West is best

Chinese competitor Guo Chuan up to second in the Mini Transat's Series class

Friday September 30th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Proto class at 0600 GMT

Series class at 0600

Charts above courtesy of Expedition/Tasman Bay Navigation Systems and PredictWind. Click to enlarge. Latest scheds below.

A complex day of weather lies in store for competitors in the Charente Maritime Bahia Transat 6.50 (Mini Transat). With an area of high pressure forming to their west, so the wind may be light but it is finally veering into the north, the race leaders being first to benefit from this shift.

Among the Protos, Joerg Riechers on mare.de and Sébastien Rogues on Eole Generation-GDF Suez continue to lead, but their advantage has been reduced to 20 miles by the group some 27 miles to their north, led by David Raison and his innovative scow-shaped Mini Team Work Evolution. Raison leads three other powerful contenders in this group - Aymeric Chappellier's La Tortue de l'Aquarium de la Rochelle, Nicolas Boidevezi's Defi GDE and Bertrand Delesne's Zone Large. The boat speed figures indicate that conditions for the northerly boats are substantially better than Riechers and Rogues and it seems probable that they have been first to see the wind shift.

If west is best, then there has been no better demonstration of this than in the Series class where the flier of Guo Chuan on Vasa has paid dividends launching him up to second place. The Mini Transat's first Chinese competitor is now some 50 miles north west of the Series class leader who remains Eric Llull on Noble Cocoa. Llull, who became one of the top Surprise sailors on Lake Geneva when he studied there, still remains 12 miles ahead of third placed Davy Beaudart on Innovea Environnement who is on a similar track to him. British competitor Pip Hare on The Potting Shed has dropped to ninth in the 46 boat Series fleet, but this has been as a result of her shift to the right of the race track - midway between Llull and Chuan, third in a group of three boats led by Fabrice Sorin on Cartoffset.

Yesterday the race had its first retirement with Italian competitor Andrea Pendibene on Intermatica heading back towards La Rochelle with electrical problems on board. Meanwhile Jean-Marie Oger on Brazil-Forest E. Leclerc yesterday reported hitting a whale and is heading for La Coruna to effect repairs.

If this morning the leaders are benefitting from moving into an area of favourable northerlies, while headwinds remain off the Portugese coast, so by tonight a depression will have taken its place, centred some 480 miles from the west coast of Spain/Portugal. With this the wind will once again back into the south which will see the boats back on the wind on port tack. What has changed since yesterday is that this depression seems to grown in strength with winds of 15-20 knots on its eastern side - ie extremely unpleasant in a 21ft long Mini. By Sunday this depression will have developed a second centre to the south, so the whole race track south to the finish of leg one in Funchal will be filled with headwinds. Early next week the centre of the depression is now forecast to shift west towards the Azores but unfortunately this will allow the high over the Iberian peninsula to extend its reach on to the race course - so headwinds look set to be replaced by no wind... The present long term forecast indicates that there will be no respite from these conditions until next Wednesday when the high shifts north causing the wind on the approach to Madeira backing into the east. 

Certainly not what the competitors signed up for...

Latest Comments

Add a comment - Members log in

EmailPrintTwitterFacebookLinkedInStumbleDigg

Latest news!

Back to top

Proto class positions at 0600 GMT

 

