Mass retirements

Only two of the original seven Open 40s continues in the Faraday Mill OSTAR

Positions at noon

Boat Name	Lat	Long	DTF	Rating	Comments
MONOHULLS
Open 40 (Pen Duick)
HAYAI	48 45N	23 29W	2,063
VM MATERIAUX	49 37N	22 25W	2,096		No Report Received
DESTINATION CALAIS	49 45N	14 34W	2,408		Retired-Problems With Boat
LA PROMESSE	50 49N	18 55W	2,244		Retired-Heading For Ireland/Plymouth
ROARING FORTY	51 20N	21 16W	2,125		Retired-Returning to Kinsale/Cork
ROBOSAIL	50 49N	15 55W	2,359		Retired-Problems With Boom Vang
SPIRIT OF CANADA	51 43N	20 15W	2,163		Retired-Problems with Auto Helm
IRC 1 (Gipsy Moth)
ATLANTIX EXPRESS	49 26N	24 42W	2,018	1.311
CHIVAS III	48 52N	17 47W	2,301	1.045
ECHO ZULU	49 44N	23 37W	2,057	1.109
OLYMPIAN CHALLENGER	49 44N	27 20W	1,900	1.152
VIJAYA	50 51N	19 49W	2,206	1.056
BLUE SHADOW	49 03N	04 47W	2,790	1.121	Retired
OCTAVUS	50 18N	08 43W	2,624	1.063	Dismasted in Kinsale
IRC 2 (Jester)
REALITY	50 04N	14 57W	2,397	0.937
TROIS MILLE SABORDS	49 44N	23 47W	2,057	0.998
ADRIENNE MAY	50 06N	13 39W	2,435	0.982	No Report Received
DE FRANSCHMAN	51 37N	18 30W	2,238	0.978	Retired-Broken Shroud
SEA BERYL	50 12N	07 45W	2,662	0.939	Retired to Plymouth
SUOMI KUDU	49 50N	14 04W	2,408	0.941	Retired-Problem With Forestay
IRC 3 (Eira)
AMELIE OF DART	53 14N	20 31W	2,156	0.843
AYESHA OF ST MAWES	47 19N	16 15W	2,353	0.899
CHIMP	50 12N	20 14W	2,168	0.909
TAMARIND	50 07N	22 51W	2,091	0.892
ZEAL	50 26N	22 42W	2,091	0.922
QUEST II	51 34N	10 28W	2,537	0.932	No Report Received
MULTIHULLS
Open 50 (Manureva)
ACANTHE INGENIERIE	50 03N	17 50W	2,283		Retired to France with Damaged Knee
BRANEC IV	48 41N	32 11W	1,702
MOCRA 1 (Three Cheers)
COTONELLA	50 29N	33 12W	1,667	1.653
HOUD VAN HOUT	53 34N	22 41W	2,084	1.063
MOLLYMAWK	49 08N	06 20W	2,715	1.627	Retired at Plymouth
SHOCKWAVE	48 19N	24 21W	2,023	1.478
SPIRIT	47 11N	32 26W	1,703	1.510
UP MY SLEEVE	51 41N	12 31W	2,462	1.422	Retired-Heading For Cork

Despite a meek start to the Faraday Mill OSTAR the end of the first week at sea has proved that this 45 year old singlehanded race across the North Atlantic the wrong way, has lost none of its teeth. To date the race has seen 13 retirements out of 34 starters, the heaviest toll being in the Open 40 class where only two yachts of the original seven continue to race, with class leader Michel Kleinjans on Roaring 40 among the retirees.

It would appear that the latest generation of Open 40s may not be best suited to a 3,000 mile upwind bash. Experienced transatlantic sailor Roger Langevin aboard the trimaran Branec IV described the seas as horrible and boat breaking even though the winds were no more than Force 7. He wisely took his foot off the pedal and is still racing.

"They’ve had force 6-7 winds - nothing horrendous, but it is has been quite breezy with some quite difficult seas I understand," says Race Director Chris Arscott. "There are some pretty experienced guys out there who have now retired. Not the sort of people who would give in easily, like Michel Kleinjans and Ronny Nollet."

