© Renault
For the moment, approaching the longitude of Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, Virbac-Paprec 3 are runaways, Jean Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron today extending their lead to the biggest margin yet of this Barcelona World Race, some 773 miles this afternoon. Dick and Peyron continue to return the best speeds of the top four teams but now in a league of their own.
Their most regular pursuers, the 2004 Olympic champions on MAPFRE, have had a torrid 48 hours, not having to search for problems. Yesterday they struggled with a communication issue which meant they missed vital information. Sounding tired but resolute on this morning’s live Visio and Audio Conferences, Iker Martinez admitted they had also had a problem with a sail, but most off all it was the very variable wind and sea conditions in the mixed up trough, which had brought them most grief:
“ We slowed, we accelerated but in the end we just did what we could to manage as well as we could. What was very difficult was having waves from the north and from the south. When you are in a system like that you can only do what you can do, making the best of it, but it is not good.” Said Martinez, confirming that the conditions they had endured were the most physically taxing of the race so far.
The result is that MAPFRE, after enduring this peculiar mix of high winds and lighter zones, have lost miles to their nearest rivals, compatriots Estrella Damm who were just 35 miles behind this afternoon. In their wake Kito de Pavant on Groupe Bel remarked that life was good on board with his co-skipper in conditions, at 46deg 57S which were looked more winter Mediterranean than south Indian Ocean summer. De Pavant had been up the mast to check a stray, trapped halyard, but gave their rig the once over.
Despite the ice-gates several duos have reported that they are on the alert for reported ice. Ribes confirmed that they are on the lookout:
“ We have not seen icebergs but according to the report that we received yesterday have one in our course. Tomorrow round dawn we will have an iceberg right in our path. We will have to keep a very close eye to the radar and the water temperature. Luckily we are at the latitude 47 south where there are only five hours of night and the rest is not fully dark so you can see well.”
And in seventh place at 45 deg S, but 1200 miles west, back up the race track from Estrella Damm, Ryan Breymaier in his morning mail from Neutrogena also confirmed they have also redoubled their vigilance.
“ We are passing within 20 miles of an iceberg position on our charts, and I am looking out the front every 10 minutes in the hope that I see nothing. It is nervewracking, because if there is one big one that the satellites can see, normally that means growlers, small pieces broken off the big one in a larger area. As I type we just hit 25.7 knots. At that speed a piece of ice the size of a car would destroy the front of the boat to the point we would have to get off it and let it sink. The satellite only sees things bigger than 150 yards. If we hit that it would be like irresistible force meets (definitely) immovable object.”
The elastic which has joined sixth placed Mirabaud and Neutrogena was stretching again today as the Swiss-French duo Dominique Wavre and Michèle Paret put on a speed spurt to accelerate away from their long time companions Breymaier and Boris Herrmann. The young American-German pair got close, tantalizingly close this morning. Neutrogena was tailgating just three miles behind Mirabaud this morning, but Wavre and Paret struck out at a sizzling 22.4 knots this afternoon, quickest in the fleet and had already earned another 10 miles of daylight on their pursuers.
Kito de Pavant (FRA) Groupe Bel:” We like to have some music on board. It is nice to have some when the decks are dry. And we do well with it at night. But then there is no time to read. Seb tried to read to read but gave up after two or three lines, stuck it back in a back and said he’d try again after Cape Horn. The days are passing quickly because we are full on a lot of the time. We will be in the Pacific and then back in the Atlantic where there will be more stable conditions, so maybe then.
We had hoped to have more wind than our rivals here but it has weakened a bit and we had one quiet night, that was a bit of a surprise. But there is some wind forecast up to New Zealand, in any case that is what we are hoping for. Yesterday was an exceptional day, one stolen from the Mediterranean, with plenty of sun. But the weather is chilly and so we are still quite well wrapped up. Today it is more overcast but the weather is not bad. Yesterday the wind changes completely. We were reaching, then it shifted and went west so we could get the downwind sails up.
The spare halyard looked to be jammed so I went up the mast to see what was going on but it was OK and I was up there for nothing, so I took the chance to check the rig and it was all ok. But I did not hang about there for long, 30 minutes up in cross seas. Solo it is different and you have to use the mountaineers, but here Seb just winched me up.
