Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe - Day 10
by Route du Rhum 13 Nov 2018 14:00 PST
13 November 2018
Route du Rhum in the IMOCA class © Yann Elies / UCAR - StMichel
Today's IMOCA analysis from Nicolas Lunven
Alex Thomson continues to extend his lead in the trade winds. Now less than 1000 miles from the finish in Pointe-à-Pitre, the British skipper seems well placed, even if Paul Meilhat, Vincent Riou and Yann Eliès will remain a threat until the end, while Boris Herrmann is also lying in wait. The first boat to finish in the IMOCA class is expected in Guadeloupe on Thursday night (European time). More than 700 miles behind Thomson, we are also closely watching the fascinating contest between three Finot-Conq designed boats skippered by Stéphane Le Diraison, Alan Roura and Damien Seguin. Today's expert analysis comes from Nicolas Lunven, who gives us his personal view on the exciting Route du Rhum in the IMOCA class.
"I'm surprised by the lead that Alex Thomson now has. Yesterday at noon, he was 105 miles ahead of the second-placed skipper. Today at the same time, the gap has been extended to more than 180. Paul Meilhat, Yann Eliès and Vincent Riou have had to carry out gybes under spinnaker, while Alex has been able to continue straight on. He is fast and increasing his lead, while getting well-placed strategically between the finish and his rivals. His position is looking increasingly comfortable.
"Alex Thomson has had the perfect race"
From the outset, Alex Thomson took up an attacking position with no compromises. He is well-known for being an attacker and that has been confirmed in this Route du Rhum. In theory, he still has an IMOCA which can more or less express her full potential. It's not really a surprise finding him there. He is a very good sailor, has a fantastic boat aboard which he finished as runner-up in the Vendée Globe. For the moment, Alex has had the perfect race and we can be certain he will continue to attack until the end.
Until now, the leading skippers have experienced squalls, which can modify the wind considerably and over long periods. According to weather charts and satellite imagery, they look like entering an area that is drier with fewer clouds and probably more stable winds, even if there will always be disturbances. In theory, Alex should be getting the same sort of conditions as those chasing him, which is good news for him.
"Meilhat, Riou, Eliès: three different boat designs, but tiny gaps between them"
Paul Meilhat is sailing really well, which just goes to show that straight daggerboards are not yet ready to be pensioned off. I think that he is pushing hard. We can see that in his videos and audio links. Vincent Riou dropped off for a while after the middle of last week. He seems to be up and running again now, but hasn't managed to be faster than Paul in conditions where he ought to have been. Yann Eliès has done well to get back in the game. By positioning himself further south, when he entered the trade winds, he must have picked up more wind. It's interesting as these three sailors are aboard three different boat designs, and yet the gap between them remains tiny. They are having a great battle. Everyone has probably had to deal with technical hitches that we don't know about for now, but will find out about at the finish. We can then look back on the race and better understand what has been going on.
"A final stretch that is like a coastal race"
At the end of the race, there is the lap around Guadeloupe, which can always upset everything, as we saw with the Ultimes. If Alex Thomson manages to keep his current lead, he should be able to complete that lap without any worries. Behind him, it is likely that Paul, Vincent and Yann will continue to battle it out like that until they reach the north of the island. The final stretch along the coast of Guadeloupe to determine the podium places will be just like a coastal race.
Watch out for Boris Herrmann, who is lying in wait. The four frontrunners need to avoid making any silly mistakes. Boris is having a great race for what is his first solo race in the IMOCA class. It is to his honour that he has managed to rival the leading group.
"I just love Damien Seguin"
I am pleasantly surprised by Damien Seguin. I love what he is doing. We must not forget that he only has one hand and is doing remarkably well against Stéphane Le Diraison and Alan Roura, competitors who are sailing IMOCAS with similar potential. They are having a great fight between each other. When you see how difficult it is to sail an IMOCA alone, I'm amazed by Damien, who is doing so well in spite of his handicap. I raise my hat to him. He has already proven in Class40 that he is a very good ocean racer. In the IMOCA class, he is going to be one to keep an eye on in the future.
I'm a bit surprised that aboard a boat fitted with foils Arnaud Boissières isn't up with the three boats ahead of him. Maybe he has some technical problems. I know Erik Nigon a bit as we sailed in the Figaro class together. He is having a nice Route du Rhum. It's very ambitious to sail an IMOCA when you are not a professional.