Having sailed an immaculate race to date former Mini and Figaro sailor Michel Kleinjans pulled out after his Roaring 40 experienced problems with her mast track. Meanwhile Pierre Yves Chatelin threw in the towel when Destination Calais developed structural problems with one of her forward bulkheads. OSTAR veteran Ronny Nollet, on this occasion also sailing an Open 40, had suffered back trouble on the delivery trip to the start, and it appears this may have escalated during the race.

Dutch artificial intelligence expert Pieter Adriaans retired when his Open 40 Robosail, recently fitted with an unstayed mast, broke her hydraulic boom vang. British solo sailor Hannah White is similarly heading east her boat having suffered autopilot problems.

"Hannah has been battling with an autopilot problem over the last few days and has used the more moderate weather of the last 12 hours to make a full assessment of the problem," reads her website. After a lengthy process of evaluation and communication with the technical support team at Raymarine it was concluded that she does not have the necessary parts and equipment onboard to make an effective repair.

"Hannah is currently very tired as she has been forced to steer the boat for much of the last three days and she is heartbroken that she has been unable to realise her dream of completing the race. On the phone to her shore crew earlier today she asked us to pass on her massive thanks to all her sponsors, especially Ali and the technical department at Raymarine, her family, friends and everyone who has supported her with kind words or by supporting the NSPCC."

Elsewhere in the monohull classes other retirees include: Dutch skipper Bart Boosman on the 30 footer De Franschman with a broken shroud, while another Dutch OSTAR veteran Bertus Buys on Sea Beryl has a badly ripped mainsail and Peter Crowther's Swan 38 has seen its forestay ripped out of the deck.

The latest retirement from the multihull class is well known Florida-based Frenchman and spinnaker sleeve manufacturer Etienne Giroire on the Walter Greene-designed and built trimaran Up My Sleeve, which is believed to have suffered from a broken main halyard.

In complete contrast, the Eira Class comprising the six slowest boats in the fleet have yet to suffer their first retirement.

The multihull class has also come away relatively unscathed perhaps thanks to the more southerly route most have been taking. Following the retirement of Anne Caseneuve on Acanthe Ingenerie having broken her knee on Wednesday, so at present Franco Manzoli on Cotonella is the present race leader on the water having taken an extreme northerly route. At noon today he had 1,620 miles still to sail before the next mark of the course at Nantucket Island, compared to 1,636 for Pierre Antoine on Spirit and 1,648 for Branec IV.

The two remaining Open 40s are the Pogo Open 40 VM Materiaux of highly experienced former Vendee Globe and Whitbread sailor Patrice Carpentier and Nico Budel in Hayai, originally Viktor Yazykov's Around Alone class winner, Wind of Change. While Carpentier is suffering from comms problems, his position is known due to the ARGOS beacon tracking him, relayed to the Race Committee by his wife.

Behind VM Materiaux is British sailor and Vendee Globe hopeful Steve White aboard the much travelled Open 50 Olympian Challenger, upon a time Mike Plant's Airco Distributor and subsequently Josh Hall's Spirit of Ipswich, and experienced 62 year old Canadian yachtsman Yves Lepine in 45ft aluminium yacht, Atlantix Express.

What comes next...

At present the leading multihulls are hard on the wind with a depression situated to their northwest and another developing off the coast of Nova Scotia and heading their way, but oddly with an area of high pressure forming immediately ahead of them tomorrow. Unfortunately this looks set to stall the depression to the southwest intensifying its winds to 50 knots or more. The only redemption is that this depression is relatively far south and it may be possible for the boats to slip around to its north where at least a the winds will be from a favourable direction.

While this depression looks to maintain its strength over the course of 8 January (Wednesday) it is subsequently foreceast to merge with another depression forming over Newfoundland. This should reduce the pressure to its north and northwest, but will ultimately mean yet more headwinds for the leaders.

Below: forecast for 0000GMT on 7 Jun, showing intense depression ahead of the leaders.