Contrary to the early forecast, so far the strong S’ly winds have not yet abated for the leaders of the Europa Warm’Up race and so speeds have remained consistently high as the IMOCA Open 60’s plunge headlong towards the Fastnet Rock light. In these conditions the outstanding performer has been Bernard Stamm’s Cheminées Pojoulat which has been positively smoking, getting to within less than 10 miles of Alex Thomson’s 24 hour solo record.
Stamm is calculated to have made 457.7 miles point to point over the 24 hours to 1430 UTC this afternoon, and then 458.6 to 1730hrs, a very favourable comparision with Alex Thomson’s 468.72 miles which he set in 2003 in the North Atlantic. And there has been no let up in the ferocious pace with Stamm clawing back 10 miles today on leader PRB. Vincent Riou leads by just seven miles this afternoon ahead of the Swiss skipper, with Armel Le Cléac’h clinging on to third at 20.9 miles behind PRB.
Making over 25 knots in the sustained surfs, the pressure on the skippers and the boats is intense as they plunge into the back of the next wave, huge volumes of water sluicing over the deck. All of the skippers contacted today admitted some kind of wipeouts or sudden hand brake turns. This on the edge sailing is a perfect foretaste of the Vendée Globe conditions, a test for the skippers and their boats. And without doubt the fact that there has been damage to the fleet makes skippers have second thoughts just how hard they press. But their challenge here is to make such speeds and experiences feel like the norm. Stamm, for example, is absolutely one of the best, hard driving and skilled big winds and seas sailors there is – with two solo round the world wins already to his name. But Macif’s Francois Gabart admits that he is still very much on the upwards learning curve in the IMOCA solo in these conditions, and so he has been moving the cursor up as he learns. For him, speeds which seemed insane in the early hours of this morning, have likely begun to feel like the norm this afternoon. Man adapts to most things, they say, and before long the breeze will drop and 15-16kts of boat speed will feel positively pedestrian.
Of course it is a veritable solo baptism of fire for Bubi Sanso on ACCIONA 100% EcoPowered on his first big race with his new Owen-Clarke design.
The famous Fastnet Rock off the south of Ireland is within 500 miles for the leaders which means they can be rounding it late tomorrow night or early Saturday morning. Then the third and final leg to the finish in La Rochelle is likely to be upwind again into and E’ly or SE’ly. Predictions already have the fleet finishing the race ahead of schedule, perhaps as early as Sunday night.