Transat Jacques Vabre - Making steady gains in Class40

by Transat Jacques Vabre on 16 Nov 2015 In the Transat Jacques Vabre, with 350 miles to sail to Cabo Frio, the last obstacle between them and the finish line in Itajaí, the leaders of Class40, Yannick Bestaven and Pierre Brasseur on Le Conservateur have continued to make steady gains on their nearest rivals who are now 50 miles further offshore than them.

Maxime Sorel and Sam Manuard have largely been unable to outpace the leaders in most wind angles and strengths so far and are clearly taking a different option now as the miles count down toe the finish line. The leaders have a small lead in the NW’ly breeze with the advantage of being to windward but Cabo Frio is likely to be last chance saloon for Sorel and Manuard. This Sunday afternoon Le Conservateur has been reaching at more than 14kts to V and B’s 12.5.
Passing the Fernando de Noronha islands today Zetra, the all Brazilian Class 40 of Eduardo Penido and Renato Araujo, are still holding on to a margin of about 37 miles on the hard driving all-girl duo Pip Hare and Philippa Hutton-Squire in seventh.

The third placed Multi50 Arkema, sailed by Lalou Roucayrol and Cesar Dohy, finished this morning into Itajai at 1117h and 55sec UTC. Their time for the 5400Nms course is 20d10h47m55s sailing an average of 10.74kts. Arkema actually sailed 6337Nms at an average speed of 12.6kts and finished 4d0h18m42s after first place.
Roucayrol and Dohy had to stop into Salvador de Bahia to make composite repairs to their main hull but were delighted today to get their race finished and arrive in in Itajaí.

Lalou Roucayrol, skipper du'Arkema (Multi50) “We are happy to have finished. It feels like winning because it has been such a struggle for us. We were so shaken in Biscay that is where I think the hull was weakened. We could not hold the same pace as our rivals. And after that we were no longer in the same weather systems. Two days after the equator I crawled to the front of the boat and discovered we were taking in water. I plugged the holes but we had to stop and make some real repairs.”