No respite
The ninth night at sea in the Transat Jacques Vabre wasn’t at all restful for the 70’ trimarans, which are continuing to lead the way into Itajaí. Making their way along the Brazilian coast since late yesterday afternoon, Sébastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier have had to adapt their trajectory in line with the south-easterly rotation of the wind. The atmosphere is coloured by piloting and refined trimming aboard the blue trimaran: “Overnight the wind oscillated between 18 and 20 knots in strength and began to back,” Antoine Koch explained. In fact, since Edmond de Rothschild’s exit from the Doldrums, the wind has been lifting them offshore of Brazil: “As forecast, it’s begun to shift round to the east, then it will back round to the north-east over the next 24 hours. In this transition phase, where Sébastien and Charles are the first to hit the different winds, there is a great deal of work on deck with a series of sail changes on the programme. The right choice of sail configuration is essential, especially on a reach, as it defines both the speed and the heading”, explained one of the onshore weather routers for the Edmond de Rothschild duo.
High-speed atmosphere for the Multi70s
In terms of speed, Edmond de Rothschild and Oman Air – Musandam have been sticklers for discipline since leaving Le Havre. Despite a boisterous start to the race, marked by some difficult sea conditions in the Bay of Biscay and during the passage around Cape Finisterre, the 70’ trimarans have been racking up some serious average speeds: 21.9 knots over the water to date! It’s worth noting in this analysis that in 2007, aboard their 60’ trimaran, Franck Cammas and Stève Ravussin took 10 days and 38 minutes to complete the course from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia. This morning, as they passed just offshore of this Brazilian city, the indicator aboard the trimaran Edmond de Rothschild was displaying 8 days and 19 hours of racing. Such figures reflect the true enormity of the pace being kept up by the Josse – Caudrelier duo and their adversary in this 11th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre.
This Saturday 16 November, at the 0700 GMT ranking, Sébastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier were still holding onto a 54.7-mile lead over the Gavignet-Foxall duo. The trimaran fitted out by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild was positioned some 1,125 miles (2,083km) from the finish in Itajaí.
Ranking on Saturday 16 November at 0630 GMT:
- Edmond de Rothschild (Josse-Caudrelier) 1,125.80 miles to go /28.00kt average over 2 hours
- Oman Air-Musandam (Gavignet-Foxall) 54.75 miles behind the leader /27.70kt average over 2 hours