TJV: Northern Exposure

Safran on training prior to the TJV. Image copyright Jean-Marie Liot/DPPI/Safran.

by Régis Lerat

Enjoying a temporary lull through part of today, skippers in the Transat Jacques Vabre were steeling themselves, preparing for one more beating which stands between them and the easier, faster conditions south of the Azores.

Once again the conditions will be tougher for those in the northern group, one which is looking like an increasing advantage for the meantime. Those who took the ‘'high road, the northern routing, have so far escaped relatively unscathed – fatigued and with a few bumps, bruises and the odd mechanical and electrical problem – while already some of those who elected to go for the seemingly prudent southern routing, were today regretting their decision.

Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier became the fourth leader of the IMOCA Open 60 class when they steadily overhauled Seb Josse and JF Curzon on BT over today, with the radical, chined Prevost-Verdier design taking a lead of 4.7 miles ahead of Josse and Curzon, while Britain's Mike Golding may be struggling to get on top of autopilot problems and an electrical blackout from early this morning, but was up to third place on the late afternoon rankings.

Those on the southern routing have started to tack this afternoon. With a deficit of 277 miles Foncia turned NW this afternoon, as did Vincent Riou and Arnaud Boissières on Akena Verandas.

From the nav station on Artemis, Sidney Gavignet, co-skipper with Sam Davies, confirmed to today's radio call in that their present routing has them with a deficit of ‘more than 300 miles' by the Caribbean.

That said, there is a lot which can change. For the southern brigade the trade winds, such as they are, are still a long way south. The main risk for the north-ists is a secondary high pressure which may drift south to slow them, but the majority belief is that their advantage – for the moment – is solid.

The northern group still have that final hurdle, through Friday 13th, with winds up to 50 knots forecast at the back of the next system with, for around 18-20 hours.

Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss, who along with 1876 ventured furthest north, reported a very unpleasant night during which they saw 47 knots and very big seas. Deep reefed with a storm jib, they took their punishment for a matter of hours to hold a strong strategic position. Hugo Boss are up to sixth this afternoon, overhauling their compatriots on Aviva.

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson have had minor running repairs to contend with, rescuing their pulpit during the night, whilst Yves Parlier, sounding tired noted whimsically that he was struggling to deal with an engine problem on the Spanish boat 1876 which sees an oil and water mix of ‘mayonnaise'.

Sidney Gavignet, (FRA), Artemis:
“Conditions are not too bad at the moment, we have 20-25 knots and upwind at the moment –as always – last night was no too bad either 25-30 knots of wind. Earlier this morning we had a small failure when the lashing at the head of the mainsail borke. We had a safety but still have to drop the mainsail. We had to re-do the lashing, it was a couple of hours stop.

How we do in the future? The future is not so bright. We decided three days ago to take the south course, against the router, which was taking us more north, as the rest of the fleet did. But this was taking us through 50 knots of wind, which we wanted to avoid, so we chose to sail in the seaman-like way, and now we are going to pay for it for sure because the fleet managed to go through the strong wind, and we think that is has cost us a minimum of 300 miles arriving in the Caribbean.

For the next bit, we still have 30 hours of upwind conditions. And then we will slowly be able to ease the sheets and get into the trade winds.

Even if it was windy last night Artemis is going well under pilots and we had some good rest, we managed to sleep very well, more than three hours in a row, which is very good.

Sam just had a fall, I think she is OK. It is not too bad. She took some good rest. The weather is clearly warmer now, and Sam is fine.”

Brian Thompson (GBR) Aviva:
“It's a little calmer than it was. Last night and in fact yesterday day we had easily 40 knots of wind and big, big seas. With a little bit of calm patch just now then after around midnight tonight we'll see probably around 18 hours of very rough conditions.

“We have been checking the boat quite carefully. The main things are OK, but we had a problem with our pulpit last night, so we have detached that, and that is now down below and we have tied up the lifelines. That was the excitement last night. Otherwise, touch wood, we have come through the rough stuff relatively unscathed.

“We have a little work to do on the electronics, one and a half of our wind instruments have blown off the top of the mast.

“I feel like we are in a good position, we are within the leading group. Which is what we wanted. Getting out to the west was very hard fought miles to get here, to the higher latitudes but now we are here, we should reap some dividends.

“The boats in the south probably now have to do more upwind, from a southerly position, they might be able to hook into the trade winds, but they seem quite far south at the moment, and hard to get to. As they get into the corner there are less options other than to go upwind. The trade winds should be there and they could materialise. Even if they come back and tack across towards us, they won't be so far away. It is still a close race and anyone could win it.”

Yves Parlier (FRA), 1876:
“We have been in a particularly strong gale and so we are very tired. And we have to work on the engine because we have made mayonnaise in it (mix of water and oil). But after tomorrow we will be better set. After the start we thought we wanted to take the southern option, but then we decided to go north and I think we made the right choice. I have not really taken too much time to concentrate on the weather files because I have been busy with the problems with the engine, but I think the wind will shift as we expect it to do. We hope to pass just below the anticyclone and to get into the trade winds as quick as we can. Now I need to sort out the engine out.”

Alex Thomson (GBR) Hugo Boss:
“I am still happy with our northerly position, we have the ability to make the turn south into some fast reaching conditions, which will be good. I think that the northerly boats and the boats in the centre will all converge in the next few days and we could all be close. I haven't looked too much as the southerly route it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Everything is good onboard, the dynamic between Ross and I is working really well, and its great to see him enjoying the racing.”

Transat Jacques Vabre