MULTIHULLS 60

Groupama (Cammas/Proffit) has moved into the lead of the multihull fleet, and at 1500gmt had pushed out a 16m lead on main rival Belgacom (Nélias/L. Peyron), positioned 90 miles in the East of the current defending champion. Sergio Tacchini (Fauconnier/Foxall) has consolidated her third place, a good 44m behind the leader but still with a 30m gap until the next pack of boats trailing in their wake. So from yesterday’s options, all three paid off ; Belgacom and Sergio Tacchini on both extreme ends of the race course and Groupama running down the middle road. "We’ve slowed up a bit," said Nélias on the sat phone this morning. "We’ve reached a tricky weather system and for the moment the trades are to be found between the African coast and the Canaries." Franck Cammas reported in : "Last night was full on, we reached 30 knots boat speed at times. Now Belgacom is trying to reel us in and we are staying on our route heading towards a small depression. We’ve not even had a chance to get out of our survival suits since the race started and our boots are full of water still !"

Italian trimaran TIM (Soldini/Malingri) has now officially abandoned the race after the aft beam of the hull cracked and started taking in water. These hi-tech carbon racing machines are extremely well engineered, but like Formula 1 cars, all have necessary breaking points in their structure. Four other boats too have become victims of more damage, all of whom are heading into Porto Santo in Madeira 300 miles down the track, and should reach dock tomorrow night.

The Anglo-French duo of Gautier and MacArthur on Foncia has decided to stop in Porto Santo in order to change their staysail which was ripped in a violent squall of 45 knot winds yesterday, knowing now also that their main halyard also gave two nights ago. These are not the most major incidents as they can be replaced, but more serious is damage to the port rudder on Banque Populaire (Roucayrol/Bidégorry), the team also heading towards Porto Santo. "It happened last night at around 8pm," explained Pascal Bidegorry. "The port rudder is only half attached to the port hull and we don’t know what happened. We’re going slowly towards Madeira, and don’t want to lose the rudder completely or let it damage the hull, so it’s weird to be going at snail’s pace !" Both shore teams are rallying in Porto Santo, where the boats should arrive in about 30 hours.

Sadly, after the incident where Sodebo hit a UFO in the Channel, now Bonduelle (Le Cam/De Pavant) has reported to have hit a piece of wood last night, breaking their central rudder. A really unfortunate piece of luck for Jean Le Cam and Kito de Pavant who were in 5th place at the time. "We managed to recuperate the rudder and are now trying to helm using just the two port and starboard rudders but it’s not really working," said Kito de Pavant to the Race Office last night. They are also heading to Porto Santo where they should dock tomorrow night, and hope to make repairs and set off again as soon as possible.

Two days ago Gitana broke one of its stays and today they announced their decision to head into Porto Santo in Madeira, skipper Lionel Lemonchois also reporting in technical problems.

MULTIHULL OPEN 50

The 50ft multihull Mollymawk skippered by British duo Ross Hobson and Andi Newman is now the back marker of the whole fleet, and their goal is to catch up on the Open 50’s before too long !

MONOHULL OPEN 60’s

Cheminées Poujoulat Armor Lux

Ph : Liot / DPPI / RivaCom

Since the first set of position reports this morning, it was Virbac’s (Dick/Abiven FRA) name at the top of the rankings instead of Ecover’s, and the French skipper Jean-Pierre Dick was excited at this breakthrough : "We really pushed the boat last night. Despite the variable wind we got the small gennaker and even the kite flying. So getting the first report this morning was good news !" Now with a huge 48 mile advance on the Brits in second place, it seems that the new Farr design is coming into her own downwind. It is not that simple a comparison, as evidence comes from the next two boats in the fleet.

Ecover revealed today a series of problems on board which has hindered their recent progress and kept both Golding and Thompson from any respite as they struggle to maintain their position. Firstly, one of the steering wheels in the cockpit broke, forcing Brian to handsteer on the good one whilst Mike did the repair. Then Golding recounts the more serious incident to follow : "Yesterday evening a masthead halyard chafed and destroyed a spinnaker in the process. The spinnaker and string fell into the water and the sail wrapped itself round the boat’s rudders and keel, which we had to cut away. We cleared the spinnaker in an hour which was pretty good under the circumstances, especially as it was dark." A second spinnaker was then lost when the emergency halyard chafed again after only 1 hour : "This left us with only the solent halyard, which only reaches half way up the mast, so I went half way up, as Brian lowered the mainsail half way and then hoisted me to the top of the masthead. I’ve now rigged a perfectly satisfactory external replacement system and now we have to push the boat hard to enable us to catch Virbac. We are almost back on the pace but pretty shattered."

After making up significant mileage on the leaders yesterday, Sill (Jourdain/Thomson) has slipped back with a 97m deficit again, but Alex explained that in terms of East-West and North South, they have kept pace with the new race leader and are quietly confident that Sill will come out on top in a few days time : "Tactical options are limited and the important thing for us is to sail our own race and not play anyone else’s game. We are currently 140m to the west of Virbac and also to the North of them, which shows that we have not lost boat speed on them. Also, now we are making 10 knots dead to the mark, so the further towards the East they go the better for us ! The angle they will be on once we get into the NE trades will be dead downwind and that’s not the fastest point of sail for these boats."

