Transat Québec Saint-Malo- New Class40 leader

by Transat Québec Saint-Malo on 29 Jul 2012 By day 6 of the Transat Québec Saint Malo the Open and Class40 fleets had long left the last compulsory waypoint at St Pierre behind and were now confronted with a new low pressure system that had been pushing them to the east.

While new Class40 leader Stéphane Le Diraison on IXBlue clearly opted for a northern route, his more direct adversaries, second placed Fabrice Amedeo on Geodis and German skipper Joerg Riechers on Mare chose a more direct heading and are now duelling, separated only by a couple of miles.

More than 100 miles to the south, Halvard Mabire on Campagne de France in fifth and Quebecker Eric Tabardel on Bleu in 16th are bidding for the new breeze generated by the centre of the depression to come from the south-west, along the west coast of Newfoundland. After the hardships and tricks of the St Lawrence river, all the 25 crews are now sailing fast but very testing conditions in the Atlantic, in a race where the last word is far from being told and everything can still happen.

While the multihull class has always been led by Erwan Le Roux's FenêtréA Cardinal, who has been recording steady two-digits speeds, there is yet another new frontrunner in the Class40: IXBlue skippered by Stéphane Le Diraison who managed to get away from the pack by the north. Le Diraison and his crew mates Bertrand Delesne, Vincent Barnaud and Eric Mezières are reaping the the fruits of their bold choice off Newfoundland. Only Fabrice Amédéo on Geodis and Germany's Joerg Riechers on Mare have been able to keep the new leader's pace and the trio has now a pretty good margin on the rest of the fleet that is trailing by some 20 miles and has a considerable lateral separation.

The latest position report shows that Le Diraison has a 6,3 miles advantage on Amédéo and 8,1 on Riechers. Fourth placedThierry Bouchard on Comiris-Elior is 23,3 miles behind and still well in contention while the two last placed teams are Louis Duc's Avis Immobilier and Benoit Parnandeau's Transports Coherence, trailing by 184,4 and 202,8 miles respectively, but that have been forced to stop to solve some technical issues.

It is no doubt easier to be in front with several miles advantage but for the chasing pack in Open Class the situation is slightly different. By keeping a northerly route, multihulls leader Erwan Leroux on FenêtréA Cardinal 3 managed to avoid an area of variable and shifty wind and is now sailing with a steady south/south-easterly of around 20 knots that should accompany the 50' trimaran to the Fastnet Rock, the last mark to round for multis before Saint Malo. But second placed Vers un Monde sans Sida led by Erik Nigon is still entrapped in this tricky transition area with a wind as light as 6 knots while Gilles Lamiré on Défi Saint-Malo Agglo has chosen an interesting route south that should allow him to reach the front faster and possibly making that big gain he is been looking for since the race start in Québec.

In the monohull division of the Open Class, Italian Vento di Sardegna skippered by Andrea Mura is trying to set himself free of the pressure from the Class 40 boats. 'I'm really impressed by the Class 40 speed, they are very fast and in certain sailing points, namely when reaching, it's hard to be faster. We are 3 metres longer, but it seems not to be enough. Frankly it's unlikely that we can set the new record, but we are still aiming for the monohull line honours.' said Vento di Sardegna's crew Tommaso Stella during a radio vac. True, the 50' has a slim advantage on the impressive Class40 fleet while it is apparent that Georges Leblanc on his big 65 footer Océan Phénix, is having a hard time at keeping the rhythm of the rest of the fleet and despite now being in a good breeze of around 25 knots, will soon meet the light wind area too, and the gap could bridge further.

Miranda Merron's blog from Campagne de France: 'Huge apologies for the lack of news – we have been working harder than I ever thought possible. Since we left Quebec on Sunday morning, we have been rather busy. Sunday was a beautiful day for racing downwind on the St Lawrence, with the wind reaching 28 knots at one stage, making manoeuvring more exciting, but flat water and fast. Plus there are numerous obstacles such as islands, sand banks and other competitors. I have no idea how many gybes we did on the first day alone, but it must have been over 50.

'Then light and variable the first night and next day, strong breeze filling in on the second night accompanied by menacing thunderstorm, huge gusts off the hills, which made for an interesting mark rounding at St Anne des Monts in the company of other boats, speeding along in the dark, a bit too much wind. The race so far has been an endless round of changing sails, getting things right, getting them wrong, giving away places, going back on the hunt, catching up with some of our competition, getting ahead of some, getting becalmed again, sometimes clear with good visibility, more recently fog, heavy glacial rain, more fog, then clear starlit night and proper downwind surfing conditions.

'Amazingly, we had good visibility on the St Laurence, and the Bay of Gaspe and the Roche Percee, lit up with end-of-world sunlight as huge dark cloud came rolling in. Beautiful part of the world. However we saw nothing of Newfoundland, and just a glimpse of the lower cliffs on Miquelon. We are now over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland (and it isn't foggy, in fact it is glorious weather, and the boat and its occupants are thoroughly enjoying drying out a bit). This is the start of the Atlantic Ocean section of the Quebec St Malo race, the final 2000 mile sprint to France. Spinnaker up, flying along, waiting for the next low pressure system to catch up, with more wind and no doubt rain!'

Ryan Breymaier on Mare: 'So, we are halfway through the course, and have finally gotten on the right track. It is not so easy when you have three successful Mini sailors (singlehanded) onboard, because everyone is used to doing things their own way and making all their own decisions. Because of this, we have been a bit of a misguided missile... lots of speed, but not always in the right direction. At this point though, all the generals have gone for a command conference in the war room, turned the keys, and the ICBM has been fired straight at the target, St. Malo.

'We have a lot of reaching ahead of us, which suits our wounded boat just fine, and are hoping to put the miles on before the last bit of the race, where some light to medium vmg downwind awaits... Not what we need with a short bowsprit and a tissue paper thin big kite, which splits at the mere sight of waves... Back to the generals, they have decided to hold regular situation reports in the war room, each time some new intelligence arrives. This is proving to be successful, to win the war you first have to win the battles.

'For my part, I am supervising their meetings, doing some translating, while at the same time running around re-lock tieing everything, putting the pilot tiller arm back together, and doing he whole host of little jobs that crop up in such a long campaign.'

Position report on July 28th at 13:40 GMT:

Class40
1 - Stéphane Le Diraison – IXBlue – Distance to finish 1761,6 nm
2 - Fabrice Amedeo – Geodis – 6,3 nm to leader
3 - Jorg Riechers – Mare– 8,1 nm to leader

Open Class
1 - Erwan Le Roux - FenêtréA Cardinal 3 – Distance to finish 1275,7 nm
2 - Erik Nigon - Vers un Monde sans SIDA – 248,4 nm to leader
3 - Gilles Lamiré - Défi Saint-Malo Agglo – 388,3 nm to leader
4 - Andrea Mura – Vento di Sardegna – Distance to finish 1780 nm (First Monohull)