01.02.2010
JULES VERNE TROPHY
(CREWED ROUND THE WORLD VIA THE THREE CAPES)
Time to beat: 50 days 16 hours 20 minutes and 4 seconds
Monday 1st February – Press release
Groupama - Swings and roundabouts
After 24 hours on the water, Groupama 3 is conceding a deficit of nearly a
hundred miles in relation to the reference time. However, this minor
discrepancy at the start of this round the world is nothing to worry about,
since it was all part of the plan for Franck Cammas and his crew as they set
sail from Ushant on Sunday afternoon.
On paper, this might appear worrying, but on water the situation is becoming
favourable again for the giant trimaran this Monday afternoon: the calm
conditions settling over the Bay of Biscay are now a distant memory for
Groupama 3. This was the first challenge during this impromptu start, which
only really took shape 24 hours before they set off. Indeed the chance to be
part of the ‘meteorological window’ was worth taking… And for the time being
the forecasts are holding true on the water! The ride across the Bay of
Biscay was fairly quick until the early hours, where Franck Cammas and his
nine men had to put in a gybe to anticipate the NE’ly wind shift.
“This Monday lunchtime we’re sailing under gennaker and full mainsail on
calm seas, which is enabling us to slip along nicely. We’ve managed to get
through the tricky section to the North of Cape Finisterre, where it was
important not to be late so as to avoid any risk of being hemmed in by the
zone of high pressure: the first obstacle is behind us! We benefited from a
fairly steady wind for three quarters of the trip across the Bay of Biscay:
the breeze suddenly kicked back in off Ushant, indeed it was even a little
ahead of schedule… We had up to thirty knots under one reef and small
gennaker on very settled seas, but we really had to be on the alert. After
that it was necessary to gybe in a easing, freer wind, but it was
particularly cold at that point! It was reminiscent of the Indian Ocean…
though there was a beautiful full moon.
Zigzags prior to the straight lining
Groupama 3 had to link together three gybes to clear Cape Finisterre and
free herself from the coast (and the shipping) in order to benefit from an
E’ly wind, which was increasing in strength the further south the giant
trimaran got. From midday, Franck Cammas and his nine crew were racking up
steadier speeds again for the long drop down towards the equator. As such
the haemorrhage of miles conceded in relation to the reference time has been
stemmed and this afternoon the boat was making the same speeds (over 22
knots) as its predecessor, Orange 2. Groupama 3’s position has become
favourable as she will now be able to make the descent towards the Cape
Verde archipelago on virtually one tack.
“The next objective is to negotiate a low, that we’re going to skirt to the
West of, offshore of Madeira: we’re going to have some downwind conditions,
however the breeze may be fairly strong, with thirty knots and more on
Tuesday evening! Before that there is this fairly straight linking phase,
which is where we’re at right now. The trajectory suggested by the routing
is very close to the great circle route (direct route), which will also
enable us to make up some time, but there will still be two tricky little
stages nonetheless: the entry into this low pressure and the arrival of the
tradewinds, involving the negotiation of a ridge of high pressure…”
Therefore Groupama 3’s course is likely to take her fairly close to the
three archipelagos of Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde, but Franck
Cammas and his navigator Stan Honey know that they mustn’t hug these highly
disruptive landforms too tightly: “We’re going to pass to the West of them,
but at Cape Verde we’ll be forced to close in on the islands… We may see
land one last time before Cape Horn! For the time being though, the
situation in the Southern Atlantic isn’t very clear: we opted to seize this
opportunity because it was the end of the stand-by period, but it’s
certainly no joke…” In the meantime, the Saint Helena High has time to
reposition herself and the crew has been able to get into the rhythm in what
will be a considerably warmer atmosphere in the hours to come! Groupama 3
didn’t have it easy last night, but from tomorrow morning the situation will
be reversed and her deficit on the reference time will quickly melt away…
The organisation aboard Groupama 3
Three watches of three people:
* Franck Cammas, Loïc Le Mignon, Jacques Caraës
* Stève Ravussin, Thomas Coville, Bruno Jeanjean
* Fred Le Peutrec, Lionel Lemonchois, Ronan Le Goff
* Stan Honey, navigator, off watch
Find all the latest about the Groupama trimarans on:
www.cammas-groupama.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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