Several of the Barcelona World RACE skippers reported today that what they have been seeing for weather has been a little different to what they had set their strategy to, but for sure they are all united in their shared opinion that that another big slow down stands between them and escape into the Atlantic.
© Estrella Damm / Barcelona World Race
After passing offshore of Cabo de Gata, this afternoon the leaders were taking a more southerly slant as they cross the east of the Alboran Sea, heading down towards the African coast where the breezes are expected to be light SE’lies.
Lead by Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA) and Loïck Peyron (FRA) on Virbac-Paprec 3, less than a mile ahead of Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart on Foncia, the lead group are trying to pick their way around a problematic transition zone of very light, shifty and locally even calm winds which is effectively barring their departure from the Med.
But as this area of very light winds expands it is threatening to close the door on those who are further back in the fleet, requiring them to find a way along the Spanish coast, possibly costing them more miles against the leaders.
Virbac-Paprec 3 this afternoon became the fourth leader of this Barcelona World RACE but after those skippers who were called today reflected on the pleasures of double figures boat speeds, warm temperatures and some sunshine, but by afternoon they had already slowed back again to 5-6 knots and were expecting to go considerably slower.
Overall the average VMG speeds for the previous 24 hours have been as low was a positively pedestrian 6.5 knots.
Over these coming hours they know that metres and minutes gained and lost might prove vital over the next 24 hours, especially through the coming night when the winds are usually at their lightest and most fickle.
And so several of the teams – including the likes of the Estrella Damm duo Alex Pella (ESP) and Pepe Ribes (ESP) – mentioned that in the benign conditions last night they had taken care to stock up on rest, religiously banking the sleep hours while they could to ensure they have the energy reserves to keep on top of the long hours of concentration, the trimming and the sail changes required to keep the IMOCA Open 60’s ghosting along.
The past Olympic champion Xabi Fernandez confirmed today that their work rate and approach to light winds reaching and downwind sailing conditions in the light conditions are not dissimilar to their 49er high performance dinghy, gybing on small shifts and using all the little changes in breeze to best effect to get them down the track, trying to compensate for the fact their boat is heavier than some of the newer generation boats.
So at present it seems as if the main, lead group will get richer in terms of distance ahead of their pursuers, albeit slowly.
Meantime Alex Thomson, the British skipper who had to be substituted pre-start due to an acute appendix problem, is recuperating progressively in Barcelona, but confirmed he has a definite target set to be fit to make his return to Hugo Boss. He said as he left hospital in Barcelona that he must be declared medically fit enough to race within 10 days of the start.
Quotes:
Jean Le Cam (FRA), Président:“We are good! The weather is good and the sea flat. It is a good way to start, better than going off on the Vendée Globe with a first night of 35-40 knots. The weather is about 18 degrees and it is starting to feel a little warm, I’ll take off my jacket soon.
[Against the newer boats]Under spinnaker we are good, not worried about that too much.”
Xabi Fernández (ESP) Mapfre:“We have had a night with lots of manoeuvres, many calm spots and sail changes. There was one point when we were afraid we would get stuck, but we have finally got moving again.
“Right now we have Virbac Paprec 3 a little off our bow, about 4-5 miles ahead, we are sailing parallel with President, which must be about 2 miles away, and we can see Estrella Damm a little further away again, although last night we were dueling with them for about 4-5 boat lengths.
“The truth is that conditions are very difficult at the moment as we have been sailing close to points on the land and areas with little wind, but we have done some gybes which has been great for us, taking some wind shifts a short time ago which have given us a boost.”
Ryan Breymaier (USA) Neutrogena:“What’s up ahead is very difficult to determine, the text forecast we get from Marcel van Triest says we’re going to have easterly or south-easterly breeze there. But most of all the GRIB files show a north-westerly still so… you know I hate to say it but I’m tempted to stick with the GRIB files because the gradient wind that we have is quite strong and I think we’re just going to be going upwind until we get to Gibraltar probably maybe in 10-12 of breeze. I’m not quite sure, but that’s the way it seems to me. I have a feeling that the positions are not going to change very much unless people get stuck underneath the shoreline or the north coast of the Alboran Sea.
“We got left behind a little bit the night before last and we worked hard and we’ve caught up a lot. You know it would be nice to be a few more miles up the track than we are but at the same time it’s not bad I hope. We do have some serious competition so I’m happy to be in the same part of the waters for sure.”
Anna Corbella (ESP) Gaes Centros Auditivos:“We take the decisions together, but the choice to go more offshore than the others was not so good, it did not work well and we lost some miles, but we haven’t lost out on our morale.
“Now we still have a transition zone before Gibraltar which will be tricky but we have already decided our strategy.”
Antonio Piris (ESP) Renault:“We are sailing at about 6 knots, and we are not really in a great place. It appears that those in front have more boat speed and more wind, whereas for us it’s very hard to go any faster than 5 knots.
“I think that in the Gibraltar area we’ll have a bit of a stopping point. I hope it will have an accordion effect and compress the fleet, but the forecasts are very unpredictable. There were two options: to go closer to the coast or further offshore, we have chosen to go further out because the wind directions looked to us to be a little better, but it now seems that we took the wrong option.”
Positions at 1400hrs GMT :
1 Jean Pierre Dick - Loick Peyron VIRBAC-PAPREC 30
2 Michel Desjoyeaux - Francois Gabart FONCIA
3 Kito de Pavant - Sebastien Audigane GROUPE BEL
4 Iker Martinez - Xabi Fernandez MAPFRE
5 Jean le Cam - Bruno Garcia PRESIDENT
6 Alex Pella - Pepe Ribes ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team
7 Dominique Wavre - Michele Paret MIRABAUD
8 Boris Herrmann - Ryan Breymaier NEUTROGENA FORMULA NORUEGA
9 Dee Caffari - Anna Corbella GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS
10 Jaume Mumbru - Cali Sanmarti WE ARE WATER
11 Pachi Rivero - Antonio Piris RENAULT Z.E
12 Juan Merediz - Fran Palacio CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA
13 Wouter Verbraak - Andy Meiklejohn HUGO BOSS
14 Gerard Marin - Ludovic Aglaor FORUM MARITIM CATALA
From Barcelona World Race
