. We have been looking at if for a while and still don’t know how we will cross it.”

The system is due to pass swiftly, the two boats which were in Wellington, will have it directly in their path, giving them the option to pass to the north which will at least give them the chance to use the westerlies on the north side of it, but they would need to sail a steeper angle and more miles to get there. The pragmatic solution might be to simply slow and avoid the worst of it

At the front of the fleet Spain’s Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez got to within 25 miles today of the long time race leader MAPFRE. The leading duo are nicely placed on the southern side of a progressive high pressure system which is allowing them a classical arc up to the NE to respect the second ice gate of the Pacific without having to worry about manoeuvres, simply having to sail fast towards the same target. As an instructive insight into the relative speeds of the 2007 generation former Foncia, built prior to the IMOCA Rule’s power cap, and the latest generation design, and of course the sailors potential, this is proving a thrilling encounter which is due to continue for a few days more at least. 

It was a triumphant but difficult passage through ‘home’ waters for the Barcelona World Race’s only Kiwi, Andy Meiklejohn who passed through the Cook Strait today, feeling a real mix of different emotions.

On the one hand Meiklejohn was feeling devastated and helpless at the earthquake which hit Christchurch, on the other he was intensely proud to be bringing the powerful Hugo Boss past Wellington, foregoing any technical stopover.

Having started the race with stand-in co-skipper Wouter Verbraak the duo have sailed a smart race so far, rising to seventh place, and now within 650 miles of the race’s podium. Alex Thomson was on the water off Wellington with technical manager Ross Daniel to greet the two co-skippers on the wet, bumpy ride past the capital.

“ We have had a tough time of the last seven weeks with several issues forcing us to be slower than optimal, this was also after a very light exit to the Med, conditions that the heaviest boat in the fleet definitely did not like.”Wrote Meiklejohn, “Wouter and I have managed to pool together our resources, our common strength and the belief  and with the support of Alex and our shore team to keep the yacht in the race, and here we are just 400 miles behind 4th place and the battle begins again.”

“ Our troubles however are insignificant compared to the disaster that has just hit the Christchurch region of New Zealand.  This is an area with incredible pride and emotional toughness.  They boast an unrivaled sporting success through their Cricket teams, netball teams and the All-conquering Crusaders rugby outfit who have dominated southern hemisphere rugby for the last 15 years.”

“ So it’s with real sadness that I sail up Cook Strait in sight of home, its hard to feel excited when there are so many people feeling so much pain.  Its great to celebrate what we do and getting to the halfway stage is an achievement in itself but it pales in comparison to what happens in the real world.  It’s a real mix of emotions that’s hard to contain and harder to put down in words.  We Kiwis are brought up to be hardened to tragedy and sadness but sometimes it doesn’t feel right, sometimes there’s a bigger picture.”

“ Christchurch, our thoughts are with you.  Look after each other, give those you don’t know a hug or a helping hand, it’s with that bond that you will once again pull through and, like the phoenix, rise again.”

Rankings at 1400hrs Wednesday 23rd February 2011

 1              VIRBAC-PAPREC 3  at 10076 miles to finish

2              MAPFRE 38 miles from the leader

3              RENAULT Z.E at 812 miles

4               NEUTROGENA at  940  miles

5              MIRABAUD at 1066  miles

6              GROUPE BEL at  1278 miles

7              ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team at 1282 miles

8              HUGO BOSS at 1454 miles

9              GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS at 1482 miles

10            FORUM MARITIM CATALA at 2966 miles

11            CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA at 3284 miles

12            WE ARE WATER at 3900 miles

RTD         FONCIA

RTD         PRESIDENT

Quotes:

Alex Thomson (GBR) Alex Thomson Racing Team/Hugo Boss: “ It was amazing to go out there and see the boat and see the guys, a bit weird in a lot of ways, but the guys were in great spirits, the boat looked fantastic and I just feel very proud of what they have achieved so far in a very difficult set of circumstances. They continue to stay positive and are really looking forwards at the possibilities.

The mast track problem means they can’t currently sail with the mainsail above the first reef. So basically upwind in anything less than 17 knots of wind they are compromised, going slower, and downwind in anything less than 22 knots they are going slower. So the boat is definitely not being sailed to its potential, but when you look at the options to stop or not – losing 48 hours, potentially nearly a 1000 miles – when there is the possibility of them doing the repair on board was too difficult for them to bear, and if I was in the same situation I would have made the same choice.

We went out and were alongside them for about half an hour and both Ross, our operations manager, and I had a happy conversation with them for about half an hour on the VHF, lots of laughing and joking, them suggesting I get a hair cut. It was fun, but it was also difficult: Andy and I had planned to be doing this race together so for both of us it was probably a bit strange, but I think that the reality is that the guys are in the groove, they have worked together brilliantly, they have formed a great partnership. Their place is on the boat and my place is on the land on this one. That is just a fact.

