Brest Atlantiques Day 10: The race is back on!
by Sabina Mollart-Rogerson 14 Nov 2019 13:23 PST
14 November 2019
MACIF maxi trimaran skippers Francois Gabart and Gwenole Gahinet are training in strong wind conditions prior to the Brest Atlantiques sailing race on October 18, off Les Glenans, France © Yvan Zedda / ALeA / Disobey / Macif
What a day of twists and turns for "Brest Atlantiques"! Maxi Edmond de Rothschild were the first to pass through the Cagarras Islands today at 12:16, followed by Actual Leader in second. Sodebo Ultim 3, who at one point had taken the lead, were thinking long-term and decided to alter their course in order to better preserve their boat. MACIF, docked in Rio since Wednesday evening for a pitstop, set sail once again at 16:10.
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was the third trimaran to sail round the "virtual" race marker at Rio - between the Cagarras archipelago and Ipanema beach - today at 12:16. MACIF passed the mark on Wednesday at 18:04, and Sodebo Ultim 3 at 22:23. Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier were then 13 hours and 53 minutes behind Sodebo Ultim 3, who had taken the lead during the night.
But, as Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was heading southeast, Sodebo Ultim 3, 200 miles ahead at the time, suddenly changed course. "Looking at the weather conditions in the area, Thomas Coville and Jean-Luc Nélias decided not to enter the Atlantic crossing. They're now looking at the best route to Cape Town, one that is a compromise between safety and performance," their team explained. Race director Jacques Caraës added: "They felt that the conditions were too rough to continue in a southeasterly direction. Thomas chose to alter their course in order to protect the boat; they will now lie low before setting off again."
So what exactly were the conditions like? "The route that was becoming obvious would mean encountering a depression that was heading southeast. The boat would have had to maintain high average speeds in these conditions, to avoid getting caught upwind between the depression and the sea ice drift areas. They probably decided not to take the risk in order to protect the boat," explains Christian Dumard, weather consultant for Brest Atlantiques.
And so, the race is under way once again. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and Sodebo Ultim 3 are now racing on the same course, while Actual Leader, who passed through the Cagarras Islands on Wednesday afternoon, should encounter MACIF, who are about to resume the race, following a pitstop of 21 hours and 26 minutes in the Marina de Gloria.
For more information visit www.brestatlantiques.com.
To find all the videos from on board and also ashore, please go to the Brest Atlantiques YouTube channel.
Ranking on Thursday 14 November at 15:00 UTC
1. SODEBO ULTIM 3 (Thomas Coville / Jean-Luc Nelias / Martin Keruzoré) - 8,837.3 - average speed over the past 30 mins: 25.1 knots
2. MAXI EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD (Franck Cammas / Charles Caudrelier / Yann Riou) - 135.2 miles behind the leader - average speed over the past 30 mins: 19.7 knots
3. MACIF (François Gabart / Gwenolé Gahinet / Jérémie Eloi) - 137.8 miles behind the leader - average speed over the past 30 mins: technical pit stop in Rio de Janiero
4. ACTUAL LEADER (Yves Le Blevec / Alex Pella / Ronan Gladu) - 165.7 miles behind the leader - average speed over the past 30 mins: 12.8 knots
New start in Rio de Janeiro (from Gitana)
Time goes by and every day is different in the Brest Atlantiques! Yesterday, at 19:00 UTC, following Tuesday's pit stop in Salvador de Bahia and several long hours at a standstill along the beaches of Porto Seguro, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier lamented a deficit of 466 miles in relation to the leader.
However, 24 hours later, everything has changed. In this way, more than the first official course mark, Rio de Janeiro heralds a new start for the fleet of 32-metre giants. Indeed, after ten days of racing, the cards have been completely reshuffled and it is very much game on as they prepare to cross the South Atlantic bound for Cape Town in what is forecast to be a complex passage. At 15:00 UTC, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was back in 2nd place in the ranking some 135 miles behind the leader, Sodebo Ultim. However, the course adopted by the latter would suggest that the thrills and spills of this action-packed day are not over yet.
From light airs to high speed, without any transition
Yesterday, making her way along the Brazilian coast, the latest addition to the Gitana fleet broke the records for slowness... Posting an average speed of 2.6 knots over four hours, Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas had no other option than to just grin and bear it, whilst they traversed a windless zone left over by an 'old' front that was fading away. However, the rewards finally came at the end of the day with the return of a steadier breeze that became more established the further South the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild got.
