Attrition begins for Transat Jacques Vabre

(October 26, 2015; Day 1) – The first 24 hours of the 12th edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre – the two handed race from Le Havre to Itajaí, Brazil – have been fast in a building breeze. But the Bay of Biscay and an Atlantic low pressure system will hit most of the fleet this evening and tomorrow bringing building seas and big winds with gusts over 40kts.

There is no big surprise in store. The ominous system has been lurking west of Ireland for some time, but is only moving slowly SE before it fills and loses some of its intensity later on Tuesday. But the duos in all four classes have been preparing as best they can for the tough conditions, drysuits and boots are on now and may be for 48 hours or more.

The big question in the 20 boat IMOCA class is prudence or push? Prudence is Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill’s watchword this week with their eight day old HUGO BOSS. They lead the class by virtue of their solid sailing and their position to the east, making more south closer to the direct course, but the British skipper warned today that their cotton wool approach – to protect their brand new boat – will lose them one day by Cape Verde against the boats which have gone west to get under the depression quicker, through to the more favourable breezes first.

With time on the water so vital between now and the start of next year’s Vendée Globe, Thomson – as with others – cannot afford to have his new boat spend any more time in a boatyard than what is programmed over the coming months. HUGO BOSS leads a group of five IMOCAs including Kito de Pavant and Yann Reginau on Bastide-Otio and MACSF – cousins Bertrand De Broc and 2009 winner Marc Guillemot on MACSF.

Thomson said they had snagged a lobster pot off Cherbourg last night but confirmed:
“Our option is to try and stay south to try and avoid conditions which are too strong. Our boat is only eight days old and so we don’t we feel it is very prudent to go the fastest route and so it looks healthy, we lead the fleet today but the long term shows we will be one day behind by Cape Verde.”

But pushing hard to the west, 230 miles west of Land’s End and arc-ing NWW is the group lead by Sébastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier who have about 240 miles of pain to get to the favourable, NWlies and the best angle. The risk is significantly higher for this group – winds over 40kts and seas of seven metres – but the rewards are expected to me much greater. Edmond de Rothschild is about three miles ahead of SMA, Paul Meilhat and Michel Desjoyeaux, with Vendée Globe runner up Armel Le Cléac’h and Erwan Tabarly about two miles further back on the Banque Populaire VIII. For this group, especially, tonight is likely to be the biggest break or make night of the race.

Sadly robbed of the chance to choose is Maître CoQ skipper Jérémie Béyou. The skipper from the Bay of Morlaix, who has been an early retirement from his first two Vendée Globes (rig damage in 2008 and keel ram in 2012), has had to retire from the IMOCA class after just ten hours of hard racing. He and co-skipper Philippe Legros pulled into Lorient at around 0815hrs this morning with damage to a stay expecting to be able to restart.

The team’s statement said:
“Following the damage that happened at around 2300hrs yesterday evening to a mainstay attachment, which holds the mast up from the front, Jérémie Beyou and Philippe Legros, who were in 4th place, were forced to make their way to Roscoff, which they reached this morning at 0830hrs. The shore team and suppliers analysed the situation and attempted to replace the faulty part. In spite of their hard work, late today they were unable to guarantee that the replacement part would be solid enough to allow the two sailors to head back out to sea without any worries.”

In his statement Beyou confirmed his team are evaluating the options, whether to deliver to Saint Barth for the Saint Bart to Port La Foret B2B or have the boat early in the yard in order to get sailing earlier next year.

In Class 40, Club 103 is heading for a Lorient pit stop due to a bow and spinnaker pole problem. But at the head of the fleet, making good speeds are Bretagne Crédit Mutuel Elite, Nicolas Troussel and Corentin Horeau. The French duo appear to be going for the more conservative option, 108 miles to the SE of the British-French duo on Team Concise, Jackson Bouttell and Gildas Mahé.

