Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier Skippers Of Open 60 Safran (Photo by Jean-Marie Liot / DPPI)
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……”
BT On Day Four Before Distress Call Sent Out (Photo Courtesy Of Offshore Challenges)
First alert 1020 GMT
At approximately 1020 GMT today, BT crew Sébastien Josse and Jean-François Cuzon have activated their EPIRB distress beacon after having suffered major damage following a night battling it out in fierce seas and winds reaching 60 knots at times. The skippers are in regular contact with Race Director Jean Maurel, and have reported significant damage to the coachroof, and water entering the boat. The MRCC are coordinating operations with the Transat Jacques Vabre Race Direction and the BT shore team, to ensure the safe recovery of the skippers. MRCC Falmouth confirmed that the RCC Azores was had sent a helicopter and a Navy vessel over to BT, whilst carrying out a satellite broadcast alert to shipping in the area.
This morning’s message sent by Jean-François Cuzon said it all, and takes its full measure in the light of this morning’s events. Having battled it out in waves reaching more than 8 metres of height, the BT boys were still ver confident this morning, so one can only imagine the shock it must have been for them to discover the damage. Here is what Jeff wrote, a few hours before all hell broke loose: “Impressive, the conditions are really hard on the water, 35 to 60 knots with a big swell (thankfully we are not upwind). Onboard BT, we just put our heads down and wait for better times, we just had a couple of gusts at 55 knots. Jojo has done a great job at the helm and we are now with only the main sail. We hope to get out of that terrible weather in the middle of the day.” With Veolia heading towards the Azores due to a torn mainsail track and Artemis also reporting a string of gear failures, last night’s storm took its toll on the fleet and BT certainly endured the nastiest blow, after having led for most of the race.
1400 GMT – Rescue boat 30 miles away
Jeff Cuzon spoke to Race Director Jean Maurel at 1325 GMT approximately, the situation is stable on board and both men are secure, calmly waiting for the rescue operation to unfold. A helicopter is currently refuelling and will depart to locate BT as soon as possible. Due to the conditions it might not be possible to recover the skippers by air. However, a rescue boat is 30 miles away from BT and making best speed towards BT. The crew still have their handheld Iridium satellite phone, and the EPIRB beacon is functioning properly, reporting BT’s position.
1705 GMT – Visual contact
The Ocean Explorer vessel, taking part in the rescue operation, made visual and VHF contact with the crew aboard the BT yacht…
1800 GMT – They’re safe!
After having considered all the options, decision was taken to use the helicopter aboard the Ocean Explorer and Seb and Jeff were lifted to safety and taken straight back to Terceira, in the Azores. A tugboat is now on standby, and all efforts will now be made to salvage the BT yacht. The technical team left the UK at midday and will arrive in the Azores this evening, with a planned departure Saturday morning to attempt to salvage the BT yacht. Currently the BT shore team have 15 minute position data from the yacht thanks to its tracker.
Race direction just spoke with Sébastien, both men are perfectly fine and getting ready to seeing the plane fly over them very shortly. The visibility is rather bad.
15:50 GMT
A scientific vessel is getting near BT’s position, and a plane should also be in the perimeter very shortly.
15:00 GMT
No more news for the moment, the rescue boat is heading towards the BT yacht on board which the situation is stable.
Rescue boat 30 miles away
Jeff Cuzon spoke to Race Director Jean Maurel at 13:25 GMT approximately, the situation is stable on board and both men are secure, calmly waiting for the rescue operation to unfold. A helicopter is currently refuelling and will depart to locate the BT yacht as soon as possible. Due to the conditions it might not be possible to recover the skippers by air. However, a rescue boat is 30 miles away from the BT yacht and making best speed towards the boat. The crew still have their handheld Iridium satellite phone, and the EPIRB beacon is functioning properly, reporting the boats position. �The website will be updated every 30 minutes (on the hour and half past) with news.
BT waiting to be rescued
The crew have reported that the coach roof was torn and said the boat was 2 thirds full of water. They have prepared the TPS survival suits and liferaft, and wait for the rescue resources to reach them. MRCC Falmouth confirmed that the RCC Azores have sent a helicopter and a Navy vessel towards BT, whilst emitting a satellite broadcast alert to shipping in the area.
