BWR: Big breeze pounding Renault Captur

(April 13, 2015; Day 103) – In every one of the three editions of the Barcelona World Race, the Mediterranean has dealt up a sting in the tail for at least one duo. In the 2010-11 edition it was Estrella Damm, Alex Pella and Pepe Ribes who suffered their worst winds in the Straits of Gibraltar.

Now, the unlucky Renault Captur have found themselves in self-preservation mode in the Alboran Sea, feeling the wrath of an easterly Levante, with gusts to 40kts. But the redoutable Jorg Riechers and Seb Audigane are fighting on, spurred by the thoughts that their odyssey should be over Wednesday afternoon.

Jorg Riechers (GER) Renault Captur:
“We had a little bit of a bad manouevre. We were tacking up the Alboran Sea with no wind and then suddenly it kicked in from 0 to 25kts. We furled the J1 unfurled the J3 and doing the manouevre the J2 unfurled. We don’t know why, accidentally. It had all the sheets caught around it. We had to go downwind to get it back in order. It took us a lot of time, it was pretty bad, not good. But there is nothing broken. It is all cool now.

“We would like to have some downwind sailing, an easy ride to Barcelona but instead we have 35 upwind. It sucks. It will be Upwind. We have sailed upwind sicne the Falklands. I have never sailed upwind so much in my life. I think I have one leg shorter than the other now because we have been upwind so much, the boat is heeled so much. We were were wise enough to have food for 100 days plus some spares. So we have enough food. I think we have four more days of food.

“I think Wednesday afternoon is our ETA. I am happy. I am happy the situation is nearly over. For us this really sucks. We had a lot of technical problems. It has been more a fight against technical problems than the weather and waves. I am definitely happy it is is over. We are happy to have done it. We have learned a lot. That is good. But, ooooooof, I am happy it is nearly over.”

Seb Audigane (FRA):
“We’re sailing upwind in between 22 and 50 knots of wind. We’ve just gone by the island of Alboran, which we got to about 100 metres away from. It looked attractive. It was a tricky night for us with fairly variable winds. It went from zero to 40 knots. As soon as we head offshore, we get 35-40 knots and closer to shore there’s nothing at all. The Mediterranean is complicated. The autopilot is steering. The rudders are working, but the helm feels very hard. The autopilot is tough enough to deal with that, but we’re not steering. There’s going to be 25-30 knots until we get to Gata, and after that we’ll be upwind. We want to finish as soon as we can, but the weather isn’t really helping us. But we’re getting there. We should finish sometime on Wednesday, late in the day, I think.”

Spirit of Hungary, Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman make steady progress towards the Straits of Gibraltar, 795 miles in front of them although they appear to have been headed slightly now, making south of east.

Ranking at 18:00 UTC:
1. Cheminées Poujoulat (Bernard Stamm – Jean Le Cam) finished Mar 25 (84:05:50:25)
2. Neutrogena (Guillermo Altadill – Jose Muñoz) finished Mar 31 (89:11:47:00)
3. GAES Centros Auditivos (Anna Corbella – Gerard Marin) finished Apr 1 (91:05:09:28)
4. One Planet One Ocean / Pharmaton (Aleix Gelabert – Didac Costa) finished Apr 8 (98:09:12:09)
5. We Are Water (Bruno Garcia – Willy Garcia) finished Apr 9 (99:03:06:28)
6. Renault Captur (Jörg Riechers – Sebastien Audigane) 385.6 nm Distance To Finish
7. Spirit of Hungary (Nandor Fa – Conrad Colman) 1302.6 nm DTF
Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson – Pepe Ribes) Abandon

Tracker – Event details

Report by event media.

Background: The third edition of the Barcelona World Race is the only double-handed, non-stop, round the world race. Eight IMOCA 60 teams started December 31, 2014, with the intent to cover 23,450 nautical miles in a circumnavigation from Barcelona to Barcelona, putting the capes of Good Hope (South Africa), Leeuwin (Australia) and Horn (Chile) to port and the Antarctic to starboard.