Light, almost imperceptible airs have slowed the 36 Figaros competing in the first leg of La Solitaire du Figaro - Eric Bompard Cachemire, compressing the fleet once again in the Biscay Gulf.
In a flimsy 2.4-knot south-westerly on a mirror-like sea, less than 200 miles from Gijón the skippers are fighting in slow-motion, longing for the new easterly breeze that should reach them later tonight. This ‘Gulf war' requires the sailors to have nerves of steel to gain even a few meters, constant vigilance to keep sails filled as best they can, and mental alertness to position themselves best to enter the new breeze.
Today the often fearsome Bay of Biscay more resembles an alpine lake, where the leaders have hopelessly watched their advantage vanish in the high-pressure mist as their adversaries attack them on all fronts. All of the skippers are struggling to advance towards a Spanish finish line that looks more and more distant, their sole consolation in the weather, which has improved with slowly rising temperatures and an end to the previous pouring rain.
A fresh start
The leading trio of Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner - Le Journal des Entreprises), Fabien Delahaye (Skipper Macif 2012) and Morgan Lagravière (Vendée) has maintained only the slightest of advantages, no more than a few hundred meters on their competitors. Alexis Loison (Groupe Fiva), Erwan Tabarly (Nacarat), Paul Meilhat (Skipper Macif 2011), Damien Guillou (La Solidarité Mutualiste) and Adrien Hardy (Agir Recouvrement), despite being spread out across the racecourse, have closed dangerously on the front-runners' lead as the fleet develops a lateral west/east separation of more than 12 miles. This ‘re-start' with fewer than 200 miles from Gijón could represent a golden opportunity for the trailing boats and those who were six or seven miles behind have now closed the gap to just three or four, with a possible chance to get back into the game.
Portuguese attack
Portugal's Francisco Lobato was the first one to try his luck by opting for a more radical strategy. Just after rounding the Birvideaux lighthouse last night, he opted for a more easterly route than the rest of the fleet. “My goal was to try and get into the new breeze as fast as possible to go past this light wind patch,” said the Portuguese skipper on ROFF. On the other side of this virtual re-start line Yann Eliès and Alexis Loison will be hoping the weather lottery falls in their favour, because as yet no-one is sure who will be best positioned to catch the new easterly air. According to the latest forecast, after this ridge, the breeze from the East should increase and stabilise on the fleet's route to the finish, reaching a solid 25 knots while the weather will deteriorate again, with possible storms near the Spanish coast. The finish under the impressive cliffs of Gijon could prove hard on the already exhausted and sleepless skippers.
Best placed among non-French skippers is Sam Goodchild who jumped up five positions over the course of today's racing, while fellow Briton Nick Cherry went from 19th to 24th. Despite his bold move earlier today Portuguese Francisco Lobato has gone down to 27th and Artemis Offshore Academy's Henry Bomby is 33rd. Norwegian Kristin Songe Moller (Kristin For Fulle Seil) is still trailing in 35th place but her gap from the leaders has reduced to just over 10 miles.
The first boats are expected to cross the line late on Wednesday evening or overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.
Quotes from the boats:
Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23), 20th:
“It's been a long two days and a hard two days, with lots of current in the north of Brittany and not much wind. I made a few big mistakes and spent a lot of the race trying to catch up. Then after Birvideaux I had a bit more luck and made up some more places – I don't know exactly where I am now but it's a lot better than I was this morning. Generally I'm happy – I spent a lot of this morning sleeping because I realised that when we reach the ridge where we are now that there was going to be not much opportunity to sleep, it would be hard work, and also with the new forecast we just received it looks like it will be very windy tomorrow which also means not much time for sleeping.
“My aim at the moment is just trying to get south as fast as I can, which is easier said than done. Then after that I think we need to try and get right in anticipation of the shift coming through with this new low, but I guess there's a risk of going too far right and finding yourself in the low.
“I'm a bit annoyed with the mistakes I made in north Brittany but I'm fortunate to have been given another chance, hopefully - we've still got 204 miles to go so it's not done yet and we'll carry on pushing.”
Nick Cherry (Artemis 77), 21st:
“I had a really good start and I was happy with where I was after that. And then I did well when the breeze shut down off Perros – I think I was lucky to get around the islands and get off in the new breeze around the coast. And then after that when the breeze shut down I lost a little bit, but I felt like I was in the group. And now I'm not sure where I am, but it's all very close and I could be somewhere between 10th and 20th depending on how well I do when the wind fills in.
“I know roughly what's going to happen with the weather but I haven't got a clear picture of how it's going to unfold, so my plan is just to try and get as far south as possible, but that's not very easy with no wind. I think there's going to be more wind tomorrow night so I'll be ready for that. I'm just trying to sleep any chance I get really, whether I'm tired or not.”
Henry Bomby (Artemis 37), 33rd:
“Right now is probably the most challenging part of the race so far, you can hear my sails flapping from side to side, there's very little wind here at the moment, so just trying to keep the boat going in the direction that I want is proving very difficult. The fleet is spread out massively at the moment so there's probably going to be some big winners and loser and who wins this leg will probably be decided in the next couple of hours.
The north coast of Brittany is always fun to navigate, there's a lot of rocks and things and I'm getting to know the coast a lot better. I did quite well a few times going inside some rocks and then at other times lost out but not being able to get through certain overfalls and things that other guys avoided, so mistakes have been made, but it's the place to be learning these things. It's definitely a tricky first day or so.”
