2015 Transat Jacques Vabre

[Buzz Light Beer]

I Just checked, the fastest foiling IMOCA 60' is Banque Populaire is in 3rd, behind PRB and Queguiner, which are conventionally rigged.

Call me a skeptic, but shouldn't they be way in front?

[Photoboy]

Closing In On The Finish For Ultimes



On the Transatlantic race track there are good nights and bad nights. Pleasure and pain. Success and disappointments. For Thomas Coville and Jean Luc Nélias on Sodebo Ultim’ it is disappointment this morning, seeing race leaders MACIF, Francois Gabart and Pascal Bidégorry at 140 miles ahead with 1450 miles to the finish.

MACIF are past Fernando de Noronha and this morning are just 60 miles off the coast at Recife on the NE corner of Brazil. Gabart and Bidégorry are just faster on the new MACIF, making 27kts to Sodebo’s 22 at 0700hrs UTC this morning.






Nélias, on Sodebo, commented this morning:
“There is a lot of frustration when we look at the rankings. But this is still a great adventure. It is a great race, the battle with MACIF is super nice. And now there will be options, opportunities to attack we will not let up. There are still a lot of miles, just under 2000. On a 600 miles race you might accept it. But there is still a fight, even if we have only two boats in the class. We must be first. The Doldrums were a pain. It took 36 hours of no wind to get through and get ourselves clear."





In the Multi 50s Ciela Village’s Oliver Krauss, speaking on the morning radio vacs with Race Hq in Brazil, could not hide his disappointment at losing miles with a longer than expected pit-stop which cost them their battle for the lead. Correspondingly Thibault Vauchel-Camus was putting a brave face on Le Coenservateur running away at the head of Class40.

The trio which leads the IMOCA class are still in V formation. Theirs is a tussle which does not let up and there are no breaks, neither literally nor figuratively. There is still nothing separating leaders PRB, Vincent Riou and Seb Col, from Banque Populaire VIII, Armel Le Cléac’h and Erwan Tabarly and Queguine Leucemie-Espoir, Yann Eliès and Charlie Dalin. The leading trio are progressing out of the Doldrums this morning in SE’ly winds making 10kts upwind. Behind them Tanguy de Lamotte and Sam Davies have been rewarded for their hard sailing since their repairs by restoring their Initiatives Coeur to fourth place.

In Class 40 the three cornered fight is over second, not first, now that Le Conservateur has made over 200 miles by escaping away from the high pressure ridge. Thibaut Vauchel-Camus of Soldiaires en Peloton ARSEP spoke of their mood, five miles off second placed V and B.




General situation Wednesday, November 4 to 6 utc

Leaders going fast, some good matches in the other classes?

Depression 978 hPa 53N and 34W extends a trough to the south.

Anticyclone 1021 hPa on the Canaries is largely stationary

The Doldrums, ICTZ, are oriented at 6 deg north.

Depression 1011 hPa 27S and 42W moves SE

Anticyclone 1027 hPa 37Sand 34W stationary

Forecast for the day of November 4 and the following night:

Ultimes: Move fast towards Itajaí, the leaders gain as they are always getting to stronger, more lifted breeze.

Multi50: Their ‘doldrums’ are light but with not many squalls. But as the two leaders are well offset perhaps there are options for the second placed.

IMOCA The leaders are emerging slowly from the Doldrums. Their fight at the front promises to be exciting as the S’ly trades increase as they get south.

Class 40 The leading quartet get south while the chasing pack continue to struggle in the anticyclone. Behind it becomes complicated as a new trough arrives.

Trend for November 5:Trade winds are moderate, gusty for the southerners. The "doldrums" are little less sticky. The anticyclone remains parked south of the Canaries.

Richard SILVANI





“We have a good race for second place. Le Conservateur has made a very substantial break. They managed to escape and so earned their miles. The elastic has stretched away. Three boats are now fighting, Carac - Advanced Energies got back at us at the high pressure ridge. We watch constantly and hope that we make more than we lose.”