It is a difficult one. The guys speak to our team every day, sometimes more than once a day, but usually it is about media stuff, or about technical matters: the media stuff does not involve me and my forte is not the technical side, so I am acting as a bit of a supporter really, a little bit of a mentor really. It is kind of strange and I feel at a bit of a loose end at times. But I have accepted the situation but today it was real proof to me that I feel good about the situation, There is nothing I can do about it. I can be happy about where they are that they are fighting and they are doing a great job.”

Kito de Pavant (FRA), Groupe Bel:“Fifty years old, it is the fourth Cape of this round the world race for me. I am not feeling very birthday. We did not have very much time to prepare anything because we were a bit preoccupied in Wellington, there was a lot of work to do. The weather conditions before we stopped were not so good, and we have lost a lot of time. And so the festivities have gone by the by. It is not that important, especially with a cyclone which is approaching, and we don’t really know which way to to deal with the problem: either by the south or by the north. What we do know it that it lies right on our course. It is a pretty violent and unpleasant character, not what you want for your birthday. The cyclone brings with it a lot of rain, a lot of wind, and big seas. The sea, especially will be huge and the winds might be 70-80kts. It is a small but very compact phenomenon which can damage the boat, very risky.

Wisest would be to leave it to the north but that does not take us towards Cape Horn. And of course if it gets dangerous then we would just turn and avoid the worst of the waves.

The difficult conditions should not last very long, 24 hours maybe and then after that we should have some strong winds which should allow us to go quickly towards the ice gates. The Spanish crew are just behind, we can see their lights. It is reassuring to be with them facing the same things. But the truth is that in such circumstances the second boat would not be able to do too much. We ate together yesterday evening and it would be good if we remained together until Barcelona.

It took us a few weeks to get into the rhythm of the race and now you feel like its starting again from zero. We have enjoyed the comforts ashore and so now it is not so easy to set out again. And the 48 hour stopover is not good, it is too long or too short. But this is a curious birthday, because as we pass the date-line I will have two birthdays!

Pepe Ribes (ESP) Estrella Damm:“We have Groupe Bel about a mile away and it will eb good to sail with someone again as a reference. The passage of the Atu cyclone will be very complicated and neither Alex nor I have ever been confronted by such strong winds and I don’t really know what it will do to us and we are worried to look after the boat. We have been looking at if for a while and still don’t know how we will cross it.

Our morale is not so high and so we must get back to the feelings we had and stop thinking about were we were in the race and what has happened to us. We need to get back into that mind set because the race is only half way.”

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The excitement of Saturday, when they both took over first and second places, is behind the Spanish duos.

Ribes and Pella keep their options open as they lead into the complex south Atlantic, entering negotiation with Saint Helena to try and pass through or round a split personality anticyclone which dominates the passage down to the Roaring Forties and the fast lane into the South Atlantic Ocean.

The options for the leading group are, in fact, many. On Mirabaud, in fourth, Dominique Wavre, the fleet’s veteran with 30 passages up and down this stretch of water – crewed, solo and as a duo- said today that he had assimilated at least ten routing choices.

One of the difficult aspects is that the weather models may be accurate for the next few days, but for seven to nine days hence, when the real ‘end game’ for this stage plays out for the fleet, passing to Starboard of Gough Island and the Atlantic Gate, then it becomes much less clear.

Before they went undercover today, MAPFRE’s double Olympic medal winning helm Iker Martinez wrote that in some ways they had breathed a sigh of relief that the two French IMOCA Open 60’s Foncia and Virbac-Paprec 3, elected to make a technical repair stop in Récife as he felt that the level they had been sailing at was too high for the MAPFRE pair to live with long term.

In fact the duo from Spain’s rugged Atlantic north coast had shown a propensity to at least match Foncia and Virbac-Paprec 3 in the fast, trade winds going.

The Recife pit stop was over first for the double Vendée Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux and co-skipper François Gabart, back on the race course since yesterday evening.

Then first edition winner Jean-Pierre Dick with Loïck Peyron were back on the track at 2300hrs UTC. Since then they have been the among the quickest three boats in the fleet. But their westerly routing, closer to the Brasilian coast means they still spend miles against the leader.

When the MAPFRE duo blink back on to the tracker screens Monday evening, on the 1900hrs UTC ranking – stealth mode sends them under the radar for six consecutive position reports – where are they most likely to reappear?

Given their fleet racing experience and sensibilities, one might expect them to try to cover the French duo on the inshore western lane, looking to reconnect with the two duos which have set the pace and strategy so far, those with the most successes IMOCA racing around the world.

Furtive or Ghost mode can be used four times, once in each ‘ocean’, and is a new innovation for this edition of the race. The standings consider the ghost mode boat fixed to her last position, hence MAPFRE remains third until the other pursuing boats pass.

