© Groupe Bel
Leading the Barcelona World Race by over 540 miles, the short passage through the Cook Straits – which separate the North and South Islands by just 20 miles at their narrowest point – will be something of a victorious homecoming for Virbac-Paprec 3. The latest generation IMOCA 60 was built in New Zealand at the Cookson yard in Auckland.
For skipper Jean-Pierre Dick this will also be the second time he has led the Barcelona World Race through the iconic stage of the course: after doing so in 2007 following 44 days and 32 minutes of racing he went on to win the inaugural double-handed round the world race.
The high pressure system which has lodged itself either side of the South Island has had less effect on the leaders’ progress than anticipated, and the French pair were just 5.6 miles off Farewell Point, making 9.7 knots of boat speed at 1730 (UTC) this afternoon. They are anticipated to pass Wellington around 0800hrs in the morning of Wednesday February 16 (Barcelona time, the equivalent of Wednesday evening in New Zealand which is 12 hours ahead of the Spanish start city).
“It's faster than expected,”wrote Jean-Pierre Dick to race organisers this afternoon. “In six or seven hours we’ll pass Farewell Point, at about 1900hrs (GMT, 2000hrs UTC) and then we have about 90 nautical miles of beating upwind into a north-westerly with lots of tacks which will take us around 12 hours. So that means we’ll be at Wellington around 0700hrs (GMT, 0800hrs UTC) on the 16th, so around 2000hrs local time (we might be on time to be on the news with Claire Chazal!)”
Just how close they were to landfall was evident a few hours later when Jean-Pierre Dick again emailed from just off Farewell Point to say could smell a nearby farm: “No, I’m not dreaming, it really does smell of cows here! In the flesh and blood too! After so many few weeks at sea, it's weird but strangely pleasant.”
Kiwi countdown
New Zealand was looming large for the rest of the fleet this afternoon also, with MAPFRE and Estrella Damm also having to contend with the same high pressure system just west of the South Island. The anticyclone has slowed second-placed MAPFRE’s progress to just 5.5 knots over the course of this afternoon and saw them lose 30 miles to the front runners.
Estrella Damm, around 120 miles back in third, have managed to keep their pace up to over 10 knots so far, but may well run into the same light winds zone. Groupe Bel, over 210 miles behind to the north-west of Estrella Damm, were hopeful that they could avoid the system:
“In front of us we have a large bubble of high pressure which hopefully will shift to the south-east and let us pass. But nothing is less certain. We all have the same weather information and the same software and when we run the computer it tells us to go straight. So we're going straight,”said Kito de Pavant (FRA) today.
However, Groupe Bel have committed to stopping in Wellington for repairs, a pit-stop which has to be of at least 48 hours duration at this stage of the race. The ‘laughing cow’ is expected to arrive in Wellington on Saturday morning, and their shore crew are already in place preparing for as fast a turnaround for the team as possible.
A Valentine’s gift to remember
Andy Meiklejohn, the sole New Zealander in the race, had another reason to celebrate this week. Besides nearing his home country, the Hugo Boss co-skipper revealed that he’d received a special piece of news yesterday:
“I got a Valentine’s Day present yesterday which was from my wife Kirsten. We knew we are due to have another child but it was finding out the sex: it’s a boy – so look out world, little Zach’s got a brother on the way! I’m really happy. We would be happy if it was a girl or a boy, but finding out the surprise at this time in the race is quite poignant given that my family’s down in New Zealand and Australia for a few weeks, so it’s really nice to know this and feel connected to them again. It’s easy to lose the connection when you’re out here so long.”
Quotes:
Kito de Pavant (FRA), Groupe Bel:
“It is pitch black in the Tasman Sea and the day is grey. There is not much to see. Today we have a transition day. We’ve given up on our downwind sails. It's pretty comfortable, as we are under pilot and advancing well. In front of us we have a large bubble of high pressure which hopefully will shift to the south-east and let us pass. But nothing is less certain. We all have the same weather information and the same software and when we run the computer it tells us to go straight. So we're going straight.
“There is a small gap from Estrella Damm where we lost almost 300 miles in a few days, which is why we're going to make a technical stop. It's hard not to keep pace with our Spanish friends. In any case it opens the door and gives us some options that are a bit different now. We are no longer under the same obligations, in the same winds at the same time. But I'd rather be in our shoes than that of Estralla Damm with the passage of that high pressure ridge that’s going towards them. I think we'll keep a little more wind than them, hopefully.
“We have some little problems that are not serious but could become so. We have a hydro-generator that works very well but the brackets on the transom of the boat should be looked at as two of the four hinges have broken. If we break just one more, we will lose the hydro and without it we will have to use more fuel to run our computers, electronics and watermaker. So it's important to get new hinges and continue the journey.
“The routing tells us we’ll arrive on Saturday in the Cook Strait. But crossing the anticyclone will be complicated. There are still a few uncertainties. The team arrived in Wellington today. They have a lot of things to prepare before our arrival.