They said:
Jean-Luc Nélias, co-skipper of Sodebo Ultim (Ultime): "The atmosphere is a little bouncy and shaking. We are close reaching with 24-25kts of wind. That makes it choppy with waves. It looks pretty straight to Cabo Frio with some downwind and gybes and a cold front at Cabo Frio. Would we go to the coast or stay offshore? There will be options, opportunities to attack we will not let up. There are still a lot of miles, just under 2000. On a 600 miles race you might accept it. But there is still a fight, even if we have only two boats in the class. We must be first. The Doldrums were a pain. It took 36 hours of no wind to get through and get ourselves clear."

Oliver Krauss, co-skipper of CIELA Village (Multi50): "Ours was a rather long pit stop. It as hard as we did not sleep very much. Early in the race we did not to go as well, to be as fas as we were with the boat. The good thing now is we have a boat, we are still racing. Now the question is how hard to push. We sail a little restrained now, we sailed harder when we had lots of wind, now we sail like we are sailing with friends."

Fabrice Amedeo, so skipper of Newrest / Matmut (IMOCA): "I'm in the cockpit. Eric is sleeping . We will be in the Doldrums tonight. We are under gennaker it is grey and all is well. The atmospher on board is good, we spent the last few hours looking at the Doldrums as we have in recen days. It is interesting because there is a pretty tight group of boats and we will see how it goes with them at the exit of the Doldrums. It will be in the Pot Black tonight, we are under gennaker, it is gray and all is well. The atmosphere is good, we focused on setting the last few hours looking at the Pot Black in recent days, it's interesting, because we are a pretty tight group of small boats and we will have to see how it goes at the exit of the Doldrums. When changing tack, we put the daggerboard down and the cable used to lift it got caught up in the housing. We are quite happy with our position in the ranking, we would rather be in front of MACSF but with the Doldrums and 1800 miles of racing there is still plenty of race track left."

Thibault Vauchel-Camus, co-skipper of Solidarite en Peloton- ARSEP (Class 40): "We have a good race for second place. Le Conservateur has made a very substantial break. They managed to escape and so earned their miles. The elastic has stretched away. Three boats are now fighting, Carac - Advanced Energies got back at us at the high pressure ridge. We watch constantly and hope that we make more than we lose. We watch the positions every hour to see that no one has moved laterally. It is frustrating to see them stretch away because we we racing to win. But Itajai is a long way away and so we hope to play to win again,"



Chart

[Rainier]

Rainier,

The IMOCA foilers have 2 j foils which extend 8 feet or so, in addition to the keel and 2 rudders. It's like a mini colander dragging through the water at high speed.

A 25-30 knot guillotine bouncing in and out of the water. The larger cats in flatter water have some continuity in their connection with the water. In the open ocean,
the boats are jumping in and out constantly, the loads themselves on the hull, through hull fittings and the rigs is much exaggerated. And for what? 3-5 knots of temporary vmg?

Well, they all have 2 rudders and a keel. The difference is vertical daggerboards vs horizontal foils. But I agree, lots of stuff going through the water at high speed! I suppose an argument could be made that having the foils right at the surface is more dangerous for surface oriented marine life.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is the best set up yet. I'm just saying it would be silly to give up on it after one go. Structural issues can be fixed with better design. I think gaining 1 knot of VMG for distance racing would more than cover some risk. Maybe not all the risk they have now, but some risk. Risk vs reward is what sailing is all about, even in one design!

Unless you have a foiling J70! (and are the class measurer)

I think the best argument against them so far is that they only work in certain conditions, and are a hindrance in some conditions. If you are going to race around the world you would need to guesstimate what percentage of each you would see to make a decision.

Does anybody doubt the Volvo boats will have these if not in the next go round but the one after that?

If nothing else it makes a boring race interesting! Does anybody actually follow the clipper race? Because thats what they would all look like without crazy new designs...

[Panama Red]

Does anybody doubt the Volvo boats will have these if not in the next go round but the one after that?

I severely doubt it. The Volvo is looking for less expensive, more dependable boats.

[Rainier]

Ahhh, you're right. I forgot about the move to one design last go round.

[Runs_with_sissors]

Speaking of the Volvo, has a successor to Knut been announced yet?

[Prince of Whales]

Dont think so. Somewhat absurd that Knut would step down without somebody ready to take charge.

[IOR Geezer]

Just an observation, but with the foiling cats, the foils are inside the beam.

On the foiling monohulls, it's outside.

