Trade winds push fleet towards Doldrums

by Event media on 25 Nov 2007 As expected, the northeast trade winds are shooting the Barcelona World Race fleet down toward the doldrums at great speed. Most boats are averaging well over 15 knots as they hurtle towards the next obstacle nature has put in front of them.

Although trade wind sailing is often described as 'champagne sailing' with strong, steady winds on the aft quarter allowing fast reaching under sunny skies, not many of the Barcelona World Race skippers would describe it quite that way.

These powerful IMOCA Open 60's are being pushed harder than ever with each boat spurred on by its neighbour into sailing faster and faster. The result is some tired and stressed sailors, who are hand steering boats carrying more sail area than is strictly sensible.

'We were playing on the edge of the limits of the boat so it was quite stressful last night,' confessed Sidney Gavignet from Delta Dore this afternoon. 'But the conditions are great - when you're going between 20 and 23 knots with a river of water pouring down the decks it's fantastic. But it is stressful as you want to be sure you're going to finish the race.'

Further back in the fleet, Estrella Damm skipper Guillermo Altadill revealed his boat had been dealing with a litany of problems over the past few days but were now back on track and sailing at full power. His co-skipper, Jonathan McKee, described what life is like when things go wrong:

'It's been a pretty full on 24 hours and honestly it's been over 20 knots for more than 24 hours now which means you have to hand steer and you get a lot less sleep and a lot less other things done. That part takes its toll.when something goes wrong all of a sudden your life changes completely and it's just a major, major problem,' he says. 'In our case we have a sail up there that we can't get down. You realise just how precarious of a position you are in when five minutes before, everything seemed totally under control. Things can go bad in a hurry. It's just a very delicate game. The loads are pretty big. It puts the human in the way of a lot of power so you have to be pretty careful.'

Day 14 - November 24, 16:00 GMT - Position report with distance to leader

1. PAPREC-VIRBAC 2 - Jean Pierre DICK / Damian FOXALL - 0.0
2. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien JOSSE - 50.8
3. VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT - Roland JOURDAIN / Jean Luc NELIAS - 110.7
4. DELTA DORE - Jérémie BEYOU / Sidney GAVIGNET - 178.2
5. HUGO BOSS - Alex THOMSON / Andrew CAPE - 230.3
6. MUTUA MADRILENA - Javier SANSO / Pachi RIVERO - 261.7
7. TEMENOS 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele PARET - 291.1
8. ESTRELLA DAMM - Guillermo ALTADILL / Jonathan MCKEE - 317.1
9. EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS - Servane ESCOFFIER / Albert BARGUES - 650.8

Servanne Escoffier, Educación sin Fronteras: 'Great conditions - 20 to 24 knots, under spinnaker. We had a problem with the big spinnaker this morning when the boat hit a wave and slowed down. The spinnaker loaded up and burst. So we're sailing now with the smaller spinnaker. We'll be at the Cape Verde islands in less than 24 hours and then heading south to the doldrums.'

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