“For this first experience of the deep south, I was surprised by the sea which is a very, very short chop. I had imagined the great surges on a very long swell and I haven’t had that, I'm a little disappointed. I hope we will see it in the Pacific, but otherwise it went well. As far as albatrosses, I was also surprised. There are a lot whereas I’d always thought they were solitary birds.”
Dee Caffari (GBR), GAES Centros Auditivos:
“It’s all good really. The conditions are abating really gently, it’s flat water, 15 knots of breeze and it’s just starting to shift, and when we get a bit more of a convincing shift then we’ll gybe, which is very exciting because we’ve been on a port gybe for WEEKS. So we’re actually quite excited about leaning the other way.
“We laugh and joke and say if we can keep the mast up when we gybe then everything’s happy, but obviously everything’s been loaded on one side so there is a tendency for stuff to stretch and all the pressure’s been on one side so it would be nice to give it a rest. But also just to check the mast, how it’s aligned on the other gybe, just for confidence as much as anything. I’m sure everything’s fine.
“It’s unbelievably different in flat water. The noise has reduced, we can live comfortably, it’s easier to take a wee – which is very important when you’re a girl! – it’s just a different way of living. We’ve sponged everything in the boat. And it’s just a little bit of the humidity, the condensation with the cold temperature of the water that makes things damp, but otherwise we’re living in a different world after the last few days and loving it!
“We’re very lucky inside the boat is generally quite dry with the electronics and everything is working fine. It’s just the tendency for everything to be cold and damp makes it a bit miserable, and when the temperature drops at night it makes you feel colder. So it’s nice to have everything dry, the boat just feels cleaner and tidier.
“We celebrated with a cake because Anna passed her second ‘Great Cape’ yesterday, so that was our highlight yesterday.
Andy Meiklejohn (NZL), Hugo Boss:
"We’re just passed the fourth Australian barrier gate, and we’re heading east. We’ve got 14 knots of wind, it’s quite foggy outside and we have a flat sea. Long-term we have a front that’s closing behind us that we’ll be gybing ahead of at some point in the next 12-18 hours. We have Mirabaud and Neutrogena working their way south about 200 miles in front, and we have GAES Centros Auditivos behind us, about 120 miles behind and to the north of us as well, so its setting up to be an interesting little showdown.
“We’re rationing gas just as a precaution because we don’t know how slow the next leg of the course will be. I think most of the boats in the fleet have been rationing their flood and making sure that they have enough to last the race. We counted through everything today and are pretty comfortable we’re in a good position there, but the race is taking 10 days longer or 12 days longer than we expected, so you have to just be careful.
“Cooking on the boat is very important for our energy levels, and all the food is freeze dried so we need to heat water. The priority is to make sure we get our 800 calories into us, so for the next couple of weeks we’re just going to concentrate on getting those meals into us and then we can take a bit of a stock of what we’ve got in terms of gas, and maybe we can start having coffees and teas again.
“It’s very satisfying to have overtaken Dee and Anna on GAES. We had a tough start to the race, tough Atlantic leg, just missing a few key weather windows and a few technical problems as well that we’ve managed to overcome. So it’s good to start closing some miles and to finally overtake a boat feels like we’re back in a yacht race.Our next sights are set on Neutrogena directly in front of us and Mirabaud, about 200 miles ahead.
Wouter Verbraak (NED), Hugo Boss:
“The last week we’ve managed to pull out some pretty impressive boats speeds, which has a lot to do with how we’re co-operating on the boat. We want to be creative and always look for perfection to always find a new sail combination that can be the gear for current sea conditions and wind. Andy with his background in skiffs has an excellent feel for boat speed and that combined with putting us in the right position for weather, we’ve been doing quite well I’d say.
“I can still remember when I was 13 – a tiny little boy with no beard then! – following one of the Dutch boats in the Volvo Ocean Race. They had no money, a low budget and slow boat but they always did well, especially in the last leg of the race because they were clever with their weather. So that’s when I decided to study meteorology and do all the sailing I could possibly do to become one of these guys that sails on the ocean races. Now to be able to do this as my job is living a dream and a unique situation. We hope that we can inspire children of today who are 13 who are following the race to do something good with their future.”
Rankings at 1400hrs UTC Tuesday 15th February
1 VIRBAC-PAPREC at 11568 miles to finish
2 MAPFRE at 541 miles to leader
3 ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team at 662 miles
4 GROUPE BEL at 870 miles
5 RENAULT Z.E at 1318 miles
6 MIRABAUD at 1682 miles
7 NEUTROGENA at 1702 miles
8 HUGO BOSS at 1945 miles
9 GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS at 2103 miles
10 FORUM MARITIM CATALA at 3905 miles
11 CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA at 4193 miles
12 WE ARE WATER at 4440 miles
RTD FONCIA
RTD PRESIDENT
From Barcelona World Race
