Route du Rhum- Too close to call for IMOCA 60s, Class 40s and Multi50s

by Sabina Mollart Rogerson on 8 Nov 2014 Racing remains too close to call at the head of IMOCA 60 class, Class 40 and the Multi50 Class in La Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe while the margins in the Ultime and Rhum classes are more established.

The IMOCA 60 class is shaping up to be a two boat race, a head-to-head duel between two of France's most talented solo offshore sailors. Francois Gabart (Macif) 31 years old Vendée Globe solo nonstop around the world champion against 38 year old Jeremie Beyou (Maitre Coq) reigning and three times La Solitaire du Figaro champion are just 20 miles apart this afternoon after five days of racing. The duo timed their timing and angle through a front last night well which gave them a jump on their third placed pursuer Marc Guillemot (Safran) who is now 106 miles behind Gabart, suffering in lighter winds and with some small breakdowns.

Gabart won the Vendèe Globe at the first time of asking at 29 years old but has never yet won the incredibly intense annual multi-stage one design Solitaire. His best place finish is second in 2002. In June Beyou became only the fourth skipper to win La Solitaire du Figaro three times along with Philippe Poupon, Jean Le Cam and Michel Desjoyeaux. Then he showed an almost unerring, key ability to modulate his performance on each of the three to four day legs, peaking at the right time and holding in reserved when needed.

But the same could be said of Gabart on the last Vendée Globe when he and Armel Le Cleac'h played cat and mouse, solo nonstop around the world for 78 days and two hours, latterly Gabart able to squeeze out small miles seemingly at will.

Gabart is in his last race in the IMOCA class, at least for a while. And Beyou is highly motivated by a succession of disappointments. He withdrew from this race in 2006 due to family reasons and four years - post Vendee Globe - when this race came around he was sponsor-less. The sailor from the bay of Morlaix has had to retire from the last two Vendee Globes, relatively early in both races due to damage. Indeed his biggest trans-ocean success was winning the 2011 Transat Jacque Vabre at the side of Jean-Pierre Dick.

All the leading IMOCA 60s are downwind or reaching under spinnaker but the key to the battle of the leaders will be how they deal with the tentacles of light airs extending in front of them from the dominant Azores high pressure zone. From that point of view the advantage is often with the hunter, behind, rather than the hunted, ahead. Beyond that, the golden ticket is first entry into the Trade Winds.

Enigmatic Italian skiper Alessandro di Benedetto has had to more or less stop today while he made a repair to his rudder system on the IMOCA 60 Team Plastique AFM Telethon.

'I have finished the repair with resin infused glass cloth. I have had to attach myself to the stern section to make the repair. Now I am going to hold on station for a few hours, boat angled 10 deg to starboard.' he told Race Direction this afternoon.

Class 40 is also living up to its pre-race billing, even with the abandonment of favourite Sebastien Rogues. Transatlantic Rookie Thibaut Vauchel-Camus (Solidaires en Peloton) had to give up his lead today to Kito de Pavant (Otio-Bastide Medical) who profited from his strategy some 55 miles or so to the north of the leaders. That got him through the front first and earns him a 24 miles lead and he has been consistently quickest. De Pavant is another skipper who is no stranger to disappointment. The soloist from near Montpelier in the south of France had to retire from the last Route du Rhum, the Vendée Globe twice (he hit a fishing boat five days in in 2012) and the last Barcelona World Race, but his strategy and speeds have proven his skills so far in this race.

Britons Conrad Humphreys and Miranda Merron are on strong form in this class. Merron holds ninth and Humphreys - who had to pit stop into Camaret - is in 12th.

Merron reported this afternoon that she has been racing side by side with Geodis (Fabrice Amedeo): 'Geodis and Campagne de France have been sailing in sight of each other since yesterday morning. Clearly the Atlantic playground is not big enough! Fabrice has the advantage just now, but has kindly gone for a nap while I keep a lookout, and which means I should overtake him. It's cool sailing so close - good for going fast, but I hope the match race doesn't last too long. I need a nap too.'

In the Rhum Class which is much more competitive than the last edition which he won from seven finishers, one day and four hours ahead of second, Andrea Mura has Anne Caseneuve now over 95 miles directly behind him. She is on her fifth Route du Rhum and looking to better her second place in the heinous 2002 edition. Sir Robin Knox Johnston is in the midst of a four way fight in seventh, 100 miles shy of fourth. Behind him, just, is Finland's Ari Huusela.

Bob Escoffier spoke of his rescue from his 60 foot monohull yesterday: 'When I woke up, I could hear the sound of water. I thought first of all it was the ballast tanks, as I sleep alongside them. In the end it woke me up, and I realised it was not a normal sound. I could see in the forward cabin that the floorboards were floating. I already had two or three feet of water. I’m not exaggerating. I brought down the mainsail which had three reefs in, furled the staysail to calm down the boat. The boat was heading towards the NE at that point. I went back down below to try to see where all the water was coming from. I lifted up the boards to see if there wasn’t a problem with the engine. The water was already halfway up the engine, so I couldn’t see anything. I put on my survival suit. I issued a mayday alert on Channel 16 and triggered both my beacons. I let Benjamin Hardouin on Krit’R V know what was happening. At that point, the rescue procedures came into play. I was feeling quite calm, as there were plenty of boats around me, around ten or so within forty miles. My life was not in danger. There was just one scary moment, as there was a huge orange tug, the Sar Gravia towing Pierre Antoine’s Olmix, who wanted to tow my boat too. They got within 20 inches and the manoeuvre went wrong. I thought they were going to run into me That was quite scary. When they saw that it wasn’t working, they set off again. At that moment, the helicopter arrived. I threw myself in the water, and the helicopter picked me up. I had lost everything. The boat of course, bank card, phone, passport etc. You feel naked when that happens. My dear wife arrived this morning. We slept well and everything is fine.

