News Around the World
Mini 6.50 star Simon Koster and co-skipper Valentin Gautier take their new Sam Manuard Class40 Banque du Léman for an early trial sail… in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Lombard’s approach to meeting Class40 rules on scow bows is similar to how he has attacked the Imoca rule with L’Occitane (previous page). Raison’s Class40 scow and Manuard’s design were never alongside each other in the TJV with Koster’s brand new boat suffering teething troubles. But despite various delays the Swiss pairing finished fourth overall and showed some blistering pace – at one point rolling the pack in front as if they were in a bigger class of boat. Ominous times for some
(literally) for all of the first edition of this doublehanded race aboard the giant multihulls. Four weeks earlier the four Ultims left Brittany in strong winds and big seas – surely the first time racing boats have started a major race under heavily reefed mainsails… with nothing in front? Although this did not prevent them from averaging 25kt of speed across the Bay of Biscay…! Quickly the fleet divided into three. Edmond de Rothschild was
leading, closely followed by François Gabart and Gwenolé Gahinet’s Macif. The new Sodebo of Thomas Coville and Jean-Luc Nélias was in third place and Actual Leader, the previous Sodebo, sailed by Alex Pella and Yves Le Blévec, followed a little further behind. The race pattern that had been predicted. But then came ‘mishaps’, including collisions with UFOs, that caused severe damage to these ocean weapons’ appendages due to their high speed. First boat to take a technical stop was actually the eventual
winners, Caudrelier/Cammas. After crossing the Equator on day five the crew announced its intention to make a pitstop in Salvador da Bahia (where the first boats of the Transat Jacques Vabre were arriving!). Passing Cape Verde 48 hours earlier the trimaran suffered a violent impact to the elevator on the centreboard. Franck and Charles assessed the damage and, given the many miles still to cover (about 10,000!), decided to make a technical pitstop. After around a dozen hours dockside, including a brisk change of the lifting surface of the fin, the 32m giant was back in business, having amassed a deficit of nearly 200nm in relation to new leader Macif. Macif passed the first mark (the island of Palmas in the Cagarras
archipelago), but then also stopped – in Rio – to repair its central rudder, it too damaged by UFO impact. It took 19 hours for Gabart’s race team to complete this operation before the trimaran resumed its third position behind Edmond de Rothschild, but also behind Sodebo which now led by 150nm. The South Atlantic crossing southeast towards the Cape of Good
Hope is usually an easy ‘walk’ for these boats, except that because of the timing of the race they were prevented from immediately diving south by an ice zone imposed by the organisers. Instead, they had to follow a more upwind eastern heading punching into rough seas for several days. Actually, the seas were violent enough for Sodebo to turn north
to protect their new boat… coming out behind Edmond de Rothschild and Macif. Cammas and Caudrelier were pushing very hard to protect their first place, as captured by the extraordinary images of media man Yann Riou (definitely a master in the art of filming from a drone – as he proved onboard Dongfeng), but the boat of the Gitana team
24 SEAHORSE
had still not shaken off her annoying rival approaching Good Hope. Now it was Sodebo’s turn to suffer a collision which shattered
her starboard rudder and led to a section of the back of the float breaking away. Soon after that news Macif announced she would make a second pitstop, in Cape Town, to replace a broken steering transmission bar and to repair a fault in the foil lift system. When Macif re-emerged she found herself next to Sodeboand about 50nm miles behind Actual Leader, the only one of the four Ultims not to have been victim of a collision with an UFO! Edmond de Rothschild was now 200nm ahead, which is nothing
for sailboats easily capable of sailing 650nm in one day, except that in this case the exercise consisted of a gybing ballet close to the coast of Namibia. Eventually Edmond de Rothschild emerged still in the lead, before making a record ascent of the North Atlantic to reach Brest in just six days from the Equator. Meanwhile, Macif and Actual Leader found themselves on a ‘tour of the ocean’ seeking out more favourable winds much further west. In fact, the most interesting part of this last side of the Atlantic triangle was that these two Ultims of very different generations now appeared quite well-matched, whereas early in the race Macifshowed performances clearly superior to that of the boat of Blévec/Pella.* Franck Cammas: ‘Don’t think our boat is too far in front. In the
first few days things were tight, particularly with Macif. What is certain is that for at least half the race we were faster. In the sea conditions we had in the south, in the Forties, our boat was easier to sail because she is very high over the water. She also felt reliable which allowed us to attack even in difficult conditions. ‘But in the lighter conditions, in the trade winds, I think Macif
should have been faster. I also reckon we got the weather right, avoiding roadblocks that without Marcel Van Triest [routeur] ashore and his satellite images we might have missed. We made two extra- ordinary passages through the Doldrums, and our exit north posi- tioned us for an almost direct route to Brest. That’s also where we won, not just on the speed of the boat… though that is nice!’ Yann Riou recalls a fond memory: ‘Just before arriving in Cape
Town I wanted to film the South African coast at sunset. I took advantage of a moment when they were taking a reef to send the drone up because the boat was moving a little slower. But it turned out I couldn’t catch the boat (which was soon sailing at 40kt) with the drone. Frank then agreed to slow the boat down a little, very little, to recover the drone…’ * François [Gabart] later admitted to me that the replacement main rudder they fitted in Rio had also broken!
THOMAS DEREGNIEAUX/DPPI
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