BT activates distress beacon – rescue operation underway
At approximately 11:00 GMT today, BT crew Sébastien Josse and Jean-François Cuzon have activated their EPIRB distress beacon after having suffered major damage following a night battling it out in fierce seas and winds reaching 60 knots at times. The skippers are in regular contact with Race Director Jean Maurel, and have reported significant damage to the coachroof, and water entering the boat. The MRCC are coordinating operations with the Transat Jacques Vabre Race Direction and the BT shore team, to ensure the safe recovery of the skippers. MRCC Falmouth confirmed that the RCC Azores was had sent a helicopter and a Navy vessel over to BT, whilst carrying out a satellite broadcast alert to shipping in the area. BT is currently 210 miles North of the Azores, 42 10º N – 27 50º
Sam Davies and Sidney Cavinet on Artemis Ocean Racing (Photo by Mark Lloyd)
It’s as if the scriptwriters have a hot line to the weather gods. Friday 13th and the Transat Jacques Vabre fleet have their toughest conditions yet, with storm force gusts, mean windspeeds for those in the north of around 50 knots, huge seas and the boats down to tiny sail areas as they live out what promises to be the most difficult period.
True to the plot-line the winds built at around midnight, and skippers spoken to early this morning say they expect to have seen the worst of it by they time they get into Saturday.
Conditions on deck are close to impossible and below decks the duos try to stop themselves from being flung around the inside of their boats like pinballs.
As record breaking British skipper Dee Caffari – the only woman to have circumnavigated the planet non-stop solo in opposite directions – reported from Aviva: “It’s survival conditions. We are just working to get through it, looking after the boat and ourselves.”
Kito de Pavant, from Groupe Bel, summed it up: “It’s a war!”
Jeff Cuzon on second placed BT: ‘It’s horrible.”
Conditions for the group in the south are marginally better but it is the Safran of Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier, in the northern vanguard, which still heads the rankings by 18.7 miles from Seb Josse and Curzon on BT.
In the south Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou on Foncia are in a SW’ly wind on port tack and have pulled back around 20 miles since last night but still have a deficit of some 245 miles on the leading pack, an seem set to continue into lighter headwinds.
Somewhat ominously perhaps, the boat in the furthest north remains Alex Thomson’s black hulled Hugo Boss, was the quickest this morning, with the best VMG of the fleet.
Mike Golding and Javier Sanso retain their third place on the IMOCA Open 60 standings on Mike Golding Yacht Racing just less than 40 miles in arrears to Safran, while Caffari and Brian Thompson and seventh, behind Alex Thomson and Ross Daniel on Hugo Boss whose distance behind the leaders is very little changed since the same time yesterday morning.
Deliverance, in some form, should come at the Azores where the fleet seems set to compact again a little with some lighter breezes, although there are still small systems around to be negotiated or utilised to best effect.
In the Multi50 fleet Crepes Whaou have been sticking to the survival recipe in their new boat but are emerging with a lead of 184 miles.
With Prince de Bretagne safely in Vigo, Galicia for assessment and repairs, only three multi’s are actively racing just now.
Safaran (Photo by Jean Marie Loit / DPPI)
Quotes:
JF Cuzon (FRA) BT: “The conditions are very difficult. Since midnight we have had between 35 and 60 knots. It’s tough, it’s horrible, it’s impressive. You try to preserve the boat as much as you can. The swell is powerful but the most impressive thing is the gusts of wind. It goes up so quickly and that is what makes it so difficult.
Then today maybe round midday it should start to drop.
….there, we have 53 knots of wind, I need to go….”
In his message sent shortly after he confirmed that they were sailing only under deep reef mainsail.
Dee Caffari (GBR), Aviva: “Things are a bit messy. We have 40-50 knots squalls. It has been like this for the last three hours. We took the staysail down and put out the storm jib but did not unfurl it because we are just overpowered. It is consistently 35, gusting to 40 and 50.
It is definitely in for the next 12 hours. It is uncomfortable and there is nothing we can do about it. We just have to survive it and so we are in survival mode which is a bit frustrating, but it is about getting through this and coming out the other side and get back to sailing. The boat seems to handling it well, Brian is a cool, calm cucumber and is having a good effect on me. We’ve had our fair share of issues and problems but so far we seem to be surviving.”
Alex Thomson (GBR), Hugo Boss:
“ All is well on board. We had a bit on an issue with the J3 which unfurled itself in 50 knots of wind but Rossco dealt with it and furled it away. Ross banged his wrist on the first night out but he has been battling on through the pain, he is a real trooper.”
“It is incredible on board. You cannot move around anywhere or do anything, you can’t go to the toilet. In fact we have not even managed to make a cup of tea since the start and both Ross and I are avid tea drinkers.”
“But we are moving up the rankings OK, which is nice, but at the moment survival is the most important thing, but as soon as the wind eases off we will be able to really put the hammer down the more miles we get south.”
Mike Golding (GBR), Mike Golding Yacht Racing:
“ It was a rough night really and now we are hoping in the next hour or so to see the back of the squalls which have been coming through up to 65 knots, and just horrendous seas but I am sure that all the boats are struggling in these conditions. It is not an easy time.”