Fellow veteran Patrick Morvan on the tiny tri Ortis has decided to stop into Peniche just north of Lisbon after dicovering a crack in the forward crossbeam. There was a loud noise and the fissure became evident and so he is halted into the Portguese haven around 1000hrs this morning. The crack is about 30cms wide.

At the front of the race Loick Peyron confirmed how hard it is in the light, unstable trade winds when you can't just gybe and work each wind shift and go searching for pressure. He has lost some miles to Yann Guichard but both are making good speeds between 22 and 25 kts. Maxi Solo Banque Populaire is 130 miles ahead, Lionel Lemonchois on Prince de Bretagne is slowed and under attack a bit from the Multi 70s Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and Musandam Oman Sail which are 70 miles apart now, Seb Josse still ahead.

Jérémie Beyou, IMOCA 60 Maître Coq: 'We knew we were in for a fight. And that’s exactly what we’ve got. It looks like that is going to continue. We have some heavy squalls, and the downwind sailing is a bit fast and tense… I had the spinnaker up last night, but the wind got up to thirty knots when I was under full mainsail and big spinnaker. I brought down the big spinnaker down and hoisted the gennaker, which is quite a job. At the moment, we’re speeding along, but it’s not really the trade winds as there are squalls and drizzle… I’m pleased about where I am. I deliberately headed north to deal with the front. I didn’t want to hang around below it. Marc Guillemot and Armel Tripon’s positions are a bit risky, as there are areas with no wind. It’s a bit of a risk.'

Sidney Gavignet Ultime Musandam-Oman Sail: 'I’ve got twenty knots of wind. The seas are quite heavy, which is quite a surprise, as they seem to calm down and then get stirred up again. The boat is sailing well. It’s much more unstable during the night than during the day with squalls and wind shifts, so we we’ve had plenty of gybes to do. I am working closely with my router, Jean-François Cuzon. We do a lot of work on the phone and we determine a bearing at which we need to gybe. He sends me the weather in the morning and evening so that I can understand what’s going on and together we come to a decision. He is really hard at it around the clock. I don’t have any hesitation in calling him up at any time, even at night. We’re both hard at it. He is racing from his home.'

Bob Escoffier, skipper of the Rhum class, Groupe Guisnel: 'As far as my health is concerned, I’ve got a few bruises and a few aches this morning, but everything is fine apart from that. As for my morale, I feel down, as this is the first time in my career as a sailor that I have not brought the boat safely home. It is indeed very sad. She’s a great boat. She’s Servane’s. We have to look on the bright side. I’m still here and that’s the main thing! I carried out a pit stop in Roscoff after a staysail problem. The sail went into the water, so I had to set off with another staysail. We set off early on Tuesday morning at 0730hrs to make our way down. It was still complicated passing Ushant, but that went fine. Then we crossed the Bay of Biscay, which went well too.

As Karine Fauconnier, my router told me, there was a rather nasty low-pressure area coming up from the south-west with winds of around 40 knots. I decided to head for the coast to shelter and heave to for fifteen hours or so. Once the wind had swung around in the evening, I would head off again along the coast of Portugal. Kriter was sailing about three miles from me. I told him that as we were in an area where there were a lot of boats, he should call me up if he saw anything on the AIS, while I grabbed 15-20 minutes of rest.

When I woke up, I could hear the sound of water. I thought first of all it was the ballast tanks, as I sleep alongside them. In the end it woke me up, and I realised it was not a normal sound. I could see in the forward cabin that the floorboards were floating. I already had two or three feet of water. I’m not exaggerating. I brought down the mainsail which had three reefs in, furled the staysail to calm down the boat. The boat was heading towards the NE at that point. I went back down below to try to see where all the water was coming from. I lifted up the boards to see if there wasn’t a problem with the engine.

The water was already halfway up the engine, so I couldn’t see anything. I put on my survival suit. I issued a mayday alert on Channel 16 and triggered both my beacons. I let Benjamin Hardouin on Krit’R V know what was happening. At that point, the rescue procedures came into play. I was feeling quite calm, as there were plenty of boats around me, around ten or so within forty miles. My life was not in danger. There was just one scary moment, as there was a huge orange tug, the Sar Gravia towing Pierre Antoine’s Olmix, who wanted to tow my boat too. They got within 20 inches and the manoeuvre went wrong. I thought they were going to run into me That was quite scary. When they saw that it wasn’t working, they set off again. At that moment, the helicopter arrived. I threw myself in the water, and the helicopter picked me up. I had lost everything. The boat of course, bank card, phone, passport etc. You feel naked when that happens. My dear wife arrived this morning. We slept well and everything is Event website