Pos No Skipper Boat Latitude Longitude Spd Crs Spd Dist DTF DTL
            Between scheds   24 hours      
1 753 RIECHERS Jorg MARE.DE 42° 11.49’ N 012° 11.13’ W 1.73 212 6.01 230 620.66 0
2 716 ROGUES Sébastien EOLE GENERATION - GDF SUEZ 42° 9.87’ N 011° 58.61’ W 3.89 204 5.93 228 622.71 2.05
3 747 RAISON David TEAM WORK EVOLUTION 42° 36.04’ N 012° 24.71’ W 7.89 224 6.65 237 640.01 19.35
4 788 CHAPPELLIER Aymeric LA TORTUE DE L'AQUARIUM DE LA ROCHELLE 42° 42.89’ N 012° 14.91’ W 7.65 212 6.25 236 648.94 28.28
5 719 BOIDEVEZI Nicolas DEFI GDE 42° 45.10’ N 012° 14.01’ W 7.45 207 6.13 237 651.24 30.58
6 754 DELESNE Bertrand ZONE LARGE 42° 45.43’ N 012° 14.72’ W 6.8 211 6.14 239 651.37 30.71
7 802 BERTRAND Etienne CHASSEUR DE PRIMES 42° 42.25’ N 011° 39.44’ W 1.52 305 5.48 233 658.06 37.4
8 679 DAVID Etienne TEAMWORK 42° 29.68’ N 010° 41.93’ W 6.63 227 4.92 229 664.87 44.2
9 756 CARACCI Andrea SPEEDY MALTESE 42° 56.93’ N 012° 3.98’ W 7.38 207 5.59 237 664.92 44.26
10 787 NORMAND Thomas FINANCIERE DE L'ECHIQUIER 42° 35.13’ N 010° 53.37’ W 6.27 240 5.27 231 665.87 45.21
11 800 RIOUX Antoine FESTIVAL DES PAINS 42° 53.69’ N 011° 40.12’ W 3.92 216 5.71 240 668.41 47.75
12 509 SCHRODER Lucas BRUNEL 42° 51.25’ N 011° 28.84’ W 2.71 215 5.34 237 669.42 48.76
13 198 PICAULT Sébastien KICKERS 42° 39.82’ N 010° 48.67’ W 6.63 245 4.88 233 671.61 50.95
14 797 CAVAGNOUGH Scott www.brainchild.org.au 42° 41.17’ N 010° 50.30’ W 5.98 227 4.9 235 672.28 51.62
15 417 DUCROZ Aurélien NISSAN 42° 41.83’ N 010° 50.46’ W 5.92 223 5.2 230 672.83 52.17
16 759 KOLACEK Milan GABEN > FOLLOW ME 42° 52.42’ N 011° 17.64’ W 5.54 256 5.59 230 673.83 53.17
17 551 PATOU Henri ECARTIP 42° 50.05’ N 011° 9.08’ W 5.89 244 5.48 225 674.28 53.62
18 791 REINHART Thibault ARALDITE® 42° 41.77’ N 010° 42.01’ W 6.17 233 4.94 227 675.58 54.92
19 347 GELABERT Aleix GAES-ANTAAS 42° 46.02’ N 010° 52.72’ W 5.5 224 5.05 224 675.84 55.18
20 629 MAUFFRET Louis SOLIDAIRES 42° 54.33’ N 011° 15.93’ W 5.04 249 5.32 223 676.08 55.42
21 814 DARAMY Jean-Baptiste EKI HAIZEA 42° 50.43’ N 010° 47.10’ W 5.78 228 5.34 224 681.63 60.97
22 265 MARETTE Paul REGION NORD PAS DE CALAIS 42° 50.56’ N 010° 46.37’ W 6.21 238 5.05 229 681.98 61.32
23 617 DYTCH Dan SOITEC 42° 55.99’ N 010° 43.83’ W 5.82 227 5.07 229 687.68 67.02
24 624 OLIVA Juan-Carlos ZUMEX 42° 53.74’ N 010° 36.41’ W 5.82 239 4.69 235 688.11 67.45
25 667 LE BREC Guillaume OCCAMAT / ATD 42° 55.18’ N 010° 38.29’ W 6.7 237 4.84 237 688.78 68.12
26 741 FERMIN Rémi BOREAL 42° 57.27’ N 010° 37.16’ W 6.37 233 5 233 691.01 70.35
27 618 MONTAGNE Lucas ONG CONSEIL 42° 49.53’ N 010° 14.62’ W 6.03 231 4.38 235 691.85 71.19
28 454 BOUCHET Romain IB REMARKETING 43° 8.23’ N 010° 39.53’ W 6.55 232 4.87 231 700.04 79.38
29 574 CREIGHTON Emma POCKET ROCKET 43° 10.01’ N 010° 34.92’ W 6.22 230 4.62 234 703.14 82.48
30 606 CARME Donatien 606 CHERCHE SPONSOR 43° 12.32’ N 010° 31.35’ W 6.09 224 4.77 229 706.38 85.71
31 542 ROSSETTI Tiziano UNA VELA PER EMERGENCY 43° 41.86’ N 009° 15.04’ W 5.03 258 2.95 251 758.8 138.14
32 513 GALLO Maurizio YAK 43° 58.96’ N 008° 59.93’ W 4.83 264 2.67 248 779.07 158.41
33 790 KOWALCZYK Radoslaw CALBUD 44° 1.46’ N 008° 21.70’ W 3.36 275 2.59 252 796.86 176.2

