Départ du Havre pour les monocoques.

Photo : J.Vapillon / Pixsail.com

Virbac’s 38 yr old French skipper Jean-Pierre Dick explained how they came back on the leaders : "We made the decision rounding Ushant to dive South with the temporary wind shift to the West, and not be so hard on the wind. We were averaging 12 knots boat speed all day with a more stable, softer breeze. The end result ? Well, we are on a better tack closer to the Spanish coast and have pulled in Ecover. It’s a huge motivation for what’s to come still."

And what is to come but another strong low pressure system sweeping Eastwards and due to hit the fleet tonight, bringing similar conditions as experienced on their first night at sea, with 40 plus knots of wind on the nose from the South and a built up sea. The forecast beyond that in theory looks to favour those boats in the West of the race course, as the breeze is due to shift rapidly to the West tomorrow, maintaining its force, whereas this rotation will be more gradual nearer the coast line and the wind weaker in strength.

This means that not only have the leading British duo Golding and Thompson got to cover Virbac mile by mile, but also keep an eye on Sill, the one boat to tack early and head way out West, 127m from the coast. Co-skipper on Sill, Brit Alex Thomson confirmed that he and ’Bilou’ were on a ’flyer’. "We thought through this decision carefully together with the weather router Pierre Lasnier, and have more wind offshore than the others closer in. At some point you have to get west anyway, and so in the long term we are hoping to make a big comeback on Ecover and Virbac."

Brian Thompson didn’t seem overly concerned on Sill’s option during the chat sessions this morning as their strategy on board Ecover is more to maintain good speed to the finish and control the fleet : "We’re expecting the boats to the west to comeback a bit, but it’s only Sill who has pushed right out, and their option might pay off, but the others are still heading more South. The fact that we are closer to the finish helps us to protect our position. We’re heading West now too and we’re looking for the wind shift to allow us to plunge South again."

Open 60 TIR Groupé, skippered by Mike and Robert Birch, left Dartmouth at 2330hrs Monday night and have already passing Ushant racing at the back of the Open 60 fleet. So there are currently 14 Open 60’s on the water racing and 5 Open 50’s.

• MONOHULL OPEN 50’s

Leading Open 50 Storagetek (Guillemot/Salnelle), has suffered a few breakages, including the masthead wind instruments and flooding inside the boat, and their lead is being eaten into by Conrad Humphreys and Paul Larsen on Hellomoto, who are 14 miles in their wake but also nearer the rhumb line to their French rivals. Defi Vendéen has set off again from S^t. Malo at 0100hrs French time Tuesday morning, with 162 miles to catch up on the leaders.

• WEATHER FORECAST

Today : As predicted the wind rotated from South to SW in the night and this morning the entire Monohull fleet were obliged to head West onto port tack. For the rest of the day the wind will stay from the South but should increase to 20 - 30 knots with gusts up to 40 knots this afternoon. The sea should rise too with 4 - 6 metre wave heights. Overnight the conditions shouldstabilize with the wind perhaps shifting to the South West.

Wednesday : Monohulls : for those furthest in the West the wind will shift rapidly from the West early in the morning. This shift will be more gradual for those in the East, and in general the winds will ease to 15 - 25 knots. However by the evening the wind will rotate to the South west.

For the multihulls the wind will be 10 - 15 knots from the South for the start, but irregular as it will blow off the land. Offshore the breeze will reach 15 - 20 knots and follow the fleet out of the English Channel. The sea will be manageable. When they reach the entry to the Atlantic in the evening, the conditions will change totally as the wind will shift to the West to allow the fleet to head South. However by midnight the wind will go back to the South and strengthen in force.

Thursday : The monohulls should cross a new low pressure system with winds rotating from south west to north west in the day. Everything depends on their positioning. At the end of the day the fleet will reach a Northerly breeze, shifting north west allowing them to crack off the sails and head on the direct route towards the Trade winds. For the multihulls it will be a completely different story as the wind from the South will reach 30 - 40 knots with huge seas at around 10 degrees West. These conditions will continue throughout the day with a wind shift forecast over Thursday night to the West.

Friday : The Monohulls should reach the North West trades, the multihulls should accelerate in a 20 - 30 knot NW breeze to make up some ground on the monohull fleet.

• POSITIONS at 15:00 hrs GMT 04/11/03
 Open 60s’ map : http://voile.esrifrance.fr/default_...

MONOHULL OPEN 60

Pos. / Boat / Name / Latitude / Longitude / Speed / Hdg / DTF / DFL
 1. ECOVER 43 17.56 N 10 20.32 W 11.6K 230 3737.7M
 2. VIRBAC 43 19.16 N 10.13 08 W 10.9K 236 3741.7M 4M
 3. SILL 44 30.72 N 11 45.48 W 9.6K 244 3772.7M 35.1M   OPEN 50 MONOHULLS 
 1. STORAGETEK 46 07.24 N 6 37.08 W 5.8K 224 3964.9
 2. HELLOMOTO 46 36.88 N 7 05.44 W 6.9K 243 3979.5M 14.6M

 Brian Thompson (Ecover) : "The racing is getting very close now, Virbac has had a fantastic 24hrs going lower than the rest of us and now barely 2 miles behind in terms of distance to Brazil, it’s pretty exciting ! We’ve also got our eye on Sill in the North West, they tacked earlier and that option might pay off too. We’ve certainly got our hands full right now ! It’s a great race, and a good motivation for us ! We’re expecting the boats to the west to comeback a bit, but it’s only Sill who has pushed right out, the others are still heading more South. The fact that we are closer to the finish helps us to protect our position."

 Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac) : "We made the decision after passing Ushant to dive South and profit from the temporary wind shift to the West, so we could crack off and not be so hard on the wind as well, so we were averaging 12 knots boat speed with a more stable, softer wind - the end result ? Well, we ended up on a better tack closer to the Spanish coast and we pulled in Ecover. It’s a huge motivation for what’s to come and we are happy with our position for now." Alex Thomson (Sill) : "We thought through this decision to head out West carefully together with the weather router Pierre Lasnier, and have more wind offshore than the others closer in. We reckon that we’ll make a comeback on the top two boats in the short term, and in the long term everyone’s got to get West anyway, so we’ll soon see how it pays."

 Vincent Riou (PRB) : "We’re pretty happy but it’s worrying to see Ecover and Virbac going so fast upwind ! We’re waiting for it to blow like it did on the first night, and it’s uncomfortable living on the boat with these relentless headwinds." Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat/Armor Lux) : "This is not fun at all ! We still haven’t resolved our ballast problem and it’s frustrating to be underperforming with this boat. We’ve got 25 knots of breeze here, going upwind and waiting for the big wind to come back."

 Sebastien Josse (VMI) : "We’ve broken a stanchion and lost one ARGOS beacon and otherwise are sitting tight until we can power off downwind - but we’ve got at least 300m to wait !"

Mary Ambler