With all of the fleet now in the Southern Hemisphere, since We Are Water crossed at 0230hrs, the fleet compression has continued in small part due to the leaders’ pit stop, but considering that four days ago the deficit from first to last was nearly 700 miles, and now it is just over 500 miles.

Moving into the better established SE’ly and E’ly trade winds resets the routines after the doldrums for the middle order racers, giving a chance to catch up with domestic and technical chores to ensure the respective IMOCA Open 60’s are in perfect shape.

But the easy routine also offers a little down-time for the co-skippers.

On today’s live Audio and VisioConferences (streamed live at 1000hrs to 1100hrs UTC daily on www.barcelonaworldrace.com) Ryan Breymaier from Neutrogena remarked how pleased he was to have had time to catch up with digital media loaded on to a USB which connected him with friends and family from his native USA.

And on Renault ZE Sailing Team, Toño Piris today explained how he and co-skipper Pachi Rivero had nurtured back to health a tiny waterlogged bird which had landed on their eighth placed IMOCA Open 60 to hitch a ride.

Their little visitor left, fully re-charged, and ready for its long passage home, just like Piris and Rivero.

1400hrs UTC Standings, Sunday 16th January.

1              ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team at 21 119 miles to finish

2              GROUPE BEL at 137 miles

3              MAPFRE mode from 16/01 at 0930hrs

4              MIRABAUD at 189 miles

5              FONCIA at 223 miles du leader

6              VIRBAC-PAPREC 3 at 269 miles

7              NEUTROGENA at 291 miles

8              RENAULT Z.E Sailing Team at 333 miles

9              GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS at 350 miles

10            HUGO BOSS at 429 miles

11            CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA at 465 miles

12            WE ARE WATER at 517 miles

13            FMC at 526 miles

  RTD        PRESIDENT

Quotes

Francois Gabart (FRA)Foncia:
“ We took over the boat again after the shore team. Over the course of the day had made some small repairs, little things which were not working. We had to just be patient because of course all this time the boat was not going anywhere. I carried on watching the rankings and saw the others moving on and then we sailed out again at 1700hrs UTC.

We are disappointed to lose ground on a stop like this, but are happy that it went well. The day before I had run some routings for setting out again at 1800hrs. So today we are in the race with a repaired boat, in good shape in and in a ranking which is far from bad.

We can smile and sleep contently back now we are back on course. For the moment the breeze is not very stable.  It is quite pleasant to steer when it is like this and it saves a bit of energy not using the pilots. And the boat certainly moves a few tenths of a knot more quickly.

I had not really registered that MAPFRE had gone into Furtive mode. The field is quite open even if we are a little bit to the west, but we are several thousand miles to the Gate Number 1. We have looked at the situation very carefully yesterday evening and this morning. We did ask ourselves if it was worth using Furtive mode. But for the moment there was no big reason to do it. But it is cool that they start to use it. And today that does not change anything with our strategy.

There are small depressions which are moving SE. The idea is to get to Gate 1 round the western side of the anticyclone which moves with some small low pressure systems. So the question is can you cut the cheese (corner) and go directly to Gate 1 or to stay with the pressure and to seek the depressions which build off South America.”

Iker Martinez (ESP) MAPFRE:

“Our training was probably not as good as we really would have like in this kind of two handed sailing so that was painful for us in the Mediterranean when I guess we really did not know how best to order and choose the right priorities in things. When you have a number of problems up ahead you need to know how to make the decision, that is the case with the navigation. Some times you have to think of everything, and if the boat is going slowly you can’t divide your brain across the different things, tactics and the speed of the boat.

Foncia and Virbac Paprec 3 will likely catch us again because of the level that they are setting, that they have demonstrated in the first part of the race when they were very, very strong. The pace and rhythm is very hard for us to reach, to sustain their level. For the time being the time factor is back with us. But we will see how long it takes them to get back to us.

There are two tough days ahead. The routing models show that Estrella Damm will get 200 miles in front of us in two days. Each time they increase their lead it is slamming our fingers in a door, but we have to be patient and then it will be our turn to strike back.

The key point right now is how to get across the high we have just in fornt of us and to get toe the First Gate in the South Atlantic. The boat can’t jump across the high, so we will have to get around it. So that is why the next days will be so intensive until we get to the south and speed up with the westerly winds.”

Dee Caffari (GBR) GAES Centros Auditivos:

“We have some nice sailing today, finally the rain clouds have gone and we have much more stabilised, constant upwind conditions and so it is lovely sailing.

Weather wise ahead it is not clear cut at all, but it is nice for us for sure to be in the saem weather system as others, so that is important for us.

The Doldrums were hard work for us, you could not leave the boat for two minutes, so it is nice to be in established wind and that gives us a chance to go through the boat and do all the little jobs which are outstanding and to start looking tactically at the south.