I can just picture a tight start or mark rounding with those blades interlocking, or worse.

[Panama Red]

The docking gets a tad complex, I suspect.

[Photoboy]

Michel Desjoyeaux speaks on the foil vs non-foil IMOCA 60's

[Runs_with_sissors]

Doesn't sound like a solid endorsement

[Photoboy]

Macif 1st To Finish 2015 Transat Jacque Vabre




French co-skippers François Gabart and Pascal Bidégorry on the new 30m Ultime Trimaran MACIF crossed the finish line at 05:59Hrs 27secs UTC this morning (00:59hrs 27secs local) in Itajaí, Brazil as first Ultime, to take line honours in the 5400 miles Transat Jacques Vabre double handed Transatlantic race which left Le Havre, France at 1230hrs UTC on Sunday 25th October.

The elapsed time for Gabart, 32, and Bidégorry, 47, is 12 days 17hrs 29min 27sec sailing at an average speed of 17.68 kts for the theoretical course of 5400 Nms (10,000kms). They ensured MACIF win its first ever ocean race. The new VPLP design, which was only launched in August, actually sailed 6340 Nms on the water at a real average speed of 20.75kts

It is the first time that Gabart, who won the solo round the world Vendée Globe race in 2013 at his first attempt at the age of 29, has triumphed in the Transat Jacques Vabre race. He was second in the IMOCA class on his first ever ocean race in 2009. Bidégorry was on the winning multihull in 2005.

In this 12th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre MACIF chased in the wake of early race leaders Thomas Coville and Jean-Luc Nélias (Sodebo Ultim’) until the Doldrums, but were never more than 70Nms behind. Two of the four Ultime trimarans which started had to abandon, including Prince de Bretagne which capsized off the NW coast of Spain.

An exciting duel between the two giant multis took them close to the African coast, trading gybes only a few miles off the shoreline as they sought to avoid the light winds to their west caused by the Azores anticyclone. The pair closed through the Doldrums but Gabart and Bidégorry were able to extract themselves better from a very slow, sticky passage of this light winds zone.

Emerging first into the SE’ly trade winds they extended their lead out to 258 miles between Salvador de Bahia and Rio. But the chasing pair closed again around Cabo Frio in the transition zone caused by a stormy low pressure and Sodebo Ultim were less than 100 Nms behind at the finish line and are due to finish around 1100hrs UTC

[Photoboy]

Sodebo 2nd In TJV



French co-skippers Thomas Coville and Jean-Nelias finished second Ultime in the Transat Jacques Vabre this Saturday afternoon bringing their trimaran Sodebo Ultim’ across the Itajai, Brazil finish line at 13:17hrs 38secs UTC. (8:17hrs 38secs local)

Coville and Nélias are second Ultime in this 12th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. Their elapsed time for the course is 13 days 0 hours 47mins 38 secs, sailing at an average speed of 17.26kts on the theoretical course of 5400 miles (10,000 km) from Le Havre to Itajaí. But in reality, the 31 metres maxi trimaran sailed 6451 miles on the water at an average speed of 20.51 kts.

They finish 7hrs 18mins 11secs after Ultime winners François Gabart and Pascal Bidégorry.

The consistent, unchallenged leader in the early miles of racing, Sodebo Ultim' had steadily opened a lead on MACIF during the fast, power reaching on the Bay of Biscay. At the latitude of Gibraltar Coville and Nélias were 65 miles up on MACIF François Gabart and Pascal Bidégorry who won the Ultime class this morning.

Down the Moroccan coast they match each other on opposite gybes. Gybing north of the Cape Verde islands MACIF got back on terms, Sodebo positioned slightly further to the west. MACIF lead out of the Doldrums and extended their lead to nearly 260 miles, but Coville and Nelias clawed back miles reducing their deficit to 88Nms when MACIF secured victory this morning.

Clotilde Bednarek, Director of Marketing at Café Jacques Vabre commented on the finishes.

"This morning, the sun has finally risen on Itajaí to celebrate the arrival of the podium of the Ultim Class of this 12th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre. The co-skippers of Macif and Sodebo Ultim' gave us a breathlessly exciting race for 5400 miles and over morning coffee today two magical things have happened. "

"Congratulations to you, Francois & Pascal .... Thomas & Jean-Luc, for your race, your commitment and your human values! The Transat Jacques Vabre is proud of you! But the race is not over: there are still three podiums to be settled for the 23 boats still on the water. Good luck to them. "

[Built to List]

My money is on Francois setting the new Jules Verne record!

