Transat Race takes on a new light |
| Saturday, 05 June 2004 |
| This morning we heard that Jean Pierre Dick, one of the real characters of the IMOCA fleet was unceremoniously knocked out of the race literally when his yacht Virbac suffered a 180 knockdown and lost its mast.
Thankfully the man and the yacht itself are safe and the shore team are organising a recovery of the vessel as this column is written. This is a tragedy for the Virbac team and will set them back some way in their preparations for the Vendee Globe. It also puts a damper on the Transat in that one of the top boats is now out of contention and won’t be at the finish. Many Volvo eyes were undoubtedly watching the scrap between the Farr 60 and the two Owen Clarke 60’s Ecover and Pindar, as these three boats held the top slots in the race coming up to the half way stage.
At the time of dismasting, Virbac had only just lost the lead to Mike Golding’s Ecover, but in Mike’s own words just hours before: “We’ve got 35 knots going upwind in a big lumpy sea, so right now, making ground on the leader is irrelevant.” Virbac’s dismasting occurred in vicious seas in winds that had increased to a steady 50 knots plus. Dominique Vabres on Temenos had earlier in the day and further south seen 58 knots – a great deal of wind to be beating in any size boat.
The conditions and cold of these latitudes are taking their toll a little further back in the 50’ class where Kip Stone maintains a solid 50 mile lead on his Owen Clarke 50’ Artforms. Reporting from the yacht earlier today, less than fifteen miles astern of her bigger cousin Skandia, Kip had this to say:
“Sorry for no news last 24 hours. Wind and waves are up and I'm doing everything I can just to keep the boat moving, get some rest, and stay warm. The last bit is nearly the hardest as everything is wet and even when I do manage to get warmed up, it doesn't last for long. Next time, I need to bring much warmer gear.
Fatigue is starting to play a role. After sailing towards the low to the north last night, I decided a jog to the south would keep me out of the building sea and away from the higher winds that were beginning to slow me down. The move looks like it's paying off, but when I tacked back this morning, I couldn't get the boat to sail closer to the breeze than 55 degrees apparent - more than 20 degrees lower than the tack on the way out. I struggled for more than an hour trying to keep the boat from reaching off or taking itself before I finally figured out that when I'd thrown it the third reef to slow things down, I hadn't dumped the aft water ballast which, being a bit under-canvassed, was the cause of my problem. That's Laser 101 stuff, and any other time I would have figured it out in a moment. Cost me about 5nm and burned enough energy that I was asleep on my feet before falling into the bunk for an hour. I'm on this tack all day and hoping for no more curve balls while I try to get some more rest. Very tricky sailing ahead in the next few days as we all try to get to the other side of the new low ahead.”
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