"There we go! What joy...", gushed Charles Caudrelier with the arrival of the first gust, before reiterating his gratitude to the shore crew for all their work: "The stopover in Salvador cost us very dearly, as we've had a lot of light airs, but the boat is going extremely quickly once again, an average of 3 to 4 knots quicker than when the daggerboard was damaged. The team did a fantastic job." This sense of satisfaction was widely shared by Franck Cammas: "We've rediscovered the sensations we felt prior to our breakage. Making a pit stop really was the right decision, even though it wasn't an easy one to make. We lost a lot of miles but I'm hopeful we'll quickly make them up."
One day later and a few miles further South, the wishes of the skipper of Edmond de Rothschild appear to have been fulfilled.
Bottleneck at the foot of the Corcovado
As planned, Macif made a pit stop in the Marina Gloria in Rio de Janeiro to replace the rudder on her central hull, which broke after colliding with a UFO. It proved to be a long operation since they made the dock yesterday at 19:00 UTC and François Gabart and Gwénolé Gahinet then headed back out to sea today shortly before 15:00 UTC. At the front of the fleet, Sodebo Ultim made the most of this pit stop to snatch the lead and rounded the Cagarras Islands yesterday at 22:23 UTC. However, since then there's been a dramatic turn of events since at midday, Thomas Coville announced that he was putting the race to one side temporarily for meteorological reasons and was retracing his steps towards Rio at the 15:00 UTC ranking. All this activity worked in the favour of the latest addition to the Gitana fleet, enabling our two skippers to get right back into the match once the Cagarras Islands were in the wake of their 32-metre giant. In fact, this official passage mark was immortalised in magnificent fashion by Yann Riou, the media man on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, thanks to his talents as a drone pilot extraordinaire.
At the 19:00 UTC ranking this Tuesday 12 November, François Gabart and Gwénolé Gahinet were leading with a 167.9-mile lead over the Maxi Edmond Rothschild. However, the new leaders were right in the midst of a windless transition zone and Macif had been making no more than 4 knots over the past thirty minutes! A weather scenario that wasn't unwelcome news for the duo on Edmond de Rothschild, even though Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas will also have to negotiate this buffer zone to get to the first passage point in the Brest Atlantiques, the Ilhas Cagarras off Rio de Janeiro.
A demanding South Atlantic
For several days, Marcel van Triest, like his fellow Maxi router 'colleagues', has been observing the classic pattern synonymous with the South Atlantic, namely a Saint Helena High positioned over the island that is its namesake and a downwind route to her South to make Cape Town, that didn't look like a feasible option. Indeed, the high pressure is further South than usual and following the detection of ice by the CLS*, Race Management for the Brest Atlantiques has positioned an ice gate fairly far North, with its highest point at 38 degrees South. This meteorological element combined with the safety element, and hence necessary, bars the way forward on the S'ly course, thus forcing the competitors to adopt a N'ly course, sailing fairly close to the wind, in order to reach the next course mark of Robben Island in South Africa. "We're going to set off from Rio on a reach / upwind with the sheets eased a little, which is not a comfortable point of sail for either the sailors or the boat, as it puts a fair amount of pressure on the platform. At this time, the forecasts along the course we're planning to take are announcing 3-metre waves and around thirty knots or so of breeze, which remains practicable. We're remaining vigilant, primarily through Franck and Charles on-board, and of course through their router Marcel Van Triest, who's scrutinising the situation with the utmost care", admitted Cyril Dardashti, director of the five-arrow stable.
* CLS means Satellite-based location and data collection system. CLS is a subsidiary of the CNES (National Centre for Space Studies), ARDIAN and IFREMER, which is an international company that has been a pioneer in the provision of monitoring and surveillance solutions for the Earth since 1986.
MACIF trimaran is back in the race! (from Trimaran MACIF)
The MACIF trimaran's stopover is now over. After an 19-hour technical stopover in the Bay of Rio to replace the broken central rudder, François Gabart, Gwénolé Gahinet and the media man on board, Jérémie Eloy, rejoined the race keener than ever!
After having rounded the first course buoy off Palmas Island, in the Cagarras Archipelago, at 19:05 (GMT+1), the MACIF trimaran then stopped off in Rio, as planned, to repair the central hull rudder, which was damaged on Friday night, following the boat's impact with an unidentified floating object (UFO).
As soon as the boat reached the Marina da Glória at about 21:00 (GMT+1), the MACIF team members on site began work on replacing the broken part. In the end, it took them 19 hours to do this job properly, before the trimaran was able to return to the race in good weather conditions.
Although the replacement of the rudder during the night in Brazil took longer than planned, to adapt it to the boat, the three men on board took advantage of this time to rest.
This Thursday, at 17:30 (GMT+1), the MACIF trimaran set off again confidently - the race can now get under way again!
For more information visit www.macifcourseaularge.com.