Yachting-Live

All Around Madeira

On Sunday Nicolas Troussel and Christopher Pratt, sailing aboard FInanco, were the first Figaro Beneteau to round the turning point of Madeira in the doublehanded AG2R; as of 1700 UT Monday night they still clung to a lead of 15.9 miles over Thierry Chabagny and Corentin Douguet on Suzuki Åutomobiles.

After the rounding Monday night of NIVEA Athletes du Monde (Jean Galfione and GIlles Favennec), the 24 boats remaining in the race have now all rounded Madeira and are headed into the Atlantic looking in the swell for the lost trade winds. Eric Drouglazet and Christophe Bouvet on Luisina and Tangi Mahe and Claude Bertrac on Iroise Promotions have abandoned the race.

While life on deck in the moderate winds may be peaceful (the fleet was sailing under spinnaker at an average of 10 knots with winds from the Northeast), life at the chart table is anything but. For those who dare deviate from the direct route there are huge uncertainties and that knot in the stomach.

Faced with this complex situation, some leaders play the card of radio silence: the best secrets are those that are detected as late as possible and several large arms race were enjoined today. Others portrayed an immutable calm, confident of their good fortune, followers of the good old recipes.

Bertrand de Broc, a wise old man, relied on a strategy less bold, remaining confident in his position of waiting until the situation had clarified. Jeanne Gregoire aboard Banque Populaire confessed that she was stressed at her chosen path: “Yesterday evening, we saw things that we have confirmed our decision. Today, I am much less confident. At times, the road north of the direct route seems good, but then yesterday it does not appear so.”

* From Phil Sharp: “One week into the start of the Transat AG2R and on ‘Atlantik FT’ the island of Madeira is now behind us! After a very slow couple of days going downwind in light airs, we took a more westerly course in order to give us better wind and a better angle to Madeira last night. We had ‘Sopra Team’ (Antoine Koch) in visual just in front of us Saturday afternoon, who soon gybed off to leave us the furthest west. This option paid off a treat, and Saturday night we had great breeze to notch up 201 miles over 24hrs, which doesn´t sound that spectacular but was the fastest in the race so far, and we managed to leap up 4 positions to 12 place and top half at last! We arrived at Porto Santo, the north-eastern island of Madeira, just in front of ‘Lenze’ (Franck Le Gal), who are still currently nipping at our heels as I´m writing this, and we are now both heading on a westerly course out into the Atlantic. After over 1,000 miles of racin! g we are only 68 miles behind the leader, the fleet still being really tight, and routing strategy is going to be paramount over the week. The weather systems in the Atlantic are currently quite unusual and with a depression travelling quite far south, there are no Trade Winds to speak of that are accessible enough to tempt us south as yet. Instead, it looks like a northerly route is best for us so we´ll see what this has in store for us over the next couple of days - rain most probably.” — www.philsharpracing.com

Top ten at 1700 UTC 28 April:

1. Financo - Nicolas Troussel / Christopher Pratt, 2341.1 nm to finish
2. Suzuki Automobiles - Thierry Cabagny / Corentin Douguet, 15.9 nm to leader
3. Les Mousquetaires - Bertrand de Broc / Gwen Riou, 16.9
4. Cercle Vert - Gildas Morvan / Jean Le Cam, 17.3
5. Defi Mousquetaires - Thomas Rouxel / Erwan Israel, 23.1
6. Athema - Erwan Tabarly / Vincent Biarnes, 28.5
7. Gedimat - Armel Tripon / Dominic Vittet, 30.8
8. Degremont Suez Source De Talents - Jean Charles Monnet / Alexandre Toulorge, 76.6
9. Atlantik Ft - David Krizek / Phil Sharp, 82.8
10. Lenzele - Franck Gal / Erwan Le Roux, 83.4

Race website (in French only) www.transatag2r.com

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.