Route du Rhum - Class 40s in tight finish

by Oliver Dewar on 19 Nov 2010
Class40 Global Ocean Race entrants update from the Route du Rhum.

Thomas Ruyant and Destination Dunkerque took first place in the Class40 division of the Route du Rhum at 11:12:17 GMT on Thursday with Nicolas Troussel and Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne chasing him across the line off Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadaloupe, just three and-a-half hours later after 4,000 miles and 18 days of racing.

Just seven and-a-half hours after Ruyant crossed the line setting a new Class40 Route du Rhum record, Yvan Noblet and Appart City took third place with Sam Manuard and Vecteur Plus an astonishing four minutes behind Noblet in fourth place.

While the partying starts in the Caribbean for the Class40 skippers, they will doubtless reflect on the past four days of the transatlantic race which proved a relentless duel for first place and a four-way battle for third with a level of competition and close racing that is very rarely witnessed.

On Monday morning, The Route du Rhum’s Class40 leader, Thomas Ruyant on Destination Dunkerque continued his beat south on starboard, dropping down to the same latitude as Nicolas Troussel in second place with Crédit Mutuel de Bretagneby 06:00 GMT with a little under 60 miles separating the two boats and pacing each other at just over 8 knots with the finish line 580 miles south-west of the French duo.

For Ruyant, keeping his one year-old Tyker40 in one piece was a priority after pushing hard for 15 days at sea. 'The final stretch of the race is looking really tough,' admitted the 29 year-old on Monday morning. 'With the weather situation and Nico not far away, nothing is certain.' Conditions for Ruyant were far from comfortable.

'I’ve just been hit by a squall of 30 knots and the wind is WSW with a messy sea. The boat is slamming a lot and I don’t want to give her this punishment, but it’s unavoidable, although I’m really focused on arriving at the finish without damage.'

In third place, German mini sailor, Jörg Riechers on Mare.dehad made the decision to keep south of the northern group five days earlier and this decision came good on Sunday afternoon as Riechers tacked onto starboard, intercepting the two leaders, 50 miles off Troussel’s port quarter. In fourth and fifthplace, Sam Manuard on Vecteur Plus and Yvon Noblet withAppart City held on port until the early evening, while two new, matching Pogo S²’s - Damien Grimont in sixth on Monbana and Jean-Edouard Criquioche in seventh on Groupe PICOTY – tacked south earlier, trailing the German Class40.

As the wind began to turn westerly and the sea state moderated, Yvan Noblet began to make repairs to the forestay and replace the deck lashing on Appart City. 'I’ve regained the full potential of the boat,' announced Noblet on Tuesday morning. In normal circumstances, refitting the forestay would be undertaken alongside a pontoon with asistance, but the French skipper kept the sails up and used the breeze to force the mast forward and ensure a tight lashing. 'I put the Code Zero up, then eased the running backstay to get the mast as far forwards as possible,' explained Noblet. 'I then used a spare halyard to fine tune the tension and made the lashing. It’s strong and it’s holding.' Alongside the dock with another team member to help, the entire operation would be simple and quick; alone in the Atlantic and underway, Noblet had to make frequent adjustments and was constantly on the move. 'The whole business was pretty tiring as I had to make a lot of manoeuvres during the repair.' With the work complete, Appart City was back on the pace and early on Tuesday, Noblet was streaming south in 4th place with Manuard and Vecteur Plus in 6th, 20 miles directly astern, and Grimont with Monbana in 5th, 10 miles square off his port beam.

Meanwhile, 139 miles south of Appart City, Ruyant had – again – pulled away at the front of the fleet, adding 12 miles to his lead with Destination Dunkerque in 24 hours and leading Troussel’s new Pogo S² Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne by 70 miles as the two boats tight-reached south-west on Tuesday morning with a little under 400 miles to the finish line. Throughout the day, the leading pack reached south-west on starboard with Ruyant slowing slightly at midday to under six knots, giving Troussel the opportunity to grab a handful of miles trailing the lead boat by 58 miles in the early evening. North of the two leaders, a tightly-packed trio of boats led by Yvan Noblet and Appart City in 4th trailed Ruyant by 125 miles, shadowing the Class40 frontrunners with Noblet, Sam Manuard and Vecteur Plus in 5th and Damien Grimont in 6th with Monbana spread over just 11 miles while Jörg Riechers and Mare.de continued to gnaw away at the leading duo’s advantage taking 14 miles from Ruyant throughout the day and closing down to within 64 miles of Troussel.

While any sail damage, gear failure or wind holes could overturn the ranking at the head of the fleet and kept the front pack preoccupied, GOR entry, Jean-Edouard Criquioche in seventh place, 50 miles directly astern of Riechers, reported devastating news from Groupe Picoty: 'I hit a whale yesterday, just after midday,' explained Criquioche in a sombre email on Tuesday morning. 'The boat was slipping along at eight or nine knots and I was resting in my bunk when the boat stopped as though I’d run hard into a sand bank with a huge impact.' His first instinct was for the safety of the boat. 'At first, I thought the mast was going to come down,' he continued. 'The boat slewed over on her side, then came up again. I went up on deck really quickly and saw the wounded animal right alongside the boat. I was close to tears, the whole scene was so far from my concept of the sea, of the respect I have for it and for this animal I’d wounded,' said the clearly distraught 41 year-old. 'There was nothing I could do and I did nothing, I just stood there. I knew I should immediately make a complete check of the boat, but I stayed on deck, talking to the whale like a complete idiot, apologising to her in the language of the eternal human predator.' Criquioche was mesmerised by the tragedy before him: 'I carried on talking until she sounded, leaving a reddish wake behind her.'

