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PHOTO © JEAN-MARIE LIOT / NCR 2010
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The Route du Rhum is entering its second week. There has been damage, retirements and the situation is complex because of the developing Azores high slowing the northern fleet to the advantage of the southern runners.
The six leading boats of the northern contingent have faired best over the weekend as a newly formed Azores high began to envelope the fleet from the north and west. The two boats to have gained the most are the two who that had worked their way to the south on Friday, race leader Thomas Ruyant and the new second place Yvan Noblet who has been to the south east of the lead group. Ruyant's lead to third place Sam Manuard, the closest boat to him extended by some eighty miles in the last seventy two hours.
However, Ruyant's main challenger may be not be coming from behind him but from the lead boat in the southern group. Twice winner in the Figaro Solo, Nicolas Troussel is steaming west in the trade winds and has been steadily moving up the leader board from mid-fleet and is now in fifth place so far as distance to go to the finish.
Sam Manuard (Vector Plus), second until the last twenty four hours has this to say about his race today:
“ Everything is good today. The conditions just now are a little more steady than they were during the night, when I was caught in some rain showers where the wind was very shifty and unsettled, and there were some holes in the breeze that I fell into. In front they are going quite fast and the situation in front really is not that clear. It is pretty confused, and so when it is like that I feel like the scientific approach to the weather is the best thing. Arriving from the east (south east, as in Nicolas Trouseel - ed) is still an option, but really nothing is for sure. What we can conclude from this fleet so far is that the ones at the front are the good sailors, Yvann Noblet, Jorg (Riechers) and Nicolas (Troussel) who spend a lot of time on the water, sailing. Those two especially (Riechers and Troussel) also have very fast boats. We saw that after the front. In the big picture they are the ones who were really well prepared. The programme here is simple: steering, eating, recover from the night, going as fast as possible on a straight line, that is the speed battle. The weather is warm, the sea is super blue, with a decent wave pattern to it just now. The weather is nice with small rain showers which don’t seem very big but they suck up the wind, so you need to be careful but there is plenty you can do about them. Of the three Owen Clarke Class 40's, sadly Rune Aasberg retired earlier last week with autopilot problems. Conrad Colman on 40 Degrees is racing in the second group of the northern boats but has dropped back from 7th to 17th over the weekend after loosing his only masthead spinaker in an incident which leaves him without this sail in just the conditions he needs it. Of course, in one way or another miles lost through technical problems or tactical mistakes will be a common thread throughout the fleet to a greater or lesser extent including the front runners. We now know for instance that Joerg Riechers kept quiet the fact he'd broken his genoa halyard earlier in the race and had to climb his mast. Miles lost are never retrieved, and in weather conditions such as have existed over the last few days these can be amplified out of all proportion to the original deficit/incident.
With half the race to run however anything can happen. Sailors will be especially careful in guarding their A2 masthead spinakers while pushing in squally conditions as hard as they dare. Each Class 40's sail wardrobe is effectively limited by the rule to only one of these sails. The loss of the A2 is only one factor that could have a major affect on positioning in the second downwind half of the race with sailors/boats who are so closely matched . There will be individual technical difficulties as well to be overcome and of course changes of weather conditions across the course that might at some stage favour boats from astern, rather than ahead that has the potential to reshuffle the deck and produce a new leader board over the next week. Keep an eye on those southern boats inparticular.
For more information go to: Route du Rhum
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