Short break in Salvador

Today 15 Open 60s will set sail back up the Atlantic in the singlehanded Transat Ecover-BtoB race

No sooner have the IMOCA Open 60s arrived in Salvador de Bahia at the end of the Transat Jacques Vabre, so today at 1400GMT they are off again on the 4,200 mile long Transat Ecover-BtoB singlehanded return race to the famou Figaro class stronghold of Port la Forêt.

15 solo sailors will take the start line off the Bahia Yacht Club. From there they will round the Santo Antonio mark, five miles South of All Saint's Bay, prior to setting off back up the Atlantic. The forecast for the start is for a 10 knot northeasterly, ie downwind conditions. Once out of the bay the boats should benefit from steady 15-20 knot northeasterly trades, putting them on the wind the wind. Tactics will be between tacking inshore to make use of any thermal effects of the breeze or heading offshore where there may be more gradient pressure.

The wind will veer southeast the further north they sail towards Recife and on towards the Equator resulting in the boats rapidly accelerating as the wind frees. The boats will then tackle the Doldrums, before picking their way across the northeasterly trades of the North Atlantic. The run to the finish will be very dependent upon the position of the Azores high as in some cases it could prove beneficial to skirt around its northwestern side. Generally the boats can look forward to a lot more upwind conditions than they might normally expect in an Open 60 race, with the except of the Transat, upwind to North America.

While the new Open 60s have been a test in reaching conditions in the TJV, it will be interesting to see if there is any variation in the performance of the different designs in this race. Will the beamy, powerful Finot-Conq designs come to the fore finally? How will the Owen-Clarkes such as Ecover III and newbie to their circuit, Derek Hatfield's Spirit of Canada, fair against the powerful Farrs and Verdier/VPLPs? It was Mike Golding's Ecover II, a sistership of Spirit of Canada that won this race four years ago.

Participants
Akena Vérandas: Arnaud Boissières (Groupe Finot 1998)
Aviva: Dee Caffari (Groupe Finot 1998)
Brit Air : Armel Le Cléac'h (Groupe Finot 2007)
Cervin enR : Yannick Bestaven (Groupe Finot 1996)
Cheminées Poujoulat : Bernard Stamm (Farr 2003)
Ecover 3 : Mike Golding (Owen Clarke 2007)
Foncia : Michel Desjoyeaux (Farr 2007)
Generali : Yann Eliès (Groupe Finot 2007)
Gitana Eighty : Loïck Peyron (Farr 2007)
Great America III : Rich Wilson (Nivelt 1999)
Groupe Bel : Kito de Pavant (VPLP-Verdier 2007)
Maisonneuve : Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Lavranos 2005)
Spirit of Canada : Derek Hatfield (Owen Clarke 2006)
Roxy : Samantha Davies (Groupe Finot 2000)
Safran : Marc Guillemot (VPLP-Verdier 2007)

Skipper comments:

Marc Guillemot ( Safran)
“My objective is clear: to qualify for the Vendée Globe, without putting the boat at risk, but if the conditions allow me to perform well, I'll get down to that with pleasure. It's my first single-handed race on the monohull Safran and I'm approaching it very calmly: I'm under no pressure whatsoever! The only difference from the Transat Jacques Vabre is the automatic pilot and a little more work, but ultimately there are no big discoveries in the pure running of the machine! Safran is a very reliable boat… It will be really good training because between the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Transat Ecover-BtoB, we’ll have raced 9,000 miles of the Vendée Globe course, that is the first and last section of this three month race. This time we’re not routed but I’ve been working for several days with Sylvain Mondon, my meteorologist."

Loïck Peyron ( Gitana Eighty)
“The boat is in perfect condition and I hope to get it home in the same way... There is a chance that we'll have better conditions than on the trip down, especially sailing solo. Furthermore, it is time to test Gitana Eighty’s performance in more extreme situations than those in which we launched the boat, after an Indian summer in Brittany and a rather light Transat Jacques Vabre! We should have at least a week of upwind in some steady tradewinds of over 20 knots and we’ll very likely have a depression at the end of the course in December…

"The boat is going well and the fleet is competitive with a few boats that go a little faster in moderate downwind conditions and others which look to be fearsome upwind. They are complicated monohulls and the planing board system, which we have fine tuned is proving to be very interesting.

"The Transat Ecover-BtoB is not simply a qualifier because everyone will be motivated and nobody wants to put themselves in 'delivery mode'. However, the best way to win a race is to finish it: it’s a basic principal which applies as much to the Vendée Globe as to this return race.

"As regards the weather, it will probably be a processional from Bahia as far as the Cape Verde islands, but then there will be a few choices opening up. There could be some large lateral differences there by that point. As no routing is permitted, we'll really be racing under the same conditions as a circumnavigation. It’s a bit of a warm-up for the Vendée Globe. This is all the more true given that half its competitors are in this race…”

Armel Le Cléac’h ( Brit Air)
“I’m very happy that there is this return transatlantic race, not simply to qualify for the Vendée Globe, but also because there are 15 of us setting out in good shape after the double-handed transatlantic race. It'll be a good battle and this time it'll be in solo configuration… With a short down time, it’s a good introduction to a circumnavigation, on a similar course at the end! I’m going to be able to test myself over a long distance and check that everything is okay on Brit Air.

We are going to have favorable conditions for the boat, with some closehauled sailing in the breeze for a good while. Manœuvring the boat singlehanded isn‘t the same thing as doing it doublehanded! I’ve never raced this course in this direction before, but it looks like we can expect some options around the Azores. How are we going to get past Cape Finisterre? It’s a good question, especially without routing: I'm going to find myself in the sailing situation of a Figaro.

The boat stood up well on the transatlantic race down to Bahia so there’s no worries there. The small technical problems I had have been sorted out in Bahia. It will be good to see how the gear fairs in a single-handed transatlantic race spanning over 4,000 miles… And all that will precede the work over the work.”