Four competitors set sail again yesterday and are sailing in the Bay of Biscay. I don't know if there was some sort of agreement between them, but it's a pretty good idea to set off again together. It means you can push hard and can be motivated. Let's not forget either that there is in any case the matter of qualifying for the Vendée Globe, training, making progress and preparing the boat."
Tripon: I want to be the third finisher in Guadeloupe
Armel Tripon, the runaway leader in the Multi50 class, is hoping to be the third skipper to finish the 2018 Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe solo transatlantic race from Saint Malo in Brittany to Pointe-à-Pitre in the French Caribbean.
Tripon on board the brown trimaran Réauté Chocolat, has just under 850 nautical miles to go to the finish of the four-yearly classic and is more than 400 miles ahead of his nearest pursuer in the six-strong Multi50 class, Erwan Le Roux on FenêtréA-Mix Buffet.
But his real rival for thrid place overall behind the two ULTIME skippers Francis Joyon (IDEC Sport) and François Gabart (MACIF) who finished in the early hours of Monday, is Britain's Alex Thomson who is leading the IMOCA monhull class on Hugo Boss by over 180 miles.
Thomson is about 130 miles southeast of Tripon and the two skipers are pushing hard in their very different boats in the easterly trade winds. The Frenchman reported this morning: "Everything's fine, but it was a complicated night with squalls and wind shifts. The first part of the trade winds were stable, but in this part in the south, there are big clouds everywhere. During the night, the seas got rougher, so it's been a bit rock'n' roll. I'm coping, but it's a bit nerve racking.
"I'm aiming for third place overall. I'd like to finish before Hugo Boss," added Tripon who finished fourth in the IMOCA class in this race four years ago. "Last time it took around 11 days. I'd love to finish tomorrow, as it's starting to feel a bit long. I'm expecting to finish on the 15th at around one or two in the morning. But that may change, as I wasn't very fast during the night. Maybe I will get there at first light in Guadeloupe."
A long way behind the Tripon-Thomson battle, Thomas Coville on the giant trimaran Sodebo Ultim' is trundling past Madeira after completing his second day at sea following his re-start from La Coruna in northern Spain where his boat was repaired. Coville is quickly catching up the only other ULTIME on the racecourse – Romain Pilliard on Remade Use It Again! – and is enjoying being back out to sea.
"There is plenty of wind, waves and sunshine, so it feels good," reported Coville. "A race is never over until you finish...so we worked quickly to try to get the boat ready again to get back in the race. The team were incredible. They worked day and night. There was a lot of work to do. It was a race against the clock.
"I was so disappointed and on edge after stopping that I was determined to set off again to finish the crossing and to enjoy myself rather than stay ashore and I kept thinking about it over and over again," he added.
"It was easier for me to move on by sailing and learning in crossing the Atlantic alone rather than return home. It's not glorious, but it needs to be done to overcome the disappointment. Here, the boat is fantastic, doing 32 knots and riding the waves. We're so lucky to be able to sail on these boats. The conditions are good and I'm enjoying myself."
As they begin their ninth day at sea, the leaders in the Class40 fleet are dipping deep south in the eastern Atlantic, hunting for the best breeze to take them west to the Caribbean.
Today the third-placed skipper in the what was originally a 53-strong fleet of monohulls, Phil Sharp on IMERYS CLEAN ENERGY, is less than 60 nautical miles north of the Tropic of Cancer and 585 miles north of the Cape Verde Islands as he continues south in search of a reliable corridor of wind to the west.
Sharp is currently about 750 miles west of the coast of Western Sahara. The longtime race leader, Yoann Richomme of France on Veedol-AIC, is about 130 miles west-northwest of him.
The British skipper has been trying to keep pace with Richomme whose boat is newer and faster, but he likes his positioning relative to the French skipper. "IMERYS CLEAN ENERGY went really well in last night's stronger breeze," Sharp reported today. "Yesterday I actually saw Aina before he too gybed – a white spec on the horizon, about six miles northeast of me.?
"Since entering the trade winds yesterday I have spent a lot of time on the helm as the spare pilot is not performing that well, and actually, it has been very refreshing. I am really enjoying surfing down the long Atlantic swells, which I am finding super-addictive and I am having trouble leaving for rest.