We lost some miles in the trade winds when the others were pushing really hard, but tactically I feel I have had a much better race than before and I am much happier with the decisions I have made. It’s all good.

Ryan Breymaier (USA) Neutrogena:

“I got a USB key with photos of sailing I have done in the past, an essay that my cousin wrote on our ancestors, some interesting stuff to read, chocolates. It was good. I miss my friends and family I haven’t seen because I have been in Europe for so long, so it is cool to get things like that. And you do get a little bit of time just now so it is good to be able to catch up.”

 

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Despite a two hour setback that halted them in their tracks late last night, Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella aboard GAES Centros Auditivos have moved up the rankings over the last two days and are now in sixth place in the Barcelona World race. Caffari and Corbella chose a route closer to the African coastline which has paid off and resulted in a visible split in the fleet as those who opted for a route along the Spanish coast have suffered very slow boat speeds. However, these gains were in jeopardy last night when at around 1930hrs GAES Centros Auditivos became entangled in fishing nets and the duo spent around two hours in the darkness cutting away the netting that impeded their progress.

 After completing the task at hand, Caffari sent this report back:

  “We just spent two hours tangled in fishing nets. We had to cut ourselves free with the fishing boat watching. It was tangled around the keel and rudders and in the dark it is very disorientating. We think we are clear but we will see at daylight when we can use the endoscope to see if anything is still attached to us and if I need to go swimming. I think we will tackle the Straits first though. It was disappointing that we were held up for two hours as we were making good progress on those ahead.”

 Project Manager for the GAES team, Harry Spedding, added:

“I am really pleased the girls have maintained 6th place overnight but holding this will be quite dependent upon whether they will need to do further work today. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to cut themselves clear in the dark and it is disappointing news after their tactical decision had allowed them to take three places in 24 hours. The weather in the Gibraltar Straits was very light overnight so they were able to win back any ground lost against their nearest rivals.”

Today there will be a tricky transition for the girls between the weather systems of the Gibraltar Straits and Atlantic, with a high pressure to the east and low pressure up to the north west which will contribute to a very difficult exit through the Gibraltar bottleneck.

The 09H00 ranking showed Caffari and Corbella in 6th position, with GAES Centros Auditivos just 2 miles behind nearest race rivals Boris Herrmann and Ryan Breymaier on Neutrogena. Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron onboard Virbac- Paprec 3 currently lead the Barcelona World Race.

Aviva has been a longstanding supporter of Dee Caffari and her inspirational record breaking sailing achievements, assisting her to three world records including becoming the first woman to sail solo, non-stop, around the world in both directions. As Founding Partner of Caffari’s sailing campaign, Aviva is pleased to extend this support to Corbella and GAES for the Barcelona World Race.

Pos.    Boat                                             Distance from Leader

1. VIRBAC-PAPREC 3                                                0
2. FONCIA                                                                     2.2
3. ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team                     6.7
4. NEUTROGENA FORMULA NORUEGA        18.9
5. MIRABAUD                                                           32.6
6. GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS                         49.2
7. GROUPE BEL                                                        58.1
8. PRESIDENT                                                          58,9
9. MAPFRE                                                                71
10. WE ARE WATER                                            103
11. RENAULT Z.E                                                 106.1
12. HUGO BOSS                                                     125.9
13. CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA        129.7
14. FORUM MARITIM CATALA                    133.3

The first prize of the Barcelona World RACE 2010-2011 has been won by race title holder Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA), sailing with Loick Peyron (FRA) on Virbac Paprec 3.
 

The pair have claimed the North to South Mediterranean Trophy by becoming the first team to the reach the longitude of 05 37W, having best overcome the capricious light winds and strong tides faced by the fleet on the 540-mile first leg stage of the non-stop race from Barcelona across the Western Mediterranean.

The 2010 VPLP-Verdier designed IMOCA 60 crossed the gate this evening at 1955hrs (UTC), having set off from Barcelona 3 days, 7 hours and 55 minutes previously – knocking nearly 7 hours off Dick’s own previous record time from the first edition of the Barcelona World RACE, set in November 2007 at 3 days, 14 hours and 25 minutes.

Behind the race leader, Foncia and Estrella Damm were separated by just two miles at this evening’s latest position update, and are expected to cross the Straits in a tight duel.

 

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Today is a very important day in the Alex Thomson Racing calendar, as we prepare to launch our new Juan K Open 60 at Canary Wharf in London. The boat has taken 4 months to refit to create a race yacht that will provide Alex with the best chance of winning, and as the most powerful yacht in her class she promises some very interesting sailing.

She will be officially named and launched on the 27 May at a glittering HUGO BOSS event, in front of 600 guests including media, VIPs and celebrities. The boat will leave directly after the launch for a summer of corporate hospitality, racing events, and HUGO BOSS parties, hitting hot spots such as The Hamptons, Sardinia and Ibiza, before heading back to base for the build up to the Barcelona World Race.