“ We are both fine. Javier has just gone for some rest. We have both been up all night with just such extreme conditions. We are just trying to push through them and not break anything.”
“ I think at the moment we are just pleased to be still on the race course, we are having to squeeze up a little to try and find a line through, but I have always been quite happy tactically where are, to the south of this group.
“And I’ll be pleased to be the first out of the worst.”
“ We are lining up to pass the Azores in 12 hours of so, and we’ll see what happens there.”
Michel Desjoyeaux, (FRA), Foncia:
“It is a bit wet here. We had a front pass over then a rough night with the wind increasing and a shift around daybreak and since then it has gone SSW’ly. It is bumpy, everything shaking. It is quite impressive but it passes and that is the way it is. We are getting along between 12 and 14 knots all the time and mostly the wind has been low 30′s. The most we’ve seen is 48 knots. And in a few hours we should see some calmer conditions. The seas will remain for a bit, but the winds will abate steadily.”
Roland Jourdain (FRA) Foncia:
“ We tore off the cars at the head of the mainsail when we were taking a reef in. The winds have been between 40 and 45 knots, we took a first reef, then a second and then we had the problem. We realized the problem and immediately dropped the mainsail. We can’t sail with more than two reefs, which is fine for the moment. But if we want to be competitive to the end of the race then we need to stop to repair it.”
“We will stop in Horta in the Azores to make a repair as quickly as possible. If everything is OK it should be done quickly. We should get into the port relatively easily and the repair is not complicated and it is not a big thing to repair.”
“ What is costly to us though is changing course, we were very happy with our option.
Anway we don’t want to give up, we want to stay in the race and we will do everything to get to Costa Rica. We have had better times but that is the way it goes.”
BT At Start of Transat Jacques Vabre (Photo by Therry Martinez)
The weather had cleared up in Le Havre this morning, bringing a nicely relaxed feel to the Paul Vatine Basin before the boats set off to head for the start line. “The conditions will be good to start off with”, said a smiling Seb Josse, “I have my good friend Jeff with me, the boat’s on top of her form, so it’s all perfect!” The first 36 hours should prove tactically tricky due to a succession of transition zones, and the BT boys were eager to put brains and muscle at work in order to earn their place in the leading pack right from the begnning. Having taken a nice clean start under gennaker in a weak breeze of around 10 knots, Seb and Jeff were definitely among the frontrunners just minutes after the gun, making the most of their monohull’s speed potential downwind in medium conditions. “Seb and I have trained hard, spent long and tough nights at sea, I know my way around the boat and this race is going to be a sprint, we won’t have time to get bored I’m sure!” Both men insist on the fact that their complicity is one of their most important strong points, and that it will shape their “watch system”: “We don’t want to set a fixed schedule, we’ll play it by ear”, explains Seb. “If I feel perfectly fine at the helm and Jeff is asleep, I’ll let him rest and I know he’ll do the same for me. It’s important to look after each other, to ease the burden whenever possible.” The wind is expected to increase significantly this evening, and the already rough sea state – it’s been blowing hard on the Channel for a week – should be a bit unpleasant for the first night of the race
Having set off around the world four times already, skipper Sébastien Josse left Le Havre very relaxed. “It’s not exactly a walk in the park, but there’s definitely not the same level of stress than when I know I’m going for 3 months at sea, especially singlehanded. For this Transat, I’m with my old friend Jeff, we’re going to have a blast and as they say, ‘times flies when you’re having fun’. Seriously, I probably wouldn’t be as serene if the boat wasn’t ready, but I feel no tension whatsoever, I’m going out there with the desire to do the best I can and give a great result to the team, they all deserve to see their work rewarded, they’ve been great.”
Seb and Jeff At Start of Transat (Photo by Thierry Martinez / Sea&Co)
The wind is expected to increase significantly this evening, and the already rough sea state – it’s been blowing hard on the Channel for a week – should be a bit unpleasant for the first night of the race.
“We’re going to be reaching so it should not be that bad, but I know there’s still 6 to 7 metres of swell height out there”, said Seb. “Things will be shaky there’s no doubt about it, but at least we’ll be out of the Channel pretty fast, and Monday will bring a short-lived respite with a high pressure ridge. Just enough time to brace ourselves for the next one, because it looks like we’re bound to be hit by a series of lows.” By Tuesday the various options should be visible, and the fleet will probably start to split between the direct and the southern routes. “We will have to cope with a lot of
transition zones for the first three days at sea”, warned Jeff Cuzon, checking his weather files one last time before going to bed on Saturday night. “Definitely a situation that will put the tacticians’ brain cells in overdrive!”