[Photoboy]

Under 500 NM For PRB




The Doldrums are proving cruel and capricious for longtime Class 40 leaders Yannick Bestaven and Pierre Brassuer. Trapped by extreme calms they have seen their leading margin shrink dramatically from a seemingly untenable 316 miles just after the Cape Verde islands to a much more delicate 87 miles this morning. Bestaven and Brasseur are making just 2.6kts while Louis Duc and Christophe Lebas (Carac-Advanced Energies) and Maxime Sorel with Sam Manuard (V and B) are sailing twice as fast, duelling at just one mile difference in latitude but 26 miles apart laterally.

Engaged in a tight battle for second in the Multi50 Class, Lalou Roucayrol and Caesar Dohy (Arkema) have had to reroute to Salvador de Bahia 130 miles ahead of them this morning. They have a structural delamination problem with the main hull of their Tri. “For us this is the start of another race.” Said co-skipper Roucayrol this morning, “We head for Salvador and leave as quickly as possible. We will have our team there waiting. We want to make the finish line of this Transat Jacques Vabre.”

Now less than one day from Cabo Frio, the three leading IMOCAs look to the fine detail of their decisive transition from the trade winds of the St Helena anticyclone to the area of stormy low pressures which prevail there and in the Bay of Rio. This will be the final phase of the race which will decide the finishing order into Itajaí. Rock solid leaders Vincent Riou and Seb Col (PRB) have lost nothing at all to Armel Le Cléac’h and Erwan Tabarly (Banque Populaire VIII) who remain 35.8 miles behind.

The leading IMOCAs will start their right turns late tonight or tomorrow morning, sailing downwind into the a lighter E’ly breeze. Short term there does seem to a wind which is reasonably well established all the way south to Itajaí. It will be down to timing their gybes and managing the squalls and lighter zones. The junction between these two zones is of paramount importance.

They said...

Lalou Roucayrol, Arkema (Multi-50): "The bottom of the middle hull is damaged. There are several leaks in the front compartment. Either we hit an object and did not realise it, or it has delaminated. We'll see when we get the boat out of the water. The boat was not right in the water and in fact we pumped out loads of water. The middle hull was half fully for water. I made a bit of a repair, limiting the ingress with some patched but it really needs repaired and right now we are pumping all the time. We will sail to Salvador and finish the race.”

Vincent Riou, PRB (IMOCA): “ It is OK. This morning we managed to pass through a cloudy front. We are downwind and look ahead to Cabo Frio and then we will turn right tomorrow. After Cabo Frio, it will drop and so we will see how it feels. At the moment we are not really approaching Cabo Frio, and so we will watch what is expected to happen on land or offshore. Tomorrow morning we will look at the files closely. As leaders we open the course and take the risks, but I'd rather be where I am. Banque Populaire is good on the reach. But now we are better positioned than him and now that we have the sails we want, we cannot say they scare us. But there are bunch of maneuvers to do and mistakes that can happen ... We are in the race and in regatta mode. It’s nice.The batteries are well recharged. Now we are on the final sprint: it will not be easy. We attack! "

************************************************** *****************************************


Tracker


The two key podiums which remain open in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the IMOCA and Class 40 will see decisive times in the hours through Monday night into Tuesday. With less than 550 miles to go for the IMOCA leaders, the transition of Cabo Frio early tomorrow might well decide which of the top three duos – just 86 miles from first to third. But equally critical will be whether the long time Class40 leaders Yannick Bestaven and Pierre Brasseur can finally escape out of the clutches of the Doldrums.

Bestaven and Brasseur have tried to remain patient and focused on Le Conservateur as their 315 miles lead has melted away ‘like snow in the sun’ to just 57 miles. They have been stuck, scotched – as the French call it – for the best part of 48 hours while the duelling, chasing duo behind have swallowed miles at a voracious rate. Even this afternoon skipper Bestaven - fourth in last year’s solo Route du Rhum and winner of the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2011, considered that they would get in to better breeze this evening. But Maxime Sorel and Sam Manuard on V and B were still making over nine knots to Le Conservateur’s average of three. For their first big ocean race together, Brazilian duo Eduardo Penido and Renato Araujo are still sailing an astute race on Zetra, lying fifth.