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Last August Alex Thomson was joined onboard his IMOCA Open 60 HUGO BOSS by former Olympic skier Graham Bell for the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race. To watch their journey and get an exclusive view into life onboard the premier racing yacht HUGO BOSS tune into Channel Fiver on Sunday 10th January at 12 noon.

The 2009 Fastnet Race saw a hugely competitive line-up come together for this classic 600-mile offshore race. The 300 strong fleet included Olympic medalists, America’s Cup and round the world sailors. Lining up for his first race was former Olympic skier Graham Bell, a complete novice sailor onboard the IMOCA Open 60 HUGO BOSS one of the fastest racing machines on the planet. 2009 saw the 30th anniversary of the 1979 edition of the race, the race was brought to national attention after an extreme storm swept through the Irish Sea, 15 crew as well as 4 from the trimaran shadowing the race and two from a cruising yacht, tragically died. Only 85 boats finished, 194 retired, and 24 boats were abandoned. Graham speaks to sailors both past and present on their memories of this tragic event, and how technology has changed at sea over the last 30 years.

Date: Sunday 10th January

Channel: Fiver

Time: 12:00

FREEVIEW: Channel 30
SKY: Channel 176
VIRGIN MEDIA: Channel 152
TISCALI TV: Channel 31

Following the Fastnet Race, HUGO BOSS then took part in a challenging two handed Transat Jacques Vabre. The 14 strong IMOCA fleet were battered by storm force conditions in the North Atlantic, causing multiple breakages and one boat to be abandoned. On day nine the race was cut short for HUGO BOSS after a collision on the bow, although the damage was small it wasn’t possible to stop the ingress of water until the area was free from water. Sadly HUGO BOSS was force to retire and after a affecting a temporary repair headed back to the UK.

HUGO BOSS has been surveyed after the collision, and the results showed the damage is minimal. Skipper Alex Thomson commented, “The team are currently working on the repair. The potential was there during the Jacques Vabre, it was so frustrating to have to retire when she had performed so well

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  On a race which has a recent history of dealing close, tight finishes, the final miles of the Transat Jacques Vabre can be the most nerve racking. The finish line is all but in sight, the miles counting down with a pleasing whirr, but for Safran’s Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier – who are seeking to convert the lead they have held for nine days – they still have no shortage of pressure, and it is likely to stay heaped upon them until the end.
 
      And with less than 450 miles to go in this ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the gap back from Safran to Kito de Pavant and François Gabart on Groupe Bel is just over 70 miles. In 2007 the Safran duo missed out, taking second just 54 minutes behind Michel Desjoyeaux and Manu Le Borgnan on the course from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. In 2005 the winning margin of Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron was just 35 minutes over Roland Jourdain and Ellen MacArthur. This new coffee route course to Costa Rica may yet brew up an equally close finish. 

      Groupe Bel are an ever present threat, as they have been to Safran since they eased past Mike Golding Yacht Racing a week ago, Saturday night 14th, to install themselves in second place. A relatively stationary little low pressure trough has installed itself over the Gulf of Panama. That has contributed to some spicy squall activity for the two leaders today but so there is the distinct threat that the final miles in to the finish line off Costa Rica’s Puerto Limon will not be easy. This morning, in a blustery 30 knots, Safran’s co-skipper Guillemot sounded slightly slightly harassed and was certainly too busy to speak for more than a few snatched seconds.

Groupe Bel are but one gybe behind, but how much compression there will be in the variable, fluky winds which are predicted for the finish tomorrow (Tues) late afternoon or evening, no one is prepared to guess.
Safran crossed the longitude of Cartagena (Colombia) which was the finish for the Transat Jacques Vabre from 1993 to 1999, with a time of 13 days and 22 hours of sailing.
Underlining the evolution of the class ten years ago, the winner of the IMOCA Open 60 division took 19 days and 17 hours over the same course.
By comparison with the course record to Salvador de Bahia, JP Dick and Loick Peyron’s 13.51 knots in 2005 compares with the course average so far of Safran at 13.26 knots.
Safran had done 375 miles over the 24 hours to 1100hrs today.
 
      While Mike Golding Yacht Racing and Foncia seem assured of third and fourth, the race for sixth to eighth remains the closest group of the IMOCA Open 60. While Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella now hold sixth place on W-Hotels, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson were breaking away from eighth and the heat of battle to effect a rapid pit stop to collect a replacement generator control panel at a rendezvous off St Lucia. The British duo were just two miles short of Veolia Environnment’s seventh when they diverged north.
 Golding confirmed to this morning’s radio vacs with Puerto Limon, Costa Rica that he feels sure that the leaders will squeeze up in the lighter, variable airs expected, but – he said – it would be unlikely to be enough for he and his Spanish co-skipper Javier Sanso to make any impact on the two leaders who are head by more than half of the remaining race track. Plagued by electrical problems, he is still on target for his fourth Transat Jacques Vabre podium finish in the six times he has raced in this Autumn classic.
 
