Virbac wins Open 60 class of TJV – Team Cowes in chase to finish

by Team Cowes as edited by Sail-World on 19 Nov 2003 Skippers Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven, racing the new Farr Design Virbac, sailed a flawless tactical race, optimising their boat’s performance in the fast conditions to win the Open 60 class of the Transat Jacques Vabre, crossing the finish line off Salvador de Bahia at 0518GMT this morning.

Virbac completed the 4,340 mile course in 16 days, 15 hours, 18 mins and 5 seconds, averaging a boat speed of 10.87 knots. The duo just missed out on the existing Open 60 record set by Sill two years ago by just a couple of hours.

Considering the strong upwind conditions of the first 8 days this was an impressive time.
Reaching in 15 knots of south east wind, maintaining 12 knots boat speed, Team Cowes is currently placed 6th, with 242 nautical miles to reach the finish line, 47 miles behind VMI, who in turn is 57 miles behind PRB – anything could happen.

Skippers Nick Moloney and Sam Davies are driving Team Cowes hard, Sam saying ‘boatspeed is 16 knots right now, big sails up and we're sending Team Cowes as fast as we can.’ The results are showing as she closes the gap from 63 miles at 0500 this morning to 47 miles at the 0900 positions. With the potential for winds to become variable over the last stretch of the racecourse, the battle for 4th, 5th and 6th places is well and truly on.

Meanwhile, a titanic battle for second place between Sill and Ecover is taking place with only 30 miles remaining in their race. They are neck and neck racing to the finish line.

Sill’s skippers, Roland Jourdain and Alex Thomson, took the advantage early this morning putting their big spinnaker to good effect. With no spinnakers left on board, Ecover’s Mike Golding and Brian Thompson struggled to keep pace, but now the wind is upwind all the way to the line. It will be a nerve-wracking time for the skippers and their shore teams waiting in Brazil.

The latest forecast shows winds of around 14-16 knots today from the south-east, more south later, with some rain activity along the coast.

Tomorrow morning there is potential for big rain cloud activity to approach Salvador from offshore, bringing possibility of light and variable conditions close to the finish.

Top 10 Open 60 positions at 0900GMT 18.11.03:
Pstn/Boat Name/Long/Lat/Speed/Course/DTF/DTL

1 VIRBAC / 0.0 / 0.0

2 SILL / 12 58.24' S / 38 02.16' W / 10.5 / 229 / 32.1 / 0.0

3 ECOVER / 12 59.64' S / 37 59.88' W / 12.0 / 224 33.8 / 1.8

4 PRB / 12 01.76' S / 36 47.56' W / 11.7 / 228 / 121.1 / 89.0

5 VMI / 11 31.60' S / 35 58.40' W / 14.3 / 214 / 178.3 / 146.2

6 TEAM COWES / 10 43.92' S / 35 11.80' W / 12.1 / 225 / 242.6 / 210.5

7 CARREFOUR PREVENTION / 7 30.68' S / 34 06.40' W / 11.9 / 205 / 427.2 / 395.1

8 ARCELOR-DUNKERQUE / 0 55.76' S / 28 32.68' W / 10.8 / 217 / 942.7 / 910.6

9 GARNIER / 2 39.56' N / 29 41.64' W / 5.2 / 209 / 1091.7 / 1059.6

10 LOIRE ATLANTIQUE / 2 16.72' N / 26 21.40' W / 9.1 / 214 / 1174.9 / 1142.8

Team Cowes Transat Jacques Vabre campaign is supported by Skandia and Cowes Waterfront
For TJV Race Information go to: www.jacques-vabre.com