Series class positions at 0600 GMT

 

Pos No Skipper Boat Latitude Longitude Spd Crs Spd Dist DTF DTL
            Between scheds   24 hours      
1 566 LLULL Eric NOBLE COCOA 42° 44.55’ N 010° 39.42’ W 5.59 235 4.74 232 678.92 0
2 487 GUO Chuan VASA 43° 12.98’ N 011° 37.60’ W 3.19 209 5.38 230 686.95 8.03
3 674 BEAUDART Davy INNOVEA ENVIRONNEMENT 42° 51.72’ N 010° 22.37’ W 5.54 229 4.34 227 691.08 12.17
4 781 SORIN Fabrice CARTOFFSET 43° 3.44’ N 010° 51.48’ W 6.11 235 5.21 230 691.91 12.99
5 455 GAHINET Gwénolé ASSO WATEVER - gwenolegahinet.com 42° 54.01’ N 010° 23.07’ W 5.45 229 4.5 231 692.87 13.95
6 554 SABBATINI Giacomo SCUSAMI LE SPALLE 43° 3.01’ N 010° 44.26’ W 6.05 235 4.77 238 693.83 14.91
7 599 MARIETTE Benoit ODALYS VACANCES 43° 4.51’ N 010° 46.02’ W 6.18 232 5.13 227 694.62 15.7
8 746 CIZEAU Pierre MASQHOTEL 43° 2.45’ N 010° 29.19’ W 5.26 220 4.85 225 698.29 19.37
9 743 HARE Pip THE POTTING SHED 43° 9.67’ N 010° 46.69’ W 6.56 244 4.72 244 699.04 20.12
10 514 BOUYSSOU Clément DOUET DISTRIBUTION 43° 3.09’ N 010° 23.85’ W 5.46 231 4.33 232 700.65 21.73
11 739 LENGLET Benoît EVASOL 43° 9.83’ N 010° 30.38’ W 5.64 229 4.96 226 704.46 25.54
12 535 MARY Renaud www.runo.fr 43° 7.13’ N 010° 18.06’ W 5.17 222 4.41 229 706.19 27.27
13 539 LAURIERE Benoit www.teamkalonig.com 43° 17.31’ N 010° 28.36’ W 5.45 222 4.42 237 711.81 32.89
14 767 ENDT Ysbrand PRIME OF THE NORTH SEA 43° 7.38’ N 010° 2.01’ W 4.9 217 3.77 228 711.96 33.04
15 758 TEN BRINKE Christa RAN OF THE NORTH SEA 43° 16.30’ N 010° 25.05’ W 5.12 225 4.67 228 712 33.08
16 772 BRÄNDSTRÖM Ulf GRPMS.COM 43° 20.14’ N 010° 35.58’ W 5.77 230 4.94 237 712.01 33.09
17 552 BRASSEUR Pierre VOILES OCEAN 43° 13.95’ N 010° 10.50’ W 4.94 227 4.08 229 714.8 35.88
18 721 CHOMBART DE LAUWE Pascal XANLITE 43° 16.80’ N 010° 14.87’ W 5.42 252 3.96 236 715.84 36.92
19 519 DIDAC Costa SALAO 43° 8.38’ N 009° 48.67’ W 5.5 230 3.66 235 717.57 38.65
20 527 LAVAYSSIERE Hugo ARES&Co. 43° 22.93’ N 010° 18.85’ W 5.41 234 4.37 239 719.96 41.04
21 529 GAILEY Bruce BLACK MAMBA 43° 23.64’ N 010° 15.17’ W 5.15 229 4.13 240 721.81 42.89
22 737 PAMIR Tolga YAKAMOZ 43° 36.74’ N 010° 43.12’ W 5.5 259 5.05 241 724.63 45.71
23 602 ROSEN JACOBSON Robert NED602 43° 26.26’ N 010° 11.27’ W 5.37 232 4.13 236 725.44 46.53