Quotes:
 
Charles Caudrelier, (FRA) Safran:
“It has calmed a little since last night. It is calmer but no holidays. It is very demanding just now. We have so much to do, there is just one thing after another. I helm in shorts which is quite pleasant but you are soaked most of the time with water coming over the deck. We take turns doing things, I don’t mind from time to time being at the chart table.
It feels like we are getting near the end. You sleep little and make lost of moves..
Stealth mode? I don’t know if that is supposed to be funny, but for you it would not be funny now not to know who was leading now….!!”
 
Dee Caffari, (GBR), Aviva:
“It is all set up and we are now just trying to sail to St Lucia as fast as possible, these are great conditions to be sailing in and so we can’t complain too much and it should not cost us too much time, which is good because our competition is tough.
It was an incredible night to drive in, I kind of struggled. I kind of thought we would have lost a lot, and when we got our position reports it was one of our better nights….
It is full of surprises, but it just goes to show how hard we are all working. It is closer and closer.
We are trying to organize so it will be as swift as possible and not let us lose too much, especially in terms of our focus. We are so just trying to concentrate on boat speed all the time and the generator is just background.”
 
 
Mike Golding, (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing:
“The gybes are quite interesting with a short sea, and quite a lot of wind. We are making good progress. We are still having to do quite a lot of hand steering which is quite tiring. At the one time we are massively overpowered and at the other we are hardly moving at all, so that is the only way to do it with no wind on the pilots.
We run trust watch system with no fixed timings, so we work as long as we feel we are alert and try and give the other person as much respect as possible, sometimes one guy is pretty tired then the other will know that and be feeling up for it and so give the other a bit more time lying down, and then when conditions get tough like just now then we are hand steering a lot then we maybe try and do three hour stints, but we have no precise watch system.
There will be a close up towards the end, as inevitably it will get lighter towards the finish, and that may well make for an exciting finish, certainly for the first two boats, and we might see some significant compression, right now with the conditions but with a large gap ahead of us and a similarly large gap behind us, then we are straight lining and trying not to break anything unecessarily.”

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In between the simple routine of just keeping their boats at maximum speed in the right direction, and picking their way as best they can, there is a certain quiet satisfaction underpinning the efforts of the top three duos in the IMOCA Open 60 fleet as these Transat Jacques Vabre leaders set themselves up to break into the Caribbean.
 
That is not to say that any of them have already accepted their position now will be the same when they cross the finish line off Costa Rica’s Puerto Limon, but with the gap between leader Safran and second placed Groupe Bel grown by 20 miles to 81 miles early this morning, and the margin between Bel and Mike Golding Yacht Racing, in turn 82 miles, then each feels they have breathing space which they perhaps did not expect this morning.

Instead of the expected initial compression, in fact Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier slipped away another 20 miles overnight on Safran, a gain which surprised Guillemot’s co-skipper enough to wonder this morning if their pursuers had a technical problem.

But in fact Safran has just had more a little more wind.

Satisfaction, such as it is, aboard Mike Golding Yacht Racing comes from being back in something closer to full racing shape after British skipper Golding spent much of yesterday night dealing with an electrical charging issue which firstly meant they could not start the engine, which then developed so they had a complete power failure.

But for his hard day’s night and recuperation yesterday Golding has remedied their problems and was pleased to be back in a more competitive mode early this morning.

Winds for the leaders are still very up and down, variable in direction. The leading trio have anything between seven and 12 knots this morning and winds will drop more at times as they approach the arc of West Indies islands

But the gap back to Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou has also opened another 20 miles to 290 miles between Mike Golding Yacht Racing and Desjoyeaux’s Foncia. Golding said his preference this morning would be to have been a little more south, but given his problems yesterday that has not been possible.

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson creep closer to fifth all the time, this morning getting to less than 17 miles of Veolia Environnement their slightly more southerly position has been beneficial to the British Aviva duo, but both were slowed to less than ten knots this morning.

Battle continues in the middle order of the Transat Jacques Vabre

After successfully regaining sixth place yesterday and battling hard to maintain their position overnight, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson onboard Aviva have narrowly lost out to 1876 in this morning’s polling.

The three boats currently in the middle of the fleet – 1876, Veolia Environnement and Aviva – are all positioned within 15 miles of each other and with over 2000 miles of the route to Costa Rica remaining, the battle for fifth to seventh place is set to continue.

The 10h00 race ranking positioned Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva, in seventh place, 575 miles behind race leader Safran.

“We have just spent darkness coasting along in a dying breeze under a canopy of bright stars. Flat water and warm temperatures have made it an uneventful but also a wonderful night’s sailing.

