HUGO BOSS. Image copyright DR.
by Régis Lerat
Virtually the full range of emotions were starkly evident on the Transat Jacques Vabre race track Monday 16th November as the leading trio fast approach the half way mark for the IMOCA Open 60 fleet on their 4370 miles course from Le Havre to Porto Limon, Costa Rica.
As under-pressure leaders Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier on Safran bent to the task of holding off the rapidly advancing, Kito de Pavant and Francois Gabart, their smiling, chilled rivals on identical design sistership, the laughing cow' logo'd Groupe Bel, back on eighth placed Aviva Britain's Dee Caffari declared herself one ‘happy bunny' as she and Brian Thompson hit the trade-winds conveyor belt, into the warmth , the sunshine and brisker winds, for some fast, champagne sailing and a chance to unwrap herself from the layers of warm, waterproof clothing she has had on for the best part of week,
But for Alex Thomson, once again it is the unfortunately familiar welling up of bitter disappointment to deal with, as he and co-skipper Ross Daniel are forced to head for the Azores, limping north with Hugo Boss taking on water after they hit something at high speed yesterday afternoon. After a night at slow speed trying to keep the damaged area, an indentation of about 30 cms, Thomson and Daniel's race is over, all too soon.
If the anger and frustration feels like déjà vu after having to pull out of last year's Vendée Globe with structural damage sustained in the first big storm, less than 36 hours into the race, Thomson's shred of consolation this time is that he had done a good job through the worst storm and had earned a strong position with Hugo Boss. But this afternoon that was a bitter pill to swallow. He had certainly achieved the objective of giving former boat captain Ross Daniel a first hand insight into the rigours of ocean racing on the Open 60 with a view to maximising gear reliability for future endeavours.
When Daniel went forwards after striking an object with a thud during yesterday afternoon he found four tonnes of water in the watertight compartment.
“It is impossible to repair it, not because it is very big, but because there is water coming in and we can't stop it from coming in. And so we will retire from the race and head for the Azores.” Thomson confirmed this afternoon.
“We had told ourselves we had done the worst part of it. We had been through the storm and probably had had the worst of it. We had been knocked down by a breaking waves, and this boat is strong as hell. I am totally confident in with its strength in any way, in fact I am amazed that you can put a boat through that. So I am quite pissed off that we are having to retire from the race because someone has discarded some rubbish in the sea which has caused a hole in the hull.”
Safran has more or less stabilised their losses to Groupe Bel, but the leader's margin is down to 28 miles and there is the promise of an engaging duel to the Caribbean as the leaders pick their way west and south down the edge of the high pressure system. Mike Golding and Javier Sanso have dropped back to some 70 miles behind on Mike Golding Yacht Racing but they have some 200 miles of cushioning to fourth placed Roland Jourdaind and Jean Luc Nelias on Veolia Environnement. And they have their hands full as Michel Desjoyeaux and Jérémie Beyou are up to fifth with just two miles to catch the Foncia skipper's long time sparring partner, friend and rival.
Dee Caffari, GBR Aviva:
“Things are wonderful, the sun is shining, it is warm and I am not being hosed constantly in the face by water. I am about to shed some layers and so I am a very happy bunny.
“Since we left the Azores we had a big lightning squall, loads of wind and then it shifted and now the wind has just gone behind us, so similar to the rest of the pack really, so we are hanging in there as we all converge in this kind of meeting zone, and going round the edge of a high pressure rather than dealing with depressions, so we have blue skies, fluffy white clouds and the boat is going like a dream. So it is time to get these niggly jobs which were a problem in the bad weather sorted out one by one.
“We have some chafe on some lines to deal with, the wind instruments are not the best at the moment, but I think that is a common occurrence with the bumping around these boats have taken. I am having to charge with the engine rather than the generator which is a bit slow and laborious, especially as the temperatures are rising, but really nothing which is going to stop us getting to Costa Rica if we have a say.
“We are all on a bit of a conveyor belt at the moment, it is quite funny the way we have all converged again, no matter which way we came. And now the weather is quite obvious so it is going to be very obvious where everyone will go and so we have to hang in there on boat-speed and claw back some miles. We started so well, lost a lot of miles in the bad weather and now we have to get some back.
“We can be competitive now, we did some jobs this morning which meant we were kind of slow changing up the gears, but now we are full main, big Code sails and the boatspeed is pretty good.”
Alex Thomson, GBR (Hugo Boss):
“We were sailing along with jib-top, full main TWA about 130 degrees, wind speed about 22 knots surfing at over 20 knots, probably averaging 18 knots, about three o'clock in the afternoon we hit something... a pretty good thump... I did not see it, it did not hit the rudder, but for sure we can tell we hit something. We had a good look around the boat, and by the time Ross got forwards, the boat was getting very, very hard to steer, and by the time he got up forward one of the watertight compartments had about 4 tonnes of water in it, which is why the boat was not steering. We took some pictures and sent them back to our shore crew.
"This morning we have reassessed the damage, decided it is impossible to repair it, not because it is very big, but because there is water coming in and we can't stop it from coming in. And so we will retire from the race and head for the Azores. The damage is on the starboard side of the bow, about three or four metres back, not on the centreline off to the starboard side but about half a metre out.
"What we can see on the inside is a depression, so something has clobbered the outside and made a big indent and there is water coming through, not very big about 300mm or so. We had told ourselves we had done the worst part of it. We had been through the storm and probably had had the worst of it. We had been knocked down by a breaking waves, and this boat is strong as hell. I am totally confident in with its strength in any way, in fact I am amazed that you can put a boat through that. So I am quite pissed off that we are having to retire from the race because someone has discarded some rubbish in the sea which has caused a hole in the hull.
“I was thinking to myself yesterday lunch time, about one o'clock that it was fantastic sailing, Ross was steering, we were in good position, we had been through the worst of the storm, and we had done the riskiest bit, so to get damaged by someone else's rubbish is just gutting. Really gutting.
“ We have shored up the area to make sure it does not get any worse and we will slowly limp towards Horta. We are leaning over just now with the keel on the other side, but I am sure that more water will come when we get under way, but I am not worried at all that we will not be able to keep up with the amount of water coming in.”
Marc Guillemot, FRA (Safran):
“During the night we carried out a few gybes to get into the position we had planned to be able to make our way through the Antilles. This was our strategy and we had to stick with it. In relation to the finishing line, which is the ultimate goal, our rivals have narrowed the gap. In relation to us, it is still the same situation as yesterday.
“It's more relaxing when you are the hunter, but we're quite pleased about being the hunted. At the moment, we are certainly not feeling any stress, and our goal is to continue along our own route. Charles has spent a lot of time working on the navigation, and has laid the foundations, which we then take decisions about together. We're just where we want to be for what lies ahead and we shall see whether we were right or not.”
Transat Jacques Vabre
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