Sailing, a sport synonymous with patience
Yesterday evening, the duo on Edmond de Rothschild made no secret of its desire to head back out to sea and get back in the match. It has to be said that this technical pit stop, though necessary for sailing the boat at her full potential, brought to an end their 5-day reign at the top of the leader board. Indeed, it effectively wiped out a week’s work at sea, in which Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier had managed to steal a march on their pursuers. On Sunday, Macif was then in 2nd place with a deficit of nearly 180 miles in relation to the maxi-trimaran with five arrows! For our duo, they’ve got to start that work all over again and the past day spent hunting down the breeze along the Brazilian coast has added salt to the wounds a little. Inevitably irritated by this situation, Charles and Franck still remain philosophical however: “There is still a very long way to go! We’re working with the hand that’s been dealt us, one day at a time”, wrote the sailors to their shore crew.
It’s worth noting too that Macif is due to stop off for a quick pit stop herself in Rio de Janeiro to replace the rudder on the central hull, which broke after impact with a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object).
Message from Yann Riou, aboard the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, received at daybreak this Wednesday: A funny old day. The race is on hold. Pit stop. A lot of work undertaken by the shore crew. And a start just a few hours after making landfall in Salvador. Before we could even familiarise ourselves with the comfort of life on terra firma again. And here I am sitting in the same place as yesterday, my tablet on my knees. Just above me, Franck and Charles are back on watch. In race mode! Nothing seems to have changed since yesterday, and yet. Our boat has regained her potential, our skippers are super motivated, our team can be proud of a job well done and our dishes are clean. We spent a day in Brazil. Funny old day, Yann
PS: I think it’s the first time I’ve come to Brazil without drinking a single Caipirinha!
TODAY’S VIDEO, BY YANN RIOU
A successful commando operation
Arriving in the early hours of the morning in the Bay of All Saints, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild left it in her wake at dusk. In the meantime, the members of Gitana Team didn’t have a minutes’ respite. Indeed, it should be pointed out that the operation carried out yesterday in the port of Salvador de Bahia can take several days in normal time. Here, in the space of 12hrs, the préparateurs led by Pierre Tissier accomplished a colossal amount of work to enable their skippers to get back out on the racetrack as quickly as possible. We review the images of these few Brazilian hours in the Brest Atlantiques.
Ranking on 13 November 2019 at 15:00 UTC
1. MACIF (François Gabart / Gwenolé Gahinet / Jérémie Eloi) – 9,048.7 miles - average speed over the past 30 mins: 26.1 knots
2. SODEBO ULTIM 3 (Thomas Coville / Jean-Luc Nelias / Martin Keruzoré) - 99 miles behind the leader - average speed over the past 30 mins: 25 knots
3. MAXI EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD (Franck Cammas / Charles Caudrelier / Yann Riou) – 431.4 miles behind the leader - average speed over the past 30 mins: 3.1 knots
4. ACTUAL LEADER (Yves Le Blevec / Alex Pella / Ronan Gladu) – 439.2 miles behind the leader – average speed over the past 30 mins: 14.2 knots