ECOVER 3 JOUSTS FOR EARLY LEAD |
| Saturday, 03 November 2007 |
Ecover 3 Copyright Mark Lloyd
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Ecover 3 copyright Mark Lloyd
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ECOVER 3 JOUSTS FOR EARLY LEAD
In only the eight time ECOVER 3 has left the dock, eleven long months of hard work building and preparing the new IMOCA Open 60 ECOVER 3 was rewarded in a matter of a few minutes early this afternoon off Le Havre when Mike Golding and Bruno Dubois took the early lead in the 4340 miles Transat Jacques Vabre race from Le Havre to Bahia de Salvador, Brasil.
The vastly experienced British ocean racer Golding and his co-skipper rewarded the efforts of the huge team effort in New Zealand – where the boat was built – and in the UK with a peach of a start in front of a large spectator fleet.
A second place, one week before in it's sixth sail and first competative outing, Saturday's short prologue, was a confidence boost to a team that has worked very hard in the seven weeks since the boat arrived in the UK. Today was the start of a much longer test and no one is under any illusion of the challenge ahead for such a new boat. The weather is helping however, in what in past years has seen brutal race starts.
In a modest NNE’ly wind under grey skies, Golding and Dubois brought the new Owen Clarke designed Open 60 across the line at full speed, on the start gun with a precision normally reserved for inshore dinghy regattas, not ocean racing.
Safran was first to break the line but they were forced to tack away immediately and re-start because they crossed the line before the start gun.
ECOVER 3 started at the windward end of the line and for most of the close hauled reach to the first mark they had speed on Groupe Bel (Kito de Pavan and Sebastien Col) but the red hulled Frencxh boat had a slightly faster sail plan for the leg.
When Golding and Dubois hoisted their A Zero headsail they paced Groupe Bel and soon had drawn level again.
Golding, Dubois and the ECOVER team are experienced enough in this kind of racing to know that there is little to be guaged from the first few hours of such a passage, but ECOVER 3 certainly appeared to have good speed on the fleet, even with their considered and relatively conservative sail choice at the start.
“Having started building the boat way back in early November last year and put so much into it, it is really nice to see the boat away to a good start. I have done quite a few of these (starts) over the years and I have tried to switch off and not to get emotionally involved, but it just does not work, you always end up with a lump in your throat, and so it was great to see them away well.” Commented project manager Martin Carter of ECOVER 3’ designers Owen Clarke.
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