From : La Solitaire
Credit : A.Courcoux
In a flimsy 2.4-knot south-westerly on a mirror-like sea, less than 200 miles from Gijón the skippers are fighting in slow-motion, longing for the new easterly breeze that should reach them later tonight. This ‘Gulf war' requires the sailors to have nerves of steel to gain even a few meters, constant vigilance to keep sails filled as best they can, and mental alertness to position themselves best to enter the new breeze.
Today the often fearsome Bay of Biscay more resembles an alpine lake, where the leaders have hopelessly watched their advantage vanish in the high-pressure mist as their adversaries attack them on all fronts. All of the skippers are struggling to advance towards a Spanish finish line that looks more and more distant, their sole consolation in the weather, which has improved with slowly rising temperatures and an end to the previous pouring rain.
A fresh start
The leading trio of Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner - Le Journal des Entreprises), Fabien Delahaye (Skipper Macif 2012) and Morgan Lagravière (Vendée) has maintained only the slightest of advantages, no more than a few hundred meters on their competitors. Alexis Loison (Groupe Fiva), Erwan Tabarly (Nacarat), Paul Meilhat (Skipper Macif 2011), Damien Guillou (La Solidarité Mutualiste) and Adrien Hardy (Agir Recouvrement), despite being spread out across the racecourse, have closed dangerously on the front-runners' lead as the fleet develops a lateral west/east separation of more than 12 miles. This ‘re-start' with fewer than 200 miles from Gijón could represent a golden opportunity for the trailing boats and those who were six or seven miles behind have now closed the gap to just three or four, with a possible chance to get back into the game.
Portuguese attack
Portugal's Francisco Lobato was the first one to try his luck by opting for a more radical strategy. Just after rounding the Birvideaux lighthouse last night, he opted for a more easterly route than the rest of the fleet. “My goal was to try and get into the new breeze as fast as possible to go past this light wind patch,” said the Portuguese skipper on ROFF. On the other side of this virtual re-start line Yann Eliès and Alexis Loison will be hoping the weather lottery falls in their favour, because as yet no-one is sure who will be best positioned to catch the new easterly air. According to the latest forecast, after this ridge, the breeze from the East should increase and stabilise on the fleet's route to the finish, reaching a solid 25 knots while the weather will deteriorate again, with possible storms near the Spanish coast. The finish under the impressive cliffs of Gijon could prove hard on the already exhausted and sleepless skippers.
Best placed among non-French skippers is Sam Goodchild who jumped up five positions over the course of today's racing, while fellow Briton Nick Cherry went from 19th to 24th. Despite his bold move earlier today Portuguese Francisco Lobato has gone down to 27th and Artemis Offshore Academy's Henry Bomby is 33rd. Norwegian Kristin Songe Moller (Kristin For Fulle Seil) is still trailing in 35th place but her gap from the leaders has reduced to just over 10 miles.
The first boats are expected to cross the line late on Wednesday evening or overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.
Quotes from the boats:
Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23), 20th:
“It's been a long two days and a hard two days, with lots of current in the north of Brittany and not much wind. I made a few big mistakes and spent a lot of the race trying to catch up. Then after Birvideaux I had a bit more luck and made up some more places – I don't know exactly where I am now but it's a lot better than I was this morning. Generally I'm happy – I spent a lot of this morning sleeping because I realised that when we reach the ridge where we are now that there was going to be not much opportunity to sleep, it would be hard work, and also with the new forecast we just received it looks like it will be very windy tomorrow which also means not much time for sleeping.
“My aim at the moment is just trying to get south as fast as I can, which is easier said than done. Then after that I think we need to try and get right in anticipation of the shift coming through with this new low, but I guess there's a risk of going too far right and finding yourself in the low.
“I'm a bit annoyed with the mistakes I made in north Brittany but I'm fortunate to have been given another chance, hopefully - we've still got 204 miles to go so it's not done yet and we'll carry on pushing.”
Nick Cherry (Artemis 77), 21st:
“I had a really good start and I was happy with where I was after that. And then I did well when the breeze shut down off Perros – I think I was lucky to get around the islands and get off in the new breeze around the coast. And then after that when the breeze shut down I lost a little bit, but I felt like I was in the group. And now I'm not sure where I am, but it's all very close and I could be somewhere between 10th and 20th depending on how well I do when the wind fills in.
“I know roughly what's going to happen with the weather but I haven't got a clear picture of how it's going to unfold, so my plan is just to try and get as far south as possible, but that's not very easy with no wind. I think there's going to be more wind tomorrow night so I'll be ready for that. I'm just trying to sleep any chance I get really, whether I'm tired or not.”
Henry Bomby (Artemis 37), 33rd:
“Right now is probably the most challenging part of the race so far, you can hear my sails flapping from side to side, there's very little wind here at the moment, so just trying to keep the boat going in the direction that I want is proving very difficult. The fleet is spread out massively at the moment so there's probably going to be some big winners and loser and who wins this leg will probably be decided in the next couple of hours.
The north coast of Brittany is always fun to navigate, there's a lot of rocks and things and I'm getting to know the coast a lot better. I did quite well a few times going inside some rocks and then at other times lost out but not being able to get through certain overfalls and things that other guys avoided, so mistakes have been made, but it's the place to be learning these things. It's definitely a tricky first day or so.”
From : La Solitaire