24 745 BEYER Susanne PENELOPE 43° 25.49’ N 010° 9.18’ W 5.66 235 4.27 237 725.46 46.54
25 636 MADDEN Jorge SAMSARA 43° 29.59’ N 010° 20.04’ W 5.36 232 4.44 238 725.51 46.59
26 405 CLAVEAU Mathieu OKOUME LES CHEVAUX DU BEAL 43° 19.99’ N 009° 50.79’ W 5.29 227 3.61 229 726.96 48.04
27 591 BLANCHARD Florian MC TECHNOLOGIES 43° 23.43’ N 009° 58.90’ W 5.05 224 3.81 236 727.14 48.23
28 435 KERBOURIOU Vincent CGGVERITAS 43° 33.71’ N 010° 15.39’ W 5.43 234 4.26 241 730.71 51.79
29 769 FRATTARUOLO Sergio BOLOGNA IN OCEANO 43° 52.53’ N 011° 9.68’ W 6.02 266 4.96 262 731.27 52.35
30 596 CHAVARRIA Renaud BEZIERS MEDITERRANEE 43° 16.40’ N 009° 28.01’ W 5.53 232 3.2 240 732.06 53.14
31 626 FREELS Björn RIKKI TIKKI 43° 34.55’ N 010° 13.22’ W 5.57 235 4.27 237 732.18 53.26
32 757 ARCHIN Brendan ASSOCIATION LA TOULINE 43° 31.09’ N 010° 0.51’ W 5.65 236 3.86 237 733.36 54.44
33 585 BOSSYNS Bert FELICITY II 43° 25.81’ N 009° 43.11’ W 5.27 241 3.29 233 734.76 55.84
34 473 GUILLONNEAU Jean Claude ZERLINE 43° 22.12’ N 009° 33.62’ W 5.3 225 2.71 238 734.95 56.04
35 512 HOEBLER Cyril OCEARIUM DU CROISIC 43° 24.10’ N 009° 33.90’ W 5.5 227 3.32 242 736.56 57.65
36 704 GESI Simone DAGADA' - SPIRITO DI MAREMMA 43° 21.24’ N 009° 20.51’ W 5.05 242 3.19 220 739.01 60.09
37 660 DUVIGNAC Marie CHRISTOPHE JOSSE - PARIS 43° 28.32’ N 009° 32.45’ W 5.33 237 2.89 237 740.76 61.84
38 697 FRANCOIS Amaury GROUPE QUALITEL 43° 30.80’ N 009° 30.16’ W 5.27 223 3.13 242 743.74 64.82
39 796 GROUX Nicolas COUVAC 43° 38.21’ N 009° 45.07’ W 4.94 242 3.48 252 744.93 66.01
40 728 PRONO David Get It Right, www.esi-group.com 43° 28.27’ N 009° 1.20’ W 4.88 257 3.02 247 752.29 73.37
41 744 SIMONNET Bruno EL NONO 43° 35.52’ N 008° 43.88’ W 5.4 178 2.37 226 767.29 88.37
42 230 BERTRAND Serge MINIMUM 44° 2.62’ N 009° 28.39’ W 5.16 243 4.13 241 772.14 93.22
43 774 OGER Jean-Marie BRAZIL FOREST - E.LECLERC 43° 21.98’ N 008° 23.02’ W 0 130 1.92 201 774.39 95.47
44 472 CHUH Kan VMAX 43° 59.26’ N 008° 58.25’ W 5.35 269 3 247 779.95 101.03
45 708 ROBIN Fabienne HOROQUARTZ 44° 12.41’ N 008° 21.64’ W 2.09 223 2.13 245 805.28 126.36
46 520 PENDIBENE Andrea INTERMATICA - ITA 520 46° 21.18’ N 002° 32.70’ W 5.28 76 5.15 61 1077.66 398.74
    Back to top