Without question Jean-Pierre Dick has made his mark on the first Europa Warm’Up race. He composed a remarkable win in the first stage from Barcelona to Cascais with his crew on Virbac-Paprec 3. And the double winner of the Barcelona World Race lead the second stage until yesterday, Monday.
But he has been forced to give up the challenge due to an issue with the hydraulics which drive the keel rams on Virbac-Paprec 3. After battling to find a solution since Monday morning, Dick had to concede defeat today, electing to get to the dock in Cascais as quickly as prudent to start working on a repair. The solo skipper reported that pressure in the ram had dropped suddenly whilst sailing upwind.
Bitterly disappointed, Dick has still pledged that he will be in La Rochelle to greet his friends and rivals at the finish, but he must devote his team’s efforts to finding the root cause of the problem and a lasting solution.
He paid warm tributes today to the competing skippers. Armel Le Cléac’h on Banque Populaire leads Vincent Riou on PRB by a matter of six miles. After tacking today the leaders are making more directly towards Santa Maria island, with less than 90 miles to sail.
While the leading duo, and others, have been working the small shifts and changes in wind pressure, eking out fractions of a knot here and there, Bernard Stamm in third place has been ruminating over the need to simply adopt the highest possible averages on his very powerful IMOCA Open 60, Cheminées Poujoulat, rather than running himself down too much trying to make micro changes, waiting longer to make sail changes and having to accept that sometimes his boat is slower than others.
When the rivals sailing upwind carry out sail changes at 16 or 17 knots, Bernard has to wait until the wind reaches22-23 to do the same. These five knots make a huge difference in terms of physical effort. And so the skipper of Cheminées Poujoulat has only one choice.
He has to sail his boat to her full potential and that means a lot of hard work , or plan ahead to reduce sail early and accept that temporarily his boat is not sailing as fast as his opponents.
And so to make up for that he must aim to find a strategic advantage. That was why he was the first to change tack heading towards the Azores this morning.
He simply hopes that the wind shift will allow him to sail on one tack to Santa Maria, even if he is leeward of his rivals. If that happens, they will have to sail further and Bernard therefore hopes to make up for some of the miles lost
Meantime with the Azores now beckoning on the horizon, to be passed by the leaders early tomorrow morning, they must consider how best to transit the archipelago, missing out on the wind-shadows, using any acceleration zones, and sailing the shortest distance..
They said :
Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3): “I have to go back to Cascais to solve the hydraulic problem with the keel. Suddenly, there was a huge noise in the boat and the cylinder ram went. The keel was not at all controlled. Impossible to stabilize the ram and so, I dropped keel to starboard. This is a situation where we can not sail well at all … I’m trying to fix the keel. Ideally, I can fix that pretty quickly and I can bring the boat to La Rochelle, or Lorient. I still need to be training.
It’s infuriating, all the work goes up in smoke in seconds. But looking at the Vendée Globe, we have to understand what happened, and if not solve the problem or change the system”
Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat): « My passenger (a bird, see pics) did not stay long, we did not bond and become friends. I tackeda little before the others and hope they have gone too far and they find themselves above the lay line. Santa Maria is still far, we have yet to make tacks. I got into the game, but I still miss the crew! Four pairs of hands is a big help. So, I try to anticipate much more. I cannot wait and react. I slept a little, but not quite enough. I will try to continue to recharge my batteries … »
Ranking at 18h
Rg
Boat
Latitude
Longitude
Dist. finish (MN)
Dist. to first (MN)
Since 30′
Speed
(Nds)
Course
(Deg)
1
Banque Populaire
36 35.00′ N
23 01.68′ W
1663,1
0
10,2
286
2
MACIF
36 36.92′ N
22 53.60′ W
1669,1
6
11,4
295
3
PRB
36 38.00′ N
22 52.36′ W
1669,9
6,8
10,7
295
4
Cheminées Poujoulat
36 41.20′ N
22 36.04′ W
1682,3
19,2
10,4
288
5
Groupe Bel
36 32.16′ N
21 52.56′ W
1718,2
55,1
11,1
272
6
ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered
37 00.76′ N
21 39.48′ W
1726,5
63,3
11,7
281
7
Virbac-Paprec 3
37 44.48′ N
15 43.32′ W
2011,3
348,2
9,6
89