25 to 35 knots of wind in the western Spanish foreland, near Cape Finisterre! If there was no shortage of wind in the Atlantic since the start of The Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50, the 85 solos sailors, after 48 hours of mad sprint are in search of their second wind. The start was particularly exhausting, the performance of sailing with a spinnaker in the breeze aboard the smallest boats in offshore racing, has started to lower the physical strength of men and women.
All, then, took good care to find the right tone, and this morning, the strategies took a more conservative aspect, wisdom dictates to put away the spinnakers, small or medium, to take two or three reef in the mainsail. The fleet has deplored „only“ three returns to port, all temporary and already relegated to the status of incidents. Two stops in Gijon and La Coruña are ongoing and no abandon has been declared.
Impressive Lobato
The race however, with this highly athletic quality, is nothing less than exciting. The mano a mano, edge-to-edge, wake in the wake between Series leader, Francisco Lobato (ROFF TMN) and the leading man of Protos HP Schipman (Maison de l’avenir Urbatys) is amazing. The Young Portuguese is already accustomed to leadership and battling with his victory in the scratch in the Les Sables- Les Açores-Les Sables in 2008. All the favourites in the race will cling to enter the same movement, in the highest gust that will propel them at record speed along the coast of the Iberian Peninsula to Funchal. There is now only Schipman and Thomas Ruyant (Faber France), to keep the pace of the Portuguese – imperial in his waters. The head of the race sails off Vigo.
Trajectories stories
Fifteen miles separate the three protagonists of another story at the start of the race, the unexpected Xavier Macaire and his Series „Masoco Bay“. A strong swell (almost three meters) and the strong wind, nearly thirty knots, are leading – for the most part of the fleet on its way out of the Bay of Biscay – a tactical thoughts… To remain in the strongest wind along the coast, or to already head west to find more moderate flows increasingly oriented in the axis of the boat? Without any external assistance, the solos rely entirely on their seamanship and their individual experiences to manage their trajectories ignoring the position of their opponents. This is the nature and the magic of this race. Stéphane on Diraison (Cultisol-Marins sans frontière), already knows that he is sailing in the far west of his classmates? A gap of about thirty miles in latitude already, that can ultimately help for his return to the head of the fleet. All the favourites, Fabien Després, Rémi Auburn, Bertrand Delesne and Andrea Caracci come flirt with Spanish lands, when the South African Matt Trautman is the surprise guest of the top ten. Now, it is 36 hours of long breeze that are ahead. A breeze that imposes an absolute necessity to preserve the boat in a tailwind configuration which requires the delicate exercise of repeated jibes with their bunch of bulks, hauls and great terrors when the bow just dive into the wave…
A thrill that both Davy Beaudart – in technical stopover in Gijon – Franck Colin – in stop in La Coruna – want to feel quickly. At the heart of the Bay of Biscay, Olivier Avram is very demanding with his strong „Cap Monde 2“ – the bowsprit is repaired. The danger for him is, of course, to see the wind blow away the fleet. He obviously want to rapidly return in the squad, as did the night before another unlucky starter, the young Sébastien Rogues who took in a lively manner his Series „Generation Eole GDF SUEZ“ inside the fleet back.
Ranking at 3 pm:
Prototypes: 1. HP Schipman (Maisons de l’avenir – Urbatys) at 644,68 miles; 2. Thomas Ruyant (Faber France) at 9,98 miles from the leader; 3. Stéphane Le Diraison (Cultisol – Marins sans frontières) at 13,17 miles from the leader…
Serie: 1. F. Lobato (ROFF TMN) at 640,64 miles from Funchal; 2. X. Macaire (Masoco Bay) at 16,54 miles from the leader; 3. B. Castelnérac (Bcombio.com) at 55,66 miles from the leader…