Fast going

Soldini relinquishes Class 40 lead in the Transat Quebec-St Malo

Out in the North Atlantic, the fleets are in the middle of nowhere enveloped by fog and yet they’re racing as if they’re on an inshore race. In steady winds in the open ocean, the Class 40s have their foot to the floor, the 17 crews getting the very most out of their boats; surfing close to the brink, flat out under spinnaker. But given the limited visibility, vigilance is the order of the day. Race leader, Franck-Yves Escoffier's 50ft trimaran Crêpes Whaou! has eased off the pace slightly, perhaps worried by the rudder breakage Laiterie de Saint-Malo sustained during a collision with a whale over the weekend, but is expecting to reach the finish line off Saint Malo sometime over Thursday-Friday…

1,000 miles from the finish, Escoffier and his crew have still to negotitate another low, but this should generate more fast downwind conditions.

Escoffier provided this update: “Victorien called me to tell me what had happened. It really worries me as they’re a great team, it’s a fast boat and they were sailing well with some good speed. In addition they’re a group of young sailors and it was great to have them in the competition along with us old sea dogs. Added to that one of them is my son! They asked my views on what to do and I suggested they continue, especially as it’s downwind to Saint Malo. They’re strong so they’ll get there. There will be other transatlantic races and all this is just part of racing. It would be idiotic for us not to sail a bit ‘cooler’ now. We’re under two reefs and solent with the wind on the aft quarter. We have 25 knots of breeze from behind and a big swell and we’re making 22-24 knots of boat speed. As regards the seemingly increasing problem with growlers and whales, I think both are linked to the difference in temperature now. My personal view is that we should equip our boats with devices that emit waves to deter animals. Aeroplanes seem to have ways of deterring birds so why can’t we have something similar in sailing? For the next Quebec Saint Malo I envisage 4 or 5 boats like ours as well as a host of revamped older generation fifty footers.

For his part Laiterie de Saint Malo skipper Victorien Erussard said: “It’s quite hard going right now as we were racing flat out. It hurts! This was our main objective of the year and we were right in the thick of the action. The boat was so good downwind that we thought we might be able to give Crêpes Whaou! a run for their money for once with our great average speeds. We’ve got 40lt of diesel, 40lt of water and five days of food. The Canadian and French authorities are aware of our predicament. Franck-Yves advised that our best option was to continue sailing downwind using the headsails to steer so we’re concentrating on making easting. The boat is in perfect condition other than the rudder but sadly the emergency rudder we installed yesterday simply isn’t suitable. Our ‘thinker’ Loic (Escoffier) reckons he can construct a replacement from the stuff we have onboard so we may try that tomorrow once the front has passed through. If a passing cargo ship can give us fresh supplies whilst we’re doing that then that would be great. We’ve covered about 130 miles to the east since the incident yesterday, even with two drogues, one on each float.”

Between the Class 40s and the Open monohull class it is debatable which will be first to finish. After eight days of racing, mainly in flukey winds, often on the nose, the top Class 40s are virtually neck and neck with the leader of the FICO Open class, An Ocean of Smiles, testifying to a difficult night in 25 knots of breeze under spinnaker.

Among the Class 40s Mistral Loisirs (Oliver Krauss) has taken the lead partly through the benefiti of his southerly position but also because perennial race leader, Giovanni Soldini's Telecom Italia has unable to sail to her full potential with a broken bowsprit and medium spinnaker.

“We had a crazy night and didn’t sleep," recounted Soldini. "We tore the medium spinnaker yesterday so we’re not very happy about that. The little spinnaker is a bit too small right now, and the big spinnaker a bit too big! The wind has shifted round and we’re on starboard tack now. We had to decide where to gybe and some gybed earlier and some later so we’ll have to see what happens further down the track. Right now we can’t push the boat as we’d have liked so we’re hoping the wind will ease a little. There’s a tricky passage ahead but hopefully we’ll head off again with the next low.”

At the 1300 GMT sched Mistral Loisirs was 20 miles ahead of Halvard Mabire's second placed Pogo Structures.

“We’re now sailing through the drizzle which is even worse than fog as it’s very wet," described Halvard Mabire. "But we’re managing okay. We’re flat out and it’s a real regatta. When we crossed tacks with Novedia last night it was reminiscent of the America’s Cup with AIS [Automatic Identification System) as he passed just three boat lengths behind us. Tactics are complicated right now as there are some depressions forming which are very low”.

The forecast indicates the winds easing allowing the crews gt some sleep prior to the onset of the next low, which is forecast to arrive over the next couple of days. The question is will the boats in the north or south benefit more? At present there is 85 miles of separate between the ‘northerners’ Télécom Italia and Novedia Group from those furthest south such as Benoît Parnaudeau's Prévoir Vie. Mistral Loisirs and Pogo Structures are between.

Tanguy de la Motte described conditions on board Novedia Group: “Over the past 24 hours we’ve put in three gybes. After the first we passed just a boat length behind Halvard (Mabire) in the middle of the night, which was nice. We were on port, so we had to luff to pass behind which was the highlight of the evening! We gybed back to get back to the same kind of position as before as the wind was better angled there and then we gybed again, about an hour ago, to get further north. Oliver Krauss continued on his southern tack and has ended up further south than the rest of us which has given him the lead for now, adding a bit of spice to the ranking. We’re not far off the front and have formed part of a foursome jockeying for pole position.

"You really had to be responsive on the helm last night with the spinnaker up in low visibility. It’s really tight and very intense, the four of us constantly altering the sails, hoisting them, putting in a reef, shaking it out… We’re sailing with a knife between our teeth! We’re putting everything we can on the heater; socks, duvets, gloves. We’re cold and soaked to the skin but have managed to get some vitamins from a bit of sleep. The software which displays the boat’s performance is telling us that we’re at 98%, and that’s been the case since the start. We’ve had only 200 m of visibility of late and right now we’re waiting for a breeze to kick in to port and we feel we’re well positioned to try and catch onto the right low with what we hope will be the forecast 30 knots of breeze. Right now it’s a bit calm with just 15 knots but later it’ll be intense downwind sailing for at least 24 hours.”

Seventh placed Boris Herrmann on Beluga Racer gave his take: “All’s well aboard. We’ve just gybed and it’s begun to rain very heavily. The wind is picking up. We’ve been sailing under small spinnaker and 2 reefs in the mainsail. We’ve had a maximum of 24 knots of boat speed. It’s extraordinary sailing in the fog at night and we’re really enjoying it. We haven’t broken anything. We’re a bit tired and very wet with the fog and rain and we’ve got a lot of water washing across the deck. Time to rest a little!”

From on board Peter Harding's 40 Degrees Miranda Merron writes: "We have been living in a world of fog for days now, but perhaps we are nearly out of it. Since escaping from the calms between St Pierre & Miquelon, we have been sailing downwind, flying past Cape Race, Newfoundland and across the Grand Banks. This is a reasonably exciting pastime at night - Alex has likened steering at night down waves you can't even see to driving down a motorway in an open top car (for the proper wind and rain effect), with no headlights on. The fleet is pushing hard, and there are still 1700 miles to go. We are looking forward to being released from endless zero visibility conditions, and seeing the sun and/or stars in the near future!"