  As predicted we will be fighting light airs with those around us. If we can keep working hard and keep at the front of this little group then we will reach the stronger breeze about 36 hours quicker. It is amazing getting a grib file now for weather information and realising how far we have come because we are also getting the Caribbean weather too.

 To play tribute to this particularly tropical theme we also celebrated shower day onboard Aviva. So now she and her dynamic duo smell of roses as you would expect.”

Franco-Spanish duo Yves Parlier and Pachi Rivero are on good form this morning, making west at good speed in good breeze. On the quickest boat in the fleet just now, 1876 Rivero remarked that they will make their move south later today, but just 40 miles of DTF (distance to finish) separates fifth from eighth.
 
Quotes:

Mike Golding (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing: “We had a problem, a big problem. As the batteries got low the engine would not start, and so the engine start batteries had not been getting trickle charge and so the engine would not start. That created an earthing problem on the engine as well, and so with no engine…no lights, nothing at all. It was pretty dodgy for a while. The switchboard 12v charger has blown, we had a spare but it has blown as well, so what I had to do was lift one of the main batteries out of the bank and use it to start the engine, so that took up most of yesterday night and the boat was a complete tip after that. So yesterday was spent getting tidied and getting the boat moving again, so so far tonight has been relatively quiet. We had no electronics, no navigation, no electronics, and it was pitch dark and so trying to see the wheel compass is hopeless. So we have ended up where we are. I am not especially pleased…we are where we are, we should be further forwards, we should be further south, but we are where we are.

I think there may still be some options and opportunities, but meantime we do need to make sure we get out of this light stuff. We probably haven’t done the job we wanted to to get out of it, we are doing 10 knots just now and probably have eight knots of breeze.”

  Charles Caudrelier Bénac (FRA) Safran:  “ It is going very well. We are trying in a way to understand what is going on because we expected less wind but that is not so. There must be a reason why we have gained so many miles on Groupe Bel during the night, maybe they have some technical problems?

We had a good night, between 10 and 15 knots, rolling along, and it makes good speed. We did two or three watches of three hours each and made no sail changes so it did not go too badly, and there are no clouds or squalls. But on the other hand the trade winds are broken down, and if there are no clouds during the day it will be hard because there will be no wind.

We are 1500 miles from the finish and it is just great. We can still break things if there are stronger trade winds, and there will be many manoeuvres before we get there.”

“The passage through the West Indies arc? Well it can make a big difference and we have already chosen, but we are not telling anything……”

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 When lying in fourth place in the Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre to Porto Limon, Costa Rica, the British IMOCA Open 60 Hugo Boss last night reported hitting an unidentified object in the water, damaging the starboard bow of the boat and causing them to take in water. They have slowed the boat right down, have a pump working, are managing the ingress of water.
 
Alex Thomson, the skipper, has reported that conditions are stable and they are not in any imminent danger. The British pair are in regular contact with TJV Race Director Jean Maurel. They have been in discussion with their shore team, and with a structural engineer from SP before they make any decisions as to what their options are.
Hugo Boss was approximately 400 miles south of the Azores.
Thomson said:
“I am gutted, we have done the hard bit, been through the storms and the way ahead was looking very easy. We will monitor the situation overnight and assess in the morning what our options are,”

Further down the race course, abreast of the Canary Islands the three way battle at the front of the fleet continues with Safran still holding the upper hand as the trio negotiate the more tricky downwind conditions at the lower edge of a high pressure before breaking into a more stable SE’ly wind flow.

“ Things are wonderful, the sun is shining, it is warm and I am not being hosed constantly in the face by water. I am about to shed some layers and so I am a very happy bunny.”
“ Since we left the Azores we had a big lightning squall, loads of wind and then it shifted and now the wind has just gone behind us, so similar to the rest of the pack really, so we are hanging in there as we all converge in this kind of meeting zone, and going round the edge
of a high pressure rather than dealing with depressions, so we have blue skies, fluffy white clouds and the boat is going like a dream. So it is time to get these niggly jobs which were a problem in the bad weather sorted out one by one.”
“ We have some chafe on some lines to deal with, the wind instruments are not the best at the moment, but I think that is a common occurrence with the bumping around these boats have taken. I am having to charge with the engine rather than the generator which is a bit slow and laborious, especially as the temperatures are rising, but really nothing which is
going to stop us getting to Costa Rica if we have a say.”
“ We are all on a bit of a conveyor belt at the moment, it is quite funny the way we have all converged again, no matter which way we came. And now the weather is quite obvious so it is going to be very obvious where everyone will go and so we have to hang in there on boat-speed and claw back some miles. We started so well, lost a lot of miles in the bad weather and now we have to get some back.”
“ We can be competitive now, we did some jobs this morning which meant we were kind of slow changing up the gears, but now we are full main, big Code sails and the boatspeed is pretty good.”Alex Thomson, GBR (Hugo Boss):