We are at 46deg 36 S. The water is 10 deg C and yesterday is was 16C, it changes quickly and it is starting to get a little bit cold, but we have good kit and so it is not too bad. We are a bit disappointed to have lost so many miles to Estrella Damm, we are maybe a bit cautious at the moment but it’s a long course.”
Iker Martinez (ESP) MAPFRE: “We reached this zone that was very changeable. The northerly wind was very strong. We were always going a little quicker than the front which was going in the same direction as us. There were days when it was quite violent and we were a bit concerned for us and the boat. We slowed, we accelerated but in the end we just did what we could to manage as well as we could. What was very difficult was having waves from the north and from the south. When you are in a system like that you can only do what you can do, making the best of it, but it is not good. We have had some small problems, one sail. With the conditions we had it would have been easy to break something in a squall or the big seas. But we are generally happy, we have tried to tidy up a little. The race goes on and we are happy to be in second, but the most important thing is to be in the game, but really the placing does not matter so much just now.”
Pepe Ribes (ESP) MAPFRE: “ It’s a great day. Sunny, clear, sailing downwind. We are the ones most southern of the three of us and we are going a little faster. Now we are waiting for the wind shift in the next six hours to gybe at the layline to the Australian barrier. If we get the shift before Groupe Bel and MAPFRE maybe we can cut some more. The wind will increase and we will go reaching or almost with around 25-30 knots towards the Australian barrier.
We wanted the most south position as possible. We have been cutting miles to MAPFRE and stretching the advantage over the Groupe Bel. When we gybe we will all go on a straight line towards the Australian barrier and it will be difficult to have big differences. Right now the approach to the barrier looks quite good because surely we will go reaching. Now we also have an eye on how to get to New Zealand later, to the Cook Strait.
We are enjoying this a lot. Before thinking about Virbac-Paprec 3 we have MAPFRE as our main goal. Virbac-Paprec 3 is in another league now, another weather system. We are sailing next to two boats, MAPFRE and Groupe Bel, and our goal now is to sail faster than them.
We always attack, day or night. We do not step back not even to pick up momentum.
In the Santa Helena high pressure MAPFRE gained hundreds of miles on us. Now we have recovered 300. Let’s see if we can sail close to them and check that the boat is fast compared to them under the same weather conditions. So far we believe that the MAPFRE is faster.
The last time we saw the Virbac-Paprec 3 was in the Gibraltar Strait. They are making an incredible race. But right now his race is not our race. Our race is with MAPFRE, and Renault ZE and Groupe Bel
We have not seen icebergs but according to the report that we received yesterday have one in our course. Tomorrow at dawn we have an iceberg right in our path. We will have to keep a very close eye to the radar and the water temperature. Luckily we are at the latitude 47 south where there are only five hours of night and the rest is not fully dark so you can see well.
We are well physically, but we feel the 37 days of racing. Sometimes painful arms, legs ... I have enough hits and some injuries because of the latex from the foul weather gear, but now they are drying since it’s a nice day. Of course, we are better than expected at this point.
We are sailing in latitudes where I've never been because of the security gates, but there’s nothing to say, because the Race direction has done the right thing by keeping the fleet out of ice, and the race remains extremely competitive, with the difference we are more calm and secure. At the moment we have only been three times on the course of an iceberg. If there were no gates, it would had been fifty times, which means more risk.”
Standings at 1400hrs Monday 7th February
1 VIRBAC-PAPREC 3 at 14306,7 miles to finish
2 MAPFRE at 772,6 miles to the leader
3 ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team at 807,1 miles
4 GROUPE BEL at 915,1 miles
5 RENAULT Z.E at 1147,9 miles
6 MIRABAUD at 1668,5 miles
7 NEUTROGENA at 1682,6 miles
8 GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS at 2298,7 miles
9 HUGO BOSS at 2384,5 miles
10 FORUM MARITIM CATALA at 3169,9 miles
11 WE ARE WATER at 3341,9 miles
12 CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA at 3549,8 miles
RTD FONCIA
RTD PRESIDENT
From Barcelona World Race