In August Vicent Riou and Seb Col proved they were the form partnership going into this race when they won the Rolex Fastnet offshore. Now today they have less than one Fastnet – 607 miles – to finish Riou and Col are in the driving seat with a lead of 36 miles, still, over Banque Populaire VIII, Armel Le Cléac’h and Erwan Tabarly. The leading three boats gybed this morning around breakfast time and have been closing to the Brazilian coast all day. Signifiantly perhaps Riou and Col have chosen a layline which will allow them to pass the point NE of Cabo Frio and get closer to the land where the breeze is forecast to be slightly stronger.

Seventeen miles is all that separates Le Souffle du Nord, Thomas Ruyant and Adrien Hardy, from Tanguy de Lamotte and Sam Davies. Davies noted today that they are determined to beat the boatin front of them and are enjoying the duel for fourth and fifth immensely.

Damaged Multi 50 Arkema, Lalou Roucayrol and Cesar Dohy, were 70 miles from Salvador de Bahia this afternoon. The duo have their technical team standing by to make a laminate repair to the cracks in the main hull which were allowing substantial water ingress, requiring them to pump to keep the boat safe.

They said:

Charlie Dalin, co-skipper of Queguiner-Leucemie-Espoir (IMOCA 60): "The sun has just risen it is damp again and late night it was cool. We just had a gust to 21 knots, there is still wind, we are more downwind now, we sail angles which are slower. At Cabo Frio it is a bit like Cape Finisterre. The wind accelerates but so too there are oil platforms. That is another challenge to take account of. There is lots to do and we have to be careful to find the right route. Tonight there will be some platforms. We think we will finish in Itajaí Wednesday afternoon around 2000hrs French time. The end of this race is not simple. There is a depression which will come out to sea. And of course the models do not agree. We will give it all we have. The objective is to finish with no regrets, to make some good moves. We are always pushing. We give it our all until the end. On board it has been exactly as I expected as my role. It is such a great experience I am happy to be here.”

Sam Davies, co-skipper Initiatives Coeur (IMOCA 60): “We look forwards to beating Le Souffle du Nord. I’m having so much fun that I will be a little sad when it is over. We are very happy on board. We lack for nothing. We still have chocolate. Initiatives Coeur is a solid boat, we feel safe. Tanguy is lucky to have this boat and this will give him confidence to go forwards to the Vendée Globe.”


Erwan Leroux, skipper FenêtréA Prysmian (Multi50): "Aboard FenêtréA Prysmian we are under gennaker and have one reef in the mainsail, we are on starboard tack and we are sailing along the Brazilian coast. What has happened to Arkema is a shame, I hope they will repair successfully and bring the boat to Itajaí. The important thing is that Lalou can save the boat. Through that first week of the race, we had our share of all miseries with these four different wind regimes. Even the last 500 miles of the race and we'll see 25 knots with gusts to 35. It's a long race and very very technical.. It was a stormy depression that hollow, one is obliged to go near the coast, we will cross a front. We have a big problem on the mainsail. We have to sail with one reef and in no time we'll take a second reef."

Yannick Bestaven, skipper of The Conservative (Class40): "It's the same as the last three days. There is not much wind, some wind is just puffs. We hope to be out tonight. We accept our troubles patiently. Our lead melted like snow in the sun. We are tired .... We persevere to just try to get south and get out of here. We manoeuvre quite a lot to try ans stay with the changes in the breeze as it goes round. We try to follow the pace imposed on us by the wind. It's tiring. But we have done the hard bit. We'll take a shower as soon as we are out of here. These Doldrums are fierce. We hope to be going by 4 Deg N. And by this evening life should be better. In terms of food we have enough, we are light on sweet stuff, savoury we have enough to go around the world.”

Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, Solidaires en Peloton ARSEP, (Class 40): “It’s OK. We go slowly and gently into the Doldrums. We have a bit of a battle on with weed. Our motivation is good, we don’t let up at all. But we share our good humour. We are always sharing jokes.”