Wednesday 3rd november
Press Release
Speed deficiency
Handicapped by a technical problem, which has been preventing him from
hoisting his genoa, Marc Guillemot has managed to keep up the pace set by
the leaders, who are currently making their way around the northern edge of
the Azores high. The skipper of Safran hopes to resolve this problem on
Wednesday afternoon…
MonocoqueSafran3Since the start of the race, Marc Guillemot has been unable
to hoist his big solent headsail, but this does not appear to have been much
of a handicap over the past couple of days, since the wind got up off
Ushant, but as he skirts the edge of the Azores high, the wind has dropped
off to around twelve knots or so… which is the lower end of the range for
sailing under staysail. Since this morning (Wednesday), when the wind backed
west-south-westerly, Safran has been making slightly slower headway than her
nearest rivals: the fleet reindexs very much grouped together, with Kito de
Pavant passing within fifty metres of Marc Guillemot during the night.
Explanations from Marc Guillemot at 0830 hrs GMT:
“I cannot hoist my big headsail because of the hook attachment, the locking
mechanism, which blocks the sail in place without pulling on the halyard.
It’s a simple system and has never caused any problem before, but this time,
there must be some dust or some dirt that is stopping the hook from closing.
As soon as the sea state and wind conditions ease off, I’m going to try to
solve the problem. It has to lock in place properly, as otherwise the sail
would fall in the water, and I’ve already been through that before! I don’t
want to lose it. Fortunately I won’t have to climb the mast as the mechanism
is at the bottom. As the wind has backed around somewhat and has eased off
since yesterday evening, I really need to be able to use that sail: I’m
losing miles at the moment. I’ve been sailing under staysail and indexsail
since leaving the English Channel and I managed to stay up with the pack, as
the wind has been strong enough. Apart from that, I’m in fine shape, but I
was really upset about this technical problem. I’m certainly still in the
race!”
Since the early hours this morning, Safran has been sailing on the port tack
after changing tack at the same time as Vincent Riou and Roland Jourdain.
Marc Guillemot’s goal is to get closer to the direct route and take
advantage of a trajectory further north, where the wind is stronger, blowing
at more than thirteen knots. The group of seven IMOCA monohulls that chose
the northern option, are attempting to skirt around the high pressure area,
but there is always the danger of getting stuck in a calm. The wind is set
to back slowly to the south-west in the coming hours and so it is a long
tack westwards that lies ahead for Safran, until she reaches the cold front
probably on Thursday evening or Friday morning…
1100 hrs rankings on 3rd November 2010
1- Armel Le Cléac’h 2849.2 miles from the finish
2- Roland Jourdain 10.5 miles from the leader
3- Christopher Pratt 14.1 miles from the leader
4- Jean-Pierre Dick 17.2 miles from the leader
5- Vincent Riou 23.1 miles from the leader
6- Marc Guillemot (Safran) 30.4 miles from the leader
7- Kito de Pavant 34.5 miles from the leader
8- Michel Desjoyeaux 134.6 miles from the leader
9- Arnaud Boissières 163.8 miles from the leader
SAFRAN
Caroline Coudert
Safran is a leading international high-technology group with three core
businesses: Aerospace (propulsion and equipment), Defence and Security.
Operating worldwide, the Safran group has 55,000 employees and generated
sales exceeding 10.4 billion euros in 2009. Working alone or in partnership,
Safran holds world or European leadership positions in its core markets. The
Group invests heavily in Research & Development to meet the requirements of
changing markets, including expenditures of 1.1 billion euros in 2009.
Safran is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris and its share is part of the SBF 120
and Euronext 100 indexes. For more information,
www.safran-group.com
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