Neutralising of the race synonymous with safety for Giancarlo Pedote
by Giancarlo Pedote 17 Jun 2022 06:21 PDT
Giancarlo Pedote - Prysmian Group © Jean-Marie Liot / Alea / Vendée Arctique
Last night, Race Management for the second edition of the Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne had to make a tough decision: to neutralise the fleet after rounding a virtual mark to the south-east of Iceland to avoid some particularly boisterous, boat-breaking conditions to the north of the island, close to the Arctic Circle.
Giancarlo Pedote has taken heed of this choice. A choice which was a natural decision for him given the obvious safety reasons, but in no way alters his mindset out on the water. Therefore, his immediate goal is to get to the famous virtual point in question as fast as possible with the smoothest trajectory he can, which should be in around fifteen hours or so.
Having initially already excluded the circumnavigation of Iceland yesterday, Francis Le Goff and his team took an even more radical decision last night upon receipt of the latest weather files: they chose to neutralise the competition after passing the virtual gate, level with the small island of Hvalbakur. The reason for this is a nasty low-pressure system rolling through, which is set to generate winds of 35 to 40 knots, gusting to over 50 to the north-east of the country this afternoon.
In this way, the sailors will be able to seek shelter before taking up the race where they left off, the details of which are yet to be defined but should be announced over the course of the day.
"The systems have evolved into something dangerous. To my mind, decisions regarding the safety of the sailors and the boats are always good. I think that Race Management has really brainstormed this situation with the aim of minimising risks and the fact that it has come to this decision means that it was necessary, even though there will always be those who are happy and others who are less happy in this type of case," indicated the skipper of Prysmian Group, who is lying in 14th place this Friday and still has 240 miles to go to make the famous neutralisation point.
"The goal is to get there as quickly as possible and hence remain fully focused," explained the Florentine, who is neck and neck with Damien Seguin and Isabelle Joschke, his two best rivals.
"The past 24 hours have been a little complicated, because there was a lot of breeze and now we're back in a light patch. We're expecting the wind to swing round to the north-west. For now, we have an E'ly breeze struggling to establish itself at 4 knots. We're making very slow progress, but the good news is that with the mass of warm air dropping in on us, the temperatures are very different to those in the last edition, in 2020. Right now, it's 15 degrees down below and it's got to be 13 degrees outside. It's not unpleasant," explained the Italian sailor, who is bound to pick up speed over the coming hours as he and his rivals are accompanied by the breeze from the announced low-pressure system on their way to the virtual mark.
Charlie Dalin, leader of this Vendée Arctique - Les Sables d'Olonne, has already gone around it, at around 02:30 hours this morning, while the skipper of Prysmian Group is set to make his rounding this evening.