2015 Transat Jacques Vabre

[Built to List]

Looks like the non foiler will be victorious!

[Photoboy]

The Pressure Is On



The pressure has increased significantly on the leaders of the IMOCA class and Class 40 in the last 12 hours. For Vincent Riou – winner of the class in 2013 with Jean Le Cam – sailing this time with Seb Col the pressure rises with each mile towards the finish. The last straight into Itajaí is littered with holes in the breeze and windshifts, enough to see their 54 miles margin eroded.





Routing their path to the finish and that of their nearest rivals Banque Populaire VIII will give them faith that come midday tomorrow Wednesday the job should be completed and a second win in a row be PRB’s but the final 24 hours will be max pressure. PRB have lead for seven days, since emerging first from the Doldrums. They have felt the hot breath of Armel Le Cleéac’h and Erwan Tabarly at times. The passage of Cabo Frio seems to have worked in the favour of Riou and Col who gained another 20 miles overnight. The question for them is when to make the hard right turn towards the finish line. Presently it looks like downwind into a fading breeze to the line and so timing and picking the right time and best angles will be important.




Images Top to Bottom:

© Alexis Courcoux / Yann Eliès - Groupe Quéguiner

© Benoit Stichelbaut / Sea&Co

© Thierry Martinez Photographe / Sea&Co

The pressure on Le Conservateur’s Yannick Bestaven and Pierre Brasseur is on too. They return to the stress of having two rivals snapping at their heels again. A few days ago they had no real pressure, a lead of over 300 miles and boat in good shape. But 48 hours stuck in the Doldrums saw second placed V and B and Carac Advanced Energies reel them in. Now there has been a proper restart at the exit of the Doldrums and Le Conservateur leads by just 33 miles on V and B, and 47 miles on Carac Advanced Energies, and all three are making the same kind of speeds. After the last few days they have had for Bestaven and Brasseur getting out with their lead intact will feel like a victory, but they have a fight on their hands once again. One other question to be answered is whether the Multi50 leader hobbled with a reefed main, FenetreA Prysmian will beat the first IMOCA home. The multi is 22 miles ahead of the top IMOCA this morning.




Tracker

They said, this morning:

Seb Col, co-skipper PRB (IMOCA): “Cabo Frio was a bit complicated. The thermal depression there and we could not make the course we wanted. There was some discrepancy between what happened in reality and what the models predicted. But we are pretty happy, we are going well. But it is a slalom with the drilling rigs, there are helicopters coming and going, cargo ships. We are in a good position for the gybe and we know the wind will ease coming into Itajaí.”

Yannick Bestaven, co-skipper Le Conservateur (Class 40): “It is tough. We spent three days in the Doldrums. We were 300 miles ahead and now are just 30 or 40. It is a new race once again. But now we have been at more than nine knots for over an hour. We just hit it at the wrong time, the Doldrums came down with us. We just had to fight mile by mile in unstable winds. But we are lucky to be still ahead, we took it as it comes. But the finish is still a long way off. We have many days to do still but we work our watches. The hardest bit has not been tiredness and fatigue but keeping our spirits up.”

[Photoboy]

Riou and Col on PRB are first IMOCA



In something of a carbon copy repeat of his success in 2013, gliding across the same finish line, Vincent Riou (FRA), sailing PRB with co-skipper Seb Col (FRA) finished first IMOCA monohull in the 5400Nms Transat Jacques Vabre when they took their winning gun at 12:52.24 (UTC) (+5hrs local time) today.

The duo’s elapsed time for the theoretical course is 17d00h22m24 after leaving Le Havre on Sunday 25th October. Their computed average for the course is 13,22kts. In reality they sailed 6034Nms at an average of 14.78kts

It is the winner of the 2004-5 Vendée Globe, Vincent Riou’s seventh Transat Jacques Vabre and is his second back to back IMOCA class win in this biennial coffee route race.

They best the 2013 reference time by 19mins and 23 seconds. Sailing in 2013 with Jean Le Cam the PRB co-skippers set the inaugural benchmark for this new course, finishing in Itajaí, southern Brazil, at 17d and 41mins. In 2013 PRB actually sailed less distance on the water, 5771 miles.

Riou’s 2010 launched VPLP-Verdier design won the 2013 race even after a short, express pit stop in Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde Islands to make a rudder repair. After winning the 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre Riou had to withdraw in the early stages of the 2104 Route du Rhum solo Transatlantic.

His boat is reported to be the lightest and most optimised of the competitive 2011 generation VPLP-Verdier designs. After having to retire from the Vendée Globe in 2102 when he hit a metal buoy off South America and sustained hull and rigging damage, Riou paired up for the 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre with Jean Le Cam partly as a footnote to their history together, Riou rescued Le Cam from his upturned IMOCA off Cape Horn. But this year, one year out from the next Vendée Globe start, Riou chose Col a partner to learn from, to help improve the small details of boat speed and tactics. Col sails on many different cutting edge grand prix monohull classes. This is the first IMOCA Transatlantic for Seb Col.