As the animal submerged, the French skipper snapped-back into racing reality: 'I eventually went to inspect for any damage to the boat and there was no water leaking inside and no cracks around the keel, no visible signs of movement to the keel bolts and there was no play or hard spots in the rudders,' he confirmed. However, the sudden impact and the mast’s whip-lash had caused minor breakage. 'There was only some damage inside the backstay block where the sheave had shattered.' With the boat-check complete, Criquioche began reorganising down below, but the incident had left a heavy burden. 'I rearranged all the gear that had flown about inside the boat in the collision and started racing again with a ravaged heart and a dreadful, hollow feeling. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll speak about the race.'

While Criquioche recovered from this harrowing incident, Ruyant made a decisive move late on Tuesday evening as the wind clocked round to the north-east and Destination Dunkerque gybed south, leaving the covering position directly in front of the chasing pack. As Troussel, Noblet, Riechers Grimont and Manuard averaged between 8-9 knots downwind, Ruyant’s hotter angle to the south was producing consistent 11 knots on Wednesday morning and with 250 miles of race track remaining for Ruyant and Destination Dunkerque, first and second place seemed already confirmed. Nicolas Troussel and Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne had closed down on Ruyant on Tuesday, but the Class40 leader’s move to the south and extra pace was a decisive moment and kept Troussel 57 miles astern by Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, 63 miles behind Troussel, the fight for third was intensifying. Early on Wednesday, just six miles separated four podium contenders with Yvan Noblet and Appart City at the front of the chasing pack, pursued by Jörg Riechers, Damien Grimont and Sam Manuard with Jean-Edouard Criquioche just over 40 miles behind the group in 7th place. Into the afternoon, Noblet forced some extra pace and although he was unable to dent Troussel’s lead, Appart City pulled away from Riecher’s and Mare.de, adding a dozen miles to the deficit, while Grimont in 5th with Monbana and Manuard with Vecteur Plus in 6th stayed within four miles of the German Class40’s transom.

Throughout Wednesday, Ruyant held the breeze and his longer route towards Guadeloupe continued to pay: 'We’re making great progress under spinnaker since I decided to drop south and find some more pressure,' he reported. 'I’ve just looked at the latest position schedule and Nico hasn’t followed my move yet.' Troussel and the pack of five boats trailing Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne made the gybe south simultaneously at around midday. 'I’m really happy with my progress and I hope I can keep this margin of lead,' continued Ruyant. 'If all goes well, I think I’ll have better breeze north of Guadeloupe than Nico.'

Early on Thursday, Ruyant kept up the pace down the western coast of Guadeloupe until Destination Dunkerque sailed straight into the unavoidable wind shadow at Basse-Terre’s south-western tip, Vieux-Fort, grinding to a virtual halt and crawling towards the finish line just 19 miles to the north-east at 4.5 knots, allowing Troussel to shut down the lead to 23 miles as Mutuel de Bretagne charged along the coast. At approximately 09:00 GMT, Ruyant unstuck from the airless zone and while Troussel sailed into the island’s wind shadow and wallowed off the coast making under three knots, Ruyant crept along Basse-Terre’s eastern shore to the finish line, shaving 11 hours off the Class40 course record.

Almost 550 miles north-east of the finish line, GOR entry, Marco Nannini in 24th place on UniCredit, was watching the position schedules as Ruyant approached Guadeloupe and succinctly explained the significance: 'The Stig [Thomas Ruyant] should have finished by now,' wrote the Italian skipper. 'He’s a few hours faster than Phil Sharp in 2006, which I think is amazing,' he admits. British sailor, Phil Sharpe, won the 2006 Route du Rhum – the first time Class40’s had entered the race – finishing in 18 days and 10 hours. 'This edition was slower and his result shows how Class40 is coming of age,' Nannini believes. 'In 2006, there was a gap of a day before the next boat and here we're looking at hours. The level has risen and the great sailors have approached the class. He conducted an exemplary race and well-deserves line honours.'

In the 18:50 GMT Route du Rhum position poll, Damien Grimont in 5th on Monbana was 19 miles from completing the course.

GOR entries - Route du Rhum rankings at 18:50 GMT on Thursday 18th November:
7. Jean-Edouard Criquioche Groupe PICOTY: DTF 55: Spd 10.3kts
14. Tanguy de Lamotte Novedia – Initiatives: DTF 369: Spd 10.2kts
25. Marco Nannini UniCredit: DTF 484: Spd 8.6kts
29. Conrad Coleman 40 Degrees: DTF 575: Spd 10.1kts

Follow the Route du Rhum here and view the event’s Geovoile race tracker here. Radio Vacations (satellite phone interviews) with the Class40 fleet are scheduled for 14:00-15:00 GMT each day and are streamed live via the event’s website http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com

GOR website http://globaloceanrace.com/