Safran finishes, fleet closing on Class40 leader

by OC Events on 27 May 2008 IMOCA fleet News: Safran crosses the finish line and Sam Davies takes control.

This morning at 10:18:47 GMT Marc Guillemot on Safran crossed the finish line of The Artemis Transat in a time of 14 days, 21 hours, 18 minutes, 47 seconds. A well-earned and hard-fought fourth place after breaking a rib on the third day of the race, and sailing the rest of the course in considerable pain.

This now leaves six IMOCA 60s, out of the 13 starters, to finish this gruelling solo transatlantic race, and leading this second pack is Samantha Davies on board Roxy. Samantha Davies represents Britain's first finisher in the race and is expected to arrive at midnight tonight. She will finish ahead of her fellow Briton and rival Dee Caffari on Aviva, who still has around 330 miles to the finish and expected to arrive at 1400 GMT tomorrow (Tuesday, 27th May). Davies has also managed to extend her lead over her closest rivals - Yannick Bestaven (Cervin ENR) and Arnaud Boissieres - by 70 miles: 'The blond in front has given us the elbow,' wrote Boissieres.

Sailing an older generation boat than the first four finishers in Boston, Sam understandably sounded in good form: 'Feeling comfortable and nice to be in wind and on direct line to Boston - its quite relaxed. More importantly, is to get there in one piece without a whale or a fishing bouy wrapped around my keel and there seems to be a minefield of lobster pots and whales out here this morning!

'I'm hoping I'm going to arrive in daylight hours - around 2200 gmt [1800 local time] so hoping I'm going to be able to see because, for sure, at night it's harder. I guess the hardest thing is we're going to get about 30 knots of wind in the channel approaching Boston and it is directly upwind so we're going to have to tack all the way up the channel - that's going to be pretty hard physically, just taking the boat maybe several times.'

Speaking of the fifth-place battle that has ensued these past few days, Sam said of her rivals: 'They are great friends and also desperate to beat each other! They will be pushing all the way and perhaps taking some risks right up to the end.' It's worth noting that the two old friends had finished first (Bestaven) and third (Boissieres) in the 2001 Mini Transat, after having carried out a shared campaign, notably building 2 new prototypes together.

Dee Caffari onboard Aviva, racing in her first solo race onboard her new 60-foot IMOCA boat, has around 300 miles to go and is finding the final phase of the race a frustration : 'A great day sailing once the sun rose and revealed clear skies and breeze for Aviva. Then as if by the clock the breeze shut down and left me floating absolutely dead in the water. The only difference was this time is that it was under clear blue skies with a sun in it rather than fog. That was a relief as the air is so cold it was the warmest I had been for days. So yet again my plan to arrive in Boston is delayed once again.' For Dee, getting to Boston may seem like an eternity, but the gain will be worth the pain for the girl who, like Samantha Davies, wants to race in the solo non-stop round the world Vendée Globe race this winter. It is critical for Dee to finish The Artemis Transat to put her Vendée Globe qualifier behind her.

IMOCA Fleet results : The Artemis Transat
Boat name / skipper name / finish time / date / elapsed time / time difference to 1st place

1 - Gitana Eighty (Loick Peyron) 03:15:35 GMT 24.5.08 12d 11h 45m 35s
2 - Brit Air (Armel Le Cleac'h) 08:28:40 GMT 24.5.08 12d 19h 28m 40s [difference to 1st place 7h 43m 05s]
3- Generali (Yann Elies) 04:00:22 GMT 25/05/08 / 13d 15h 00m 22s
[difference to 1st place 1d 3h 14m 47s]
4 - Safran (Marc Guillemot) 10:18:47 GMT 26/5/08 14d 21h 18m 47s
(average speed 8.32 knots / difference to 1st place 2d 9h 33m 12s)
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CLASS40 News: Another big one on the way.

The competition within the ten boats still racing in The Artemis Transat Class40 fleet is becoming increasingly tight with the Marblehead finish line approaching. Despite using the 40°N ice gate south of Newfoundland as a launch pad for a rocket propelled ascent north-west, the race leader, Giovanni Soldini, has a championship fight ahead to maintain his lead. This morning, Soldini spoke frankly via a patchy satellite link 440 miles off the coast of North America: 'I have very **** conditions,' he reported. 'Really, really ******,' the Italian continued, finishing his weather update with a wry laugh. Two days ago, Telecom Italia ran into an area of high pressure and Soldini flat-lined west, hunting for breeze, while those in the south kept the wind and won miles from the race leader. Today, his westerly route is now blocked, albeit temporarily: 'I've got no wind and a lot of Gulf Stream which is pushing me back. It all happened at about 0600GMT this morning,' explained Soldini, before admitting to an uncharacteristic error: 'I thought the high pressure would be later and further south, but it's early and in the north. But, what can you do!' In good humour, he was still optimistic: 'But I think we will go out in a few hours..I hope.'

The net result is that Soldini slowed to a crawl and with the foul current of the Gulf Stream, he was being pushed away from the finish line at two knots (the 2D race viewer for 1000GMT processed this information clearly showing negative VMG ( http://theartemistransat.geovoile.com/?lg=en&c=2 ). Unaffected by the light winds during the morning, Beluga Racer in second charged down on Telecom Italia at double the race leader's speed, robbing ten miles from Soldini in four hours. Boris Herrmann's luck ran out at midday and the brakes went on gradually, although the German had closed down further before hitting the ridge and now trails the race leader by 43 miles. In a reversal of fortunes after yesterday's losses, Thierry Bouchard and Mistral Loisirs - Pole Sante ELIOR kept the breeze longest in the south, piling towards the leading pair, but by midday his speed averages were waning as the light air began to bite. It was, however, an excellent morning's work for Bouchard and he has taken 36 miles from Telecom Italia since dawn and now trails second place Beluga Racer by 63 miles.

The race organisation had unusual difficulty in contacting skippers this morning and the reason soon became clear: 'I've just been doing a sail change and could hear the phone going earlier,' said Miranda Merron at 1100GMT. Swapping over gennakers on 40 Degrees, she had just run out of breeze: 'There's not much wind as we're in the ridge and the Gulf Stream current is making us really slow,' continued Merron. Situated to the north, she explained the forthcoming weather: 'My information is that the ridge is aligned NE - SW, so - in theory - if you're north, you should get it first.'

In fourth place Louis Duc has been averaging consistently high-speeds on Groupe Royer over the past 48 hours and delivered the highest speed average this morning of 9.8 knots: 'When I arrived at the ice gate I was in eighth place,' he explained to the race office earlier. 'I thought that I've got nothing to lose, so I've been carrying the maximum sail ever since then.' This tactic has obviously worked and he now leads the mid-fleet group in fourth. However, Duc's pace dropped at the same time as Merron's: 'I've just arrived in the high-pressure ridge, but it's not too bad, although I I hope we don't stick around here too long.' His tactical analysis is similar to those on 40 Degrees and Groupe Royer may catch the new breeze later than the more northerly boats.

Conversely, Alex Bennett has gambled on the south, looking beyond the no-wind zone: 'It was fast sailing last night and I was running north of the rhumb line,' he wrote earlier. 'I've used the wind to get south as I'm expecting a wind shift to the south-west.' Fujifilm is in fifth this afternoon an