Class40
World Tour
RDR 2022 selection
  • 1
    Sogestran Seafrigo (FRA 197)
    Sogestran Seafrigo (FRA 197)
    G. Pirouelle
  • 2
    Sign for Com (GER 189)
    Sign for Com (GER 189)
    M. Fink
  • 3
    TQuila (IRL 159)
    TQuila (IRL 159)
    A. Richardson
Next races

News

TJVNLH, D+19 : Converging routes

1j19.jpg

At the end of the 19th day of racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the routes of the Class40 leaders have crossed those of the Imoca Class monohulls. These 18.28 m long yachts, whose course passed by the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha off Recife, are now heading for Martinique along the coasts of Northeast Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. As for the Class40s, their mark of passage was the Cape Verde archipelago. The extraordinary extent in latitude as well as in longitude of the high pressure areas has led these 12.19 m monohulls to constantly put more South in their route, to the point of converging today with the Imocas, nearly 400 miles from the great circle, the shortest route on the surface of the globe between two points.

But while the Imoca boats are gliding along on a single starboard tack, the Class 40s from the North are continuing their "staircase" approach, multiplying gybes in a trade wind well set to the East, with every other tack desperately penalizing the gain on the direct route. Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde have become experts in this field since they crossed the Sal mark in Cape Verde last Friday. With 890 miles to go to the finish, which could be judged as early as next Monday or Tuesday, the men on Mach 40.4 Redman seem to be setting the pace for the pack of competitors, perfectly in control in their role as pathfinders towards Martinique.

But by diving radically south yesterday, often at 90° to the route to Martinique, Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde have cleared the way to the Caribbean arc and are no longer in control as they were in recent days since the passage to Cape Verde. Cédric Chateau and Jérémie Mion from Le Havre (Seafrigo Sogestran), who have come back to the front, are the first to enter the breach. Their duel with the Mach 40.4 Banque du Léman and the Swiss duo Valentin Gautier-Simon Koster (Banque du Léman) is going to be a spur for these two boats of the latest generation, capable of giving the leader a hard time. This morning they are the fastest of the whole fleet. But with less than 900 miles to go to the finish, the whole top of the race is in revolution this morning, against the historical leader of the race, Redman. Alex Tréhin and Frédéric Denis (Project Rescue Ocean) are also leading the revolt on an even more radical route to windward of the whole fleet. The latter is imploding somewhat this morning under the pressure of so many protagonists who are determined to play their chances in this final sprint. In the wake of Serenis Consulting  (Galfione - Péron), well back in 14th position this morning, Guidi (Mourruau - Fantini), Croatia Full of life (Kostelic - Antoine) and Milai (Masa - Beaugé), are working hard to be part of the final fight! There are no less than 17 Class40s who have not yet given up in the fight for the runners-up positions! Of course, it is the trade winds, which are still unstable in terms of direction and strength, that will determine the issues, which will last at least until next Tuesday. The route choices that seem to be made this weekend will determine the outcome of this exciting and long Transat Jacques Vabre 2021.

The fleet of 43 Class40s in the race is now spread out over more than 1,000 miles between the leaders and the duo Guiguen - Pinson (Terre Exotique), which entered the Atlantic yesterday.

Vic and Enguerrand's Fun facts

⁃ Forget about glasses repair ; it was a fiasco 

⁃ Sargasse if you change 3 letters and add 18 it's like : " fuc..g shit algae, I hope the guy in front has a lot of it! "... coincidence? I don't think so. 

⁃ a spoonerism that was slipped into a note we've been blogging about for a few days (thanks Freddy), do you have it? "He was so skinny that he only had one stripe on his pajamas"

⁃ our auto driver always squeaks... except when we sit next to the bar... maybe he needs someone to talk to for a bit

⁃ We feel like we are almost there when we still have more miles to go than our first race (Normandy Channel race)

⁃ Our GoPro bugs 

⁃ CONTEST GAME: we call by satellite the one who manages to predict best how many liter of fresh water we will have left at the date of November 28 12H UT 

⁃ The number of our satellite phone starts with +88, it scares people who don't know it so most of the time when we call someone on land, they don't answer!

⁃ Guilty pleasure: we did (not at the same time) some lame ass night shifts. It is very nice

⁃ Question of the day : Do you have the names or numbers of the boats that we want to pass the most ? (all of them of course but we have to start somewhere) 

Crédit Mutuel slowed down!

The Class40 Crédit Mutuel of Ian LIpinksi and Julien Pulvé hit an Ofni at 11:15 pm French time on Wednesday. The keel is damaged. Both men are fine but will have to sail back to Martinique at reduced speed. They were in the leading pack before this accident.

Quotes of the day :

Antoine Carpentier - Redman

"Another night at sea. A magical night, far from everything and so close to nature... the wind is gentle, not too strong unfortunately, around 12/13 knots of wind, variable direction East-North East. The sea is still as calm as ever, barely 2 meters of swell. The stars are shining while waiting for the moon to rise... We are in the last night where we can make a strategic placement on the competitors and they on us...on the final edge, it will be then a race of speed until Martinique, during three days on the same edge. At this point, the distances on the map will normally be more stable and will really indicate the ranking since everyone will be on the same tack..."

Manu Le Roch - Edenred

"The wind is back and the Red boys are smiling again! A day at the helm, slaloming between the surfs, the sargasso to avoid ... music at full blast, the pleasure is there! At the moment we listen to fives minutes Her, after hours The Weekend, Maria kerala Dust or I like the party Disko Junkie ! Sensations hyper pleasant to surf following the wave a delight! It was not often the case on this long transatlantic race so we have to enjoy it! The mile counter has been going well and we are now under the 1000 miles mark of the arrival scheduled on Monday!

Stan Thuret - Everial

"I've just beaten my record for time spent at sea. We are starting the 19th day, and until now I had spent 18 days during the Mini. The routings give 4 days and 15 hours until the finish."

Frans Budel - SEC Hayai

"We have 12 to 16 knots of wind in the trade winds. The sky is clear, the moon is full and there are few waves. We are staying south to have some margin if the wind gets more easterly. The moon rises later and later, and also seems to be getting smaller and smaller, giving us less light at night. Few clouds, so a splendid starry sky.

Calliste Antoine - Croatia full of life

"Our provisions are scarce but we hold on, the rationing which is imposed to us is already felt on our slimmed down bodies. We are still moving in the right direction, the extreme climatic conditions of this hostile environment are very hard to bear, especially around noon when there is not the slightest shelter in the shade outside, the hours at the helm are beginning to leave their mark on our tired bodies. This vermin of sargassum does not finish leading us the hard life, banks of several meters extending as far as the eye can see. All morning long, 3 backward steps, an apnea cleaning and we stopped counting after 63 rudder cleaning in less than 3 hours, no choice if we want to escape our pursuers Ivica, the Mediterranean, confided to me that even in the Adriatic the heat was not as strong "It's not my sea" he added.

Max Cauwe - Avanade

Everything is going well on board Avanade! The weather is nice and warm! Too nice and too hot sometimes. It's getting harder and harder to keep up with the recent boats around us, but we're hanging in there. It is the last straight line and we give everything: either you steer or you sleep! We started to count the water cans. That should do it but there is nothing too much."

Imprimante Partager sur : partager sur Twitter partager sur Viadeo partager sur Facebook partager sur LinkedIn partager sur Delicious partager sur Digg partager sur Google partager sur Myspace partager sur Yahoo!

Display the whole heading


©2013-2024 Azimut Communication - Website design & Interactive kiosks
Legal information | Site map | Contact us | RSS