The sad news last night came that Cheminées Poujoulat - Armor Lux has had to abandon the race, because Bernard received a violent blow to the thorax from a violent fall against the forestay four days ago, causing him to suffer a fractured rib, and has since been unable to recuperate or ease the pain because of the movement of the boat. In view of Bernard’s physical condition the team have announced their retirement from the race and are heading towards Madeira 260 miles away. A medical team, under the race doctor Jean-Yves Chauve, will meet them on arrival tomorrow night. Thirteen Open 60’s remain on the race course.

Sam Davies, co-skipper on Team Cowes, currently in 6th 189m from the front, echoed Thomson’s thoughts on the days to come : "We are creeping our way SW trying to reach the trade winds, which will involve negotiating a tricky little front. We are hoping that our westerly position will give us the best strength of gradient, and maybe give us a little push a bit sooner than the boats to the east of us. It is pretty hard, at times like now, when we have only a little wind, and we are imagining the other boats all have better wind than us.... mind games !"

MONOHULL OPEN 50’s

In the 50 foot monohull fleet, Hellomoto (Humphreys/Larsen) has finally come into her own, and as the sheets are cracked off so the Open 50 known for its downwind performance streaks into a 49m lead over Storagetek (Guillemot/Salnelle). Paul Larsen, defending champion from two years ago, shared a few Aussie soundbites from on board : "Well, the race so far has been the complete opposite of the one we experienced two years ago. We two boys have been pushing this sled up the hill for six odd days now but it looks like things are about to change and the crest is just ahead. In my mind, the kites are barking and clawing like a pack of hungry dogs inside the front hatch. We can all smell the long awaited Northerlies that this boat in particular is yearning for. Hellomoto does not like to go upwind. Sure, she tolerates it as a necessary skill in her repertoire but probably with as much respect as I had for ’Home Economics’ back in early high school.

"Défi Vendéen is the real threat. It won’t take her long to get back in it. This part of the race is familiar with the last - trading your Easts and Wests for your Norths and Souths with the competition. Let the games begin and for God’s sake, where are those seemingly mythical Nor’westers ? Those dogs are sounding bloody hungry up there…"

WEATHER FORECAST

Saturday : A new low pressure system at 33 N for both fleets will move slowly, stopping at 17 W, and now the trades will fill in to the south of 30 N for all the monohulls. None of the multihulls will be able to avoid this system so will all have to navigate through it.

Sunday : All the leading mono’s will be nearing the Trades, and will gradually reach a N-NE 15 - 20 knot breeze between 28 - 30 N during this day. Everything depends on their speed and strategy for the multihulls. The westerly boats will reach NW winds and be able to head south. Those nearer to the coast will get into increasing NE winds.

Monday : Both fleets will be in the trades with a 15 - 20 knot NE breeze. 

POSITIONS at 13:00 hrs GMT 07/11/03

MULTIHULL OPEN 60
 Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
 1 GROUPAMA 34 26.28’ N 18 57.56’ W 16.7 190 3084.4m
 2 BELGACOM 34 05.24’ N 17 10.80’ W 13.1 188 3100.4m 16.0m
 3 SERGIO TACCHINI 34 56.60’ N 18 07.88’ W 18.7 177 3128.7m 44.3m
 4 GEANT 35 28.52’ N 18 07.92’ W 12.2 176 3157.6m 73.3m
 5 BONDUELLE 36 05.56’ N 17 02.40’ W 13.9 159 3213.2m 128.8m   MONOHULL OPEN 60
 Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
 1 VIRBAC 29 00.80’ N 21 20.96’ W 9.9 171 2729.1m
 2 ECOVER 29 44.08’ N 21 22.72’ W 7.7 156 2777.3m 48.2m
 3 SILL 31 23.68’ N 24 07.08’ W 9.0 206 2826.4m 97.3m
 4 PRB 30 52.88’ N 21 22.32’ W 5.3 192 2841.6m 112.5m
 5 VMI 31 44.80’ N 20 22.68’ W 6.2 193 2908.3m 179.2m
 6 TEAM COWES 32 25.20’ N 21 56.12’ W 8.8 196 2918.8m 189.7m 

OPEN 50 MULTIHULL
 1 MOLLYMAWK 42 18.48’ N 10 33.04’ W 8.8 172 3734.7m

OPEN 50 MONOHULLS 
 1 HELLOMOTO 37 05.20’ N 16 53.00’ W 8.7 161 3270.7m
 2 STORAGETEK 37 31.24’ N 15 35.60’ W 8.3 187 3319.9m 49.1m
 3 DEFI VENDEEN 38 33.28’ N 15 38.88’ W 7.5 159 3375.2m 104.4m