"My objective," Sharp added, "is to try and be in slightly stronger breeze than the others, and continue to have an edge on speed and then, at some point, gybe back on the more favourable westerly heading.?On the supplies front, cereal and porridge stocks are diminishing quicker than expected - must be due to all these long and sleepless nights."
The Class40 fleet is spread out all the way back to a group of late starters still in the Bay of Biscay, north of La Coruna with around 40 boats currently on the racecourse.
The shape at the front of the fleet is all about a leading group of seven boats spread over 245 miles from Richomme, back to Antoine Carpentier on Custo Pol. Then comes Britain's Jack Trigger on his own in eighth place on Concise 8 a further 100 miles back, followed by a pair of boats 80 miles behind him – Olivier Cardin on Région Normandie and Jean-Baptiste Daramy on Chocolats Paries-Coriolis Composites.
Behind them is a loose gaggle of boats, led by Miranda Merron on Campagne de France in 12th place, stretching 700 miles to the northeast to Emmanuel Le Roch on Edenred in 25th spot. The 52-year-old American skipper Michael Hennessy on Dragon is on his own in 11th place, but he is 300 miles west of his rivals and in danger of stalling as he gets too close to the centre of the Azores High.
Merron is enjoying going downwind and being able to dry her boat out after a long slog in the tough conditions that dominated the early part of the race. "A first week of mainly washing machine conditions (without the stabilisers), a few hours of reaching after the last front, and suddenly it's the long-awaited downwind sailing in the trade winds," she reported.
"Having skirted round the east of the Azores High, we are now south and heading more or less for the Caribbean, but it will soon be time to gybe south again to avoid being trapped by no wind in the high. There are already moments of lighter breeze. It's still a bit too early to go, but it would not be a good place to get stuck. It's getting warmer and everything is slowly drying out. The chocolate should start melting now," she added.
One place behind Merron, the French skipper Loïc Féquet on Tibco is in the same frame of mind as his British rival. "All is well aboard Tibco since we passed Madeira," he reported. "It is finally the time to actually cross the Atlantic after the punishment of the first week. The boat is moving well all the time, good surfing at 19 knots; it is wet going down the waves but I can live comfortably on board now."
Up ahead in seventh position, 250 miles behind Richomme, Antoine Carpentier is recovering after Custo Pol broached under spinnaker while he was asleep, allowing the sail to warp itself around the forestay. In order to untangle it Carpentier had to climb the rig. "I resigned myself to doing what I was forbidden to do solo – climb the mast," reported the Frenchman who won the Transat Jacques Vabre last year in Class40 alongside co-skipper Maxime Sorel.
"I managed to undo the sail very quickly, the operation took less than 10 minutes in total, but what a rush of adrenaline!" added Carpentier. "Climbing the mast in port is simple, but at sea it's another story. With each wave the boat pitches and tries to push you off before gravity brings you crashing back violently. You do not let go of this carbon tube because otherwise you're dead."
Onboard update from Alex Thomson
Top three skippers in each category at 1530CET on Tuesday:
ULTIME
1 Francis Joyon (IDEC Sport) - FINISHED
2. François Gabart (MACIF) - FINISHED
3 Romain Pilliard (Remade – Use It Again) 2,656.61 nautical miles (NM) to the finish
MULTI50
1 Armel Tripon (Reaute Chocolat) 849.65NM to the finish
2 Erwan Le Roux (Fenetrea-Mix Buffet) +373.56NM
3 Thibaut Vauchel-Camus (Solidaires En Peloton-ARSEP) +418.45NM
IMOCA
1 Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) 953.87NM to the finish
2 Paul Meilhat (SMA) +185.97
3 Vincent Riou (PRB) +220.22
CLASS 40
1 Yoann Richomme (Veedol AIC) 1,725.71NM to the finish
2 Aymeric Chappelier (AINA Enfance Avenir) +123.09NM
3 Phil Sharp (Imerys Clean Energy) +143.61
Rhum Multi
1 Pierre Antoine (OLMIX) 1,594.86NM to the finish
2 Jean-Francois Lilti (Ecole Diagonale Pour Citoyens du Monde) +490.83
3 Etienne Hochede (PiR2) +604.20
Rhum Mono
1 Sidney Gavignet (Café Joyeux) 1,892.09NM to the finish
2 Sébastien Destremau (ALCATRAZIT-FACEOCEAN) +232.59
3 Wilfrid Clerton (Cap Au Cape Location – SOS Villages D'Enfants) +606.86
www.routedurhum.com/en