 

“We were sailing along with jib-top, full main TWA about 130 degrees, wind speed about 22 knots surfing at over 20 knots, probably averaging 18 knots, about three o’clock in the afternoon we hit something…. a pretty good thump….i did not see it, it did not hit the rudder, but for sure we can tell we hit something. We had a good look around the boat, and by the time Ross got forwards, the boat was getting very, very hard to steer, and by the time he got up forward one of the watertight compartments had about 4 tonnes of water in it, which is why the boat was not steering. We took some pictures and sent them back to our shore crew. This morning we have reassessed the damage, decided it is impossible to repair it, not because it is very big, but because there is water coming in and we can’t stop it from coming in. And so we will retire from the race and head for the Azores. The damage is on the starboard side of the bow, about three or four metres back, not on the centreline off to the starboard side but about half a metre out. What we can see on the inside is a depression, so
something has clobbered the outside and made a big indent and there is water coming through, not very big about 300mm or so. We had told ourselves we had done the worst part of it. We had been through the storm and probably had had the worst of it. We had been knocked down by a breaking waves, and this boat is strong as hell. I am totally confident in with its strength in any  way, in fact I am amazed that you can put a boat through that. So I am quite pissed off that we are having to retire from the race because someone has
discarded some rubbish in the sea which has caused a hole in the hull.”
“ I was thinking to myself yesterday lunch time, about one o’clock that it was fantastic sailing, Ross was steering, we were in good position, we had been through the worst of the storm, and we had done the riskiest bit, so to get damaged by someone else’s rubbish is just
gutting. Really gutting.”
“ We have shored up the area to make sure it does not get any worse and we will slowly limp towards Horta. We are leaning over just now with the keel on the other side, but I am sure that more water will come when we get under way, but I am not worried at all that we will not be able to keep up with the amount of water coming in.”

Marc Guillemot, FRA (Safran):

“During the night we carried out a few gybes to get into the position we had planned to be able to make our way through the Antilles. This was our strategy and we had to stick with it.  In relation to the finishing line, which is the ultimate goal, our rivals have narrowed the gap. In relation to us, it is still the same situation as yesterday.”
 “It’s more relaxing when you are the hunter, but we’re quite pleased about being the hunted. At the moment, we are certainly not feeling any stress, and our goal is to continue along our own route.  Charles has spent a lot of time working on the navigation, and has laid the
foundations, which we then take decisions about together.  We’re just where we want to be for what lies ahead and we shall see whether we were right or not.” 

 

Safran hold a lead of just less than 34 miles, as the chasing pair squeeze up a little .
Now in third, after erring closer to the centre of the high and having less wind perhaps, Mike Golding Yacht Racing are less than five miles behind Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart on Groupe Bel.
Golding said this morning that conditions for them remain tricky, quite unstable under spinnaker with a difficult seaway. Trying to keep the boat settled in course with their autopilots remains testing and so they continue to maximize their time spent hand steering.

Due to the Hugo Boss problems Spanish entry 1876 is now up to fourth whilst steady progress up the fleet continues for Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou who are up to seventh now on Foncia, overtaking Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson on Aviva during yesterday evening.

Foncia’s next target is Desjoyeaux’s long time friend and rival Roland Jourdain on Veolia Environnement, just 40 miles ahead, but Veolia Environnement still have some lighter airs to cross while Foncia who were quickest in the fleet this morning, making two knots faster than the leaders.
Quotes:

Francois Gabart (FRA) Groupe Bel: “It’s going great. Since yesterday morning it’s been tops. We are sliding along under gennaker and it’s really pleasant to steer. Even when you get wet it’s good, so we are happy sliding along in the Atlantic. The trade winds are what we have been looking forward to since leaving France.
But the wind is not so stable, in strength or direction, so we have to steer quit a lot. We are not even that far off gybing. And of course having made it into second we have a smile on our faces this morning.
But you have to fight for the small gains, every mile, always trying to go as fast as possible. Safran is the same boat as ours, so we can’t count on being a better design. And so if we want to catch them we need to use the small wind shifts. In the next few hours we will do the gybe and then after that it is roughly a straight line to the West Indies. But all the time I think the winds will be quite unstable, there are always going to be options and ploys to follow, right into the Caribbean.”

Mike Golding (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing: “We are just under kite and just trying to steer the boat with the pilot. We gybed and so that turned out be a bit of a mission. It is good, we are passing through the ridge of the high pressure and trying to choose how to proceed next, conditions are good but there is a bit of a sea running which makes it a bit tricky with the kite and obviously we are having to be a little attentive because we don’t have any wind gear, we had a little problem through the gybe with a squeezer, so have had to change kites, but otherwise all quite normal and cracking along quite nicely.”

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