Crepes away, disaster for Cervin

An update from the Transat Quebec-St Malo

After hitting a whale Yannick Bestavin's IMOCA Open 60 Cervin ENR has made it to Port aux Basques, to the south-west of Newfoundland. Crêpes Whaou! is extending its lead over the rest of the fleet and is now 215 miles ahead of Laiterie de Saint Malo
Amongst the Class 40s, Télécom Italia and Novedia Group are vying for pole position off Cap Ray.

Approaching Newfoundland, the bulk of the fleet in the Transat Quebec Saint Malo are making headway upwind in Cabot Strait between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Within the Class 40 fleet the battle is raging off Cap Ray. The 17 crews are still tightly bunched, upwind in a steady southwesterly breeze and fog, as they make towards the passage between the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Meanwhile among the 50ft multihulls, Crêpes Whaou! is continuing her escape into the open ocean and has been slipping across the Atlantic on her own for the last 24 hours…

“We’re still over the Grand Banks in a thick fog," reported Escoffier. "We’re now making headway in the Atlantic swell and in a 13 knot breeze. We have our eyes fixed on the radar to watch the cargo ships and vessels crossing our path. Our passage at Saint-Pierre and Miquelon was majestic. We benefited from great visibility, the likes of which you must get just 60 days a year at these latitudes. When we got between the islands we found a real reception committee with boats from the sailing school, fishermen and RIBs… It even crossed my mind to stop, but we’d have never got going again! Right now we’re benefiting from very pleasant conditions to move along with: we’are making 12 knots of boat speed in 12-13 knots of breeze. It’s a great reward after a difficult time in the St Lawrence. We have a faster boat, so it’s not surprising we have got away from the fleet but among the 40 footers, where the boats are more similar in speed, they’re much more bunched up…”

On Laiterie de Saint-Malo Victorien Erussard said: “Ow… that hurts, that really hurts! I can tell you that I do indeed have nerves and the rest of the guys do too! For the past 24 hours we’ve been tacking in very light winds. Last night was very testing as we hit a terrible, big zone of light airs. Average speed: 3 knots and not on the right heading. What’s particularly harrowing is that we were compelled to traverse this windless zone to reach Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. To top it all off, according to the grib files we were the only ones in the entire fleet to suffer in this way. The ‘red baron’ slipped through of course and has extended his lead over us. As for the other, ‘grrrrrrr’…! Well, they’re set to make gains on us in a nice breeze on a direct course. We don’t deserve this! We’ve had our nose to the grindstone the whole time. In ten hours’ time we should hit a few knots of wind which should get us past the banks of Newfoundland. Act 2 and the Atlantic crossing is forecast to have downwind conditions with 15 to 20 knots of breeze - a just reward after a very special opening to the Quebec Saint Malo.”

One thing is for sure: getting out into the open waters of the Atlantic has been far from easy. But over the last few miles of the Gulf of St Lawrence, on the approach to the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, life has begun to get easier for the crews. After yesterday’s calm conditions, a southwesterly breeze has filled in, which has enabled them all to ease their sheet, and accelerate across the short, lumpy waters, bound for the Atlantic.

The leaders in the Class 40 are still in contact and remain within sight of one another and nothing, not even the fog, seems to be able to separate them. At the 1300 GMT sched this Friday, the top 10 boats were still making headway within 8 miles of one another. Télécom Italia (Giovanni Soldini) remains the familiar leader while the last boat Groupe Sefico (Philippe Vallée) is 60 miles astern after five days’ of racing.

At present the boats are sailing in southwesterlies but if the forecast is correct, this is set to continue to back - welcome news for the group led by the Italians who will be able to continue to benefit from their southerly position.

In second place Novedia Group with skipper Tanguy de la Motte and his crew are closely shadowing the leader, just 0.3 miles astern. Designer and sailor aboard Sam Manuard explains: “We are close hauled in very choppy seas. We’re being shaken about a bit and are slamming! We’re in contact with Gio (Giovanni Soldini), which is very exciting. Halvard (Mabire) is not far behind. We’re waiting for the wind to go right so we can round the southwest tip of Newfoundland. It’ll be great if it kicks in over the next few hours! All’s well aboard and we’re very motivated!”

The leaders are likely to make through the 3 mile strait between St Pierre et Miquelon at around 0700 UTC tomorrow…

Amongst the largest monohulls, there has been disaster for Yannick Bestaven's IMOCA Open 60 Cervin EnR, which hit a whale at around 2100 GMT last night. The collision ripped out rudder bearing, causing a considerable flood on board. Cervin CnR has made it to Port aux Basques on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland this afternoon with the aim of making repairs as soon as possible.

Yannick Bestaven recounts: “Late afternoon yesterday we were off Cap Breton, Nova Scotia when we hit something violently. It would appear to be a whale as the rudder was quite damaged but it didn’t bring the boat to a complete standstill. The rudder isn’t broken but the rudder bearing has been ripped out. There is considerable water ingress in the aft compartment. It occurred at about 2100 UT. We plugged the hole with a piece of plastic, Sikaflex and a few bits and pieces we had lying about to limit the flood. We then headed towards the northeast and made headway throughout the night under reduced sail. We’ve just arrived at Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, which is a pretty little fishing port but I don’t know what we’re going to do for composites as we only have a little aboard. Our aim is to fix the bearing and head off again, but we don’t know if we’ll still be in the competition or not. We’ll stick the bearing together, reinstall the rudder and set off again as soon as possible. The rudder is covered in a viscous liquid which smells fishy so there’s no doubt it was a whale. What’s strange is that I was at the helm at the time and saw nothing either before or after the incident. Looking at how the bearing has delaminated and been pulled away though, it must have been big, but it’s odd that the damage seemed to occur above the surface of the water as if the whale had jumped right into the boat! It was certainly very violent. Repairs will take at least 24 hrs and in that time we’ll have to find some tools and wait for the repairs to dry but we do have some resin which is resistant to water. Whatever happens, it’ll only be a makeshift repair and we hope it’ll get us across the Atlantic. We all know about composites onboard. We don’t want the return journey to be a delivery so we’ll have to see if we can still be competitive. We have a good lead on our immediate pursuer so we may be able to make repairs and head off again just a few miles astern. It’s a shame this happened as we were well placed in 3rd overall behind two multihulls. This kind of thing can happen anytime, anywhere though. There’s not much wind over the Atlantic at the moment which may work in our favour.”