Positions and weather 0600
 

Positions and weather 0600

Which way through the Doldrums?

Front runners line up in the Transat Ecover BtoB

Monday December 3rd 2007, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic
Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems
 
Positions at 0600
 
Pos
Boat Skipper
Lat
Long
VMG
Spd
Crs
DTF
DTL
1
Generali  Yann Elies
1 11.96' N 
30 11.92' W 
16.5
16.7
30
3115.1
0
2
Foncia  Michel Desjoyeaux
1 02.64' N 
29 52.24' W 
15.8
16.6
38
3116.7
1.6
3
Gitana Eighty  Loick Peyron
1 01.80' N 
30 34.16' W 
15.9
16.1
28
3116.7
1.6
4
Safran  Marc Guillemot
1 31.72' N 
31 06.68' W 
15.3
15.3
21
3117
1.9
5
Brit'Air  Armel Le Cleac'h
1 09.24' N 
30 12.60' W 
16.2
16.3
30
3117.9
2.8
6
Groupe Bel  Kito de Pavant
0 54.72' N 
30 39.00' W 
14.8
14.8
26
3126.3
11.2
7
Ecover  Mike Golding
1 02.32' N 
30 21.96' W 
15.5
15.5
25
3127.7
12.6
8
Cheminées Poujoulat  Bernard Stamm
0 24.08' N 
30 27.12' W 
15.3
15.8
36
3165.2
50.1
9
Roxy  Sam Davies
0 38.52' S 
31 07.56' W 
14.7
14.9
29
3238.3
123.2
10
Akena Veranda  Aranud Boissieres
0 51.32' S 
31 20.44' W 
14.4
14.4
20
3254.9
139.8
11
Maisonneuve  Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty
1 08.32' S 
31 09.56' W 
13
13.1
28
3266.7
151.6
12
Cervin EnR  Yannick Bestaven
1 41.68' S 
31 48.08' W 
14.3
14.3
22
3311.9
196.8
13
Great American III  Rich Wilson
1 49.40' S 
33 11.84' W 
11.9
12.5
6
3350.7
235.6
14
Spirit of Canada  Derek Hatfield
2 30.96' S 
32 13.84' W 
7.7
8.5
356
3367.2
252.1
15
Aviva  Dee Caffari
2 41.00' S 
32 33.92' W 
11.9
11.9
19
3384
268.9
 
The first eight monohulls in the Transat Ecover-BtoB had crossed the Equator and were back into the north Atlantic at the first sched this morning. The boats are currently lining up for their northbound crossing of the Doldrums - all with the memory fresh in their minds of how crucial this stage of the race was in the recent Transat Jacques Vabre.

While the leaders are tightly grouped with less than three miles separating the top five in terms of distance to finish (DTF) the ever canny Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia is some 20 miles to the east of race leader, Yann Elies' Generali, while Marc Guillemot on Safran is taking the option furthest west of the frontrunners, some 60 miles from Generali.

With the Doldrums area starting at around 4°N, around 180 miles away still, the leaders can expect to be into the thick of the action overnight tonight. The question is - who will get the best passage through this area, where only a few miles of separation in terms of longitude can define this nautical game of snakes and ladders? At present most of the leaders appear to be aiming at a crossing at around 029°W (see the satellite wind chart below).

Yann Elies on Generali took over the lead of the Transat Ecover BtoB at the 1200 sched on Saturday and has held on to it continually ever since, with the except of Foncia leading at the 1400 sched yesterday. This is good news for Elies, after fairly lacklustre performances in his races to date, narrowly beating the two generation old Roxy on the recent TJV.

"Michel is overtaking me! He’s going a fraction quicker, but he is under genoa while I’m still under staysail: I'm going to have to manoeuvre... and step up the pace a level," Eliès said yesterday afternoon. "Here we have glorious sunshine but conditions are strange for the upcoming doldrums: there is a windless zone emerging upwind of us. I’m going to follow the ‘professor’ in any case, probably to around 27° West. He’s going fast and he’s giving it his all..."

Desjoyeaux, the TJV Open 60 winner, however seemed to have everything under control: "I’ve taken off my foulies and there’s not much more I can do today. Just a bit of tidying up: sponging the bilges and doing a Sunday spring clean… I made the most of Generali being under a cloud to overtake him. We're living heeled over, it's hot and wet and we're getting used to the noise... The doldrums? I'll adjust my course at the last minute!"

A feature of the Transat Ecover BtoB that makes it different from the TJV is that it is much more upwind - first in the ENEerly getting out of Salvador and up to Recife, then once again once the boats break into the northeasterly trades of North Atlantic. This may be one of the reasons Generali has come to the fore.

From on board Gitana Eighty Loïck Peyron commented: "It’s a bit tedious at the moment and still as hot as ever. We’ve already covered 900 miles in the past three days: it’s not bad! In my opinion, the lead group will remain bunched together to pass the doldrums… But it looks far from simple...: there are some little circles on the grib files, which means that there’s no wind…"

On Safran Marc Guillemot agrees: "It’s like an oven down below... And I caught a flying fish in my ballast tank: I’ve got it out but it’s not in good condition! We should pass the equator tonight (Brazilian time) and I’m beginning to shift to the West a little more than my friends: I've decided to separate myself from the fleet who don't want me any more and I reckon that the best option is the American one as opposed to the African one. We'll see. The boat's going well and is proving to be very successful..."

Mike Golding remains up with the leaders despite some more technical problems with his new Ecover.

"I’ve had ballast problems and the leak has spread across the boat flooding the engine and the batteries," commented Golding. "However, I have managed to contain the leak and resolve the electrical issues now. My new boat, which had only done four days at sea before the TJV goes really well downwind and reaching and it's okay upwind too. I'm not much looking forward to the Doldrums it has to be said!"

Golding summed up his afternoon yesterday as 'hot and bothered'. "It is very hot and very salty. I have decided to take a fresh water shower and damn the fuel. It is pretty uncomfortable. The breeze is south of east, round at 160 degrees, we are just genoa reaching and trying to line up for the Doldrums."

Of this third place (at the time), and his positioning within the group he comments: "I think I'm looking not too bad. Everyone is around and we keep changing places, kind of just depending where you are in the cycle. During the night I was behind Gitana at one point. I just decided to try a reef then, and of course then the breeze dropped.

" BritAir has always been out there to the left/west. The routeing is kind of taking us slightly right of the rhumb line, and it is now a case of just trying to get the best route through the Doldrums. Safran's going towards the shortest route through and I really do think that at the moment that everyone is just sticking together because it is so messy and no one want to get separated at this stage. It is generally very difficult, just a mess.

"Otherwise all is well with the boat. It is quite quiet. I had a big rain shower this morning and we were blasting off at 24 knots for about half an hour under full main and genoa, which was interesting, but everything seems to have settled down and I am getting my head round not overloading the ballast system, I am being quite gentle with it and the scoops are working fine on both sides. They have done a nice job on the them."

On Cheminées Poujoulat, Bernard Stamm has also not has his eye entirely on the ball: "I have computer problems: my main computer has crashed and since Saturday lunchtime I haven’t been able to get any grib files. I’m making do with my secondary computer. Right now, the wind is on the beam at fifteen knots but I had a squall this morning and the seas are still a bit messy."

The next 48 hours will be critical times in the Transat Ecover BtoB.

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