Riou and Col lead out of the English Channel and held a strong position slightly to the south of the group which sailed west towards the arriving depression. PRB was snared momentarily when they erred too close to the centre of the low, allowing Yann Eliès and Charlie Dalin on Queguenir-Leucemie Espoir to escape slightly. But by the latitude of Gibraltar they shared first and second. PRB took the lead again in the light airs of the Azores anticyclone but as soon as the top group of four were into the N’ly trade winds Banque Populaire VIII of Armel Le Cléac’h and Erwan Tabarly was quicker by one or two knots in 18-19kts of breeze and they took the lead.
PRB made another small gain at the Canaries, setting up to the east of Banque Populaire just after fourth placed Paul Meilhat and Michel Desjoyeaux diverted towards Guadeloupe with technical problems.
Entering the Doldrums there was just four miles separating PRB from leaders Banque Populaire VIII but it was Riou and Col who emerged first into the S’ly trades. Their margin grew quickly and by Recife they were 36 miles ahead. That margin stayed similar all the way until last night when they extended on the initial approach in to Itajaí.

Of the 20 IMOCA class starters eleven abandoned racing with technical problems.

[Rainier]

Well that settles it. Foils will never work.

[Photoboy]

Bestaven and Brasseur on Le Conservateur win Class 40 into Itajai




Yannick Bestaven and Pierre Brasseur sailing their Guillaume Verdier designed Le Conservateur won Class 40 in the 5400NMs two handed Transat Jacques Vabre when they crossed the finish line off Itajaí, Brazil at 2040hrs and 09secs UTC this Wednesday evening to conclude a long, tense duel with Maxime Sorel and Sam Manuard on the 2015 Manuard designed V and B.

When Bestaven and Brasseur clinched their overall triumph, the runners-up Sorel and Manuard are about 12NMs from the finish line. Third placed Carac Advanced Energies is more than 250NMs behind.

Bestaven and Brasseur win Class40 from a fleet of 14 boats which started on Sunday October 25th from Le Havre. Their elapsed time for the rhumb line, most direct course distance of 5400NMs is 24d 08 hrs 10m 09secs at an average of 9.24kts. In reality they sailed 5963NMs at a real average of 10.21kts.
Their elapsed time is some 3d 10hrs 29m 44s more than the reference time for the course set in 2013 by winners Sébastien Rogues and Fabien Delahaye, at 20days 21hrs 41m 25s.

After leading by more than 310 miles into the Doldrums when they saw their substantial cushion ahead of V and B slashed to just 30 miles, Bestaven and Brasseur triumph after a cliffhanger final few days, pushed all the way to the winning gun by Sorel and Manuard.

After taking Class 40 victory by a matter of 10 hours into Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe with Eric Drouglazet in 2011 on Aquarelle.com this is Bestaven’s second Class 40 win on the Transat Jacques Vabre, With co-skipper Brasseur the duo already won the Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race this summer on Le Conservateur which is a TIZH 40 design launched for last year’s solo Route du Rhum.

On that solo race to Guadeloupe Bestaven finished fourth across the finish line but was dropped to seventh because of a jury decision following a collision on the first night of the race. Brasseur finished sixth on that Route du Rhum on Matouba and finished third in the last edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, sailing Mare.de with German co-skipper Jorg Riechers, one place ahead of Bestaven who raced the 2013 race with Aurelien Ducroz.


Le Conservateur has always been among the top three boats since leaving the English Channel. They opted for the north-western route towards the first depression but were not as extreme as rivals Team Concise, the early leaders Jackson Bouttell and Gildas Mahé, who had to retire from the race with structural damage. On the morning of the third day at sea Nicolas Troussel and Corentin Horeau on Bretagne Credit Mutuel Elite, one of the other top contenders, also withdrew with keelbolt issues and autopilot failure. At that point Bestaven and Brasseur were already ahead, leading V and B by 12 miles. They sailed smartly through the second depression getting west early racing side by side with Sorel and Manuard for the coming days of big winds and waves. It was when they emerged first out of the Azores High that Le Conservateur started to extend distance on V and B, gaining to be 37NMS ahead as they passed the latitude of the Azores. By the Cape Verde Islands that delta had grown to what was increasingly looking like an unassailable lead, some 267NMs. As Bestaven and Brasseur entered the Doldrums they were 318Nms ahead of rivals V and B.

But they became badly stuck for more than 48 hours, making only a handful of miles while Sorel and Manuard scythed down towards the trapped Le Conservateur. When they emerged their lead had dropped from over 300NMs to 30. An indeed at Fernando de Noronha it was a meagre 14NMs.
From there the duel has continued unchecked, never more than 20NMs between the top two boats. Whilst outwardly Bestaven and Brasseur appeared serene in the Doldrums, the battle down the Brazilian coast has been intense, hour after hour, day after day. Victory in Itajaí is especially sweet this evening for Yannick Bestaven and Pierrer Brasseur.

First quotes will be published on www.transat-jacques-vabre.com