After holding the early lead, Team Concise are placing their faith in the north and west option, most extreme of the fleet along with Solidaires en Peloton which is right alongside them, some comfort through a night which could be pivotal. And Concise 2, Philippa Hutton Squire and Pip Hare have a steady course and a lot of faith in their well proven boat, happy to go west too.

The Ultimes, leaders of the course, are already down into the westerly breeze, Sodebo Ultim leading Macif by 17 miles, now tacked and heading for Cape Finisterre 105 miles in front of their bows at 1700hrs UTC this afternoon.

They said:

Alex Thomson, GBR, Hugo Boss: “It was not too bad but we caught a very big lobster pot off Cherbourg and so we had to stop many times. We lost at least 10 or 12 miles but apart from that it has not been too bad. Our option is to try and stay south to try and avoid conditions which are too strong. Our boat is only eight days old and so we don’t we feel it is very prudent to go the fastest route and so it looks healthy, we lead the fleet today but the long term shows we will be one day behind by Cape Verde. It is wet on deck. We have 20-25kts the wind is forward of the beam and it is very choppy seas. It is a bit grey. But we had a good night. We cannot complain. We had a few little teething problems, nothing major but of course it takes a long time to learn a boat like this properly. So we feel pretty happy where we are. We both got a couple of hours sleep which is good and so we feel healthy.”

Yves Le Blevec, skipper Actual (Ultime): “We are getting close to attacking a front which will see us with 35-40 kts in a couple of hours time. We are well rested after last night, we sailed relatively conservatively. Now we are dressed warmly and will reduce sail over time. We will take a reef in the mainsail. We must adapt the boat and the course to protect it but without losing time unduly. We expect the worst seas tonight. Now we have two metres waves but we are expecting much more. The other are further west and they are more radical than us but we give ourselves a speed limit to avoid damaging the boat and ourselves.”

Louis Burton on Bureau Vallée skipper (IMOCA): “It’s going, it’s wet, it goes very fast but everything is fine on board. It seems to be the belief that the route to the west will be the best. We made that choice yesterday before leaving. We have one reef in the mainsail and have between 25 and 30kts of wind with cross sea coming in from the west. We expect more wind and bigger seas as we get to the depression. We take a bit of a risk, but we take it step by step, and to be honest we are not yet really into the rhythm of the race.”

Eric Bellion, skipper Stand As One (IMOCA): “The atmosphere is damp. Sam (Goodchild) has just woken up and we will put another reef in. All is well. We are going to the west, we have made our decision and will stick with it. But we know the seas will be big and the waves big but we will just stick with it. We are happy to be at sea, we have a great atmosphere with Sam.”

Adopteunskipper.net, skipper Nicolas Boidevézi (IMOCA): “We were not so good off the start line, it took us some time to get into the game but we managed to get up here with the boats of our generation. It will be hard at the end of the day today, from about early evening. We expect gusts of over 40kts and seas up to eight metres. We continue to push west. The centre of the depression is a little more north than we expected and we adapt. And there are still very many things we learn about our boat.”

Yann Eliès, Queguiner-Leucemie Espoir: “We are sailing with one reef and J2 with a wind of 30-35kts. It is wet because we are making 20kts since we left the top of Contentin. For now we have two to three metres of swell from our stern quarter. We are not close to the optimum route to Brazil but this is the investment we make. We make the choice and we hope it will be the good one. We hope the strategic plan will pay off. We have to get around the centre of the depression by the south. We have our dry suits on and will have them on for a while. I am lucky to have a guy like Charlie with me. He is a guy who loves the breeze and the melee that comes with the big winds. He is super motivated but trusts me because he has a bit less experience than me in these conditions.”

IMOCA UPDATE: Skippers Sébastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier of Edmond De Rothschild reported at 1900 their need to retire from the race due to onboard problems. At 2020, skippers Morgan Lagravière and Nicolas Lunven of the Safran report damage aboard and that they have taken the decision to head for Brest.

ULITMATE UPDATE: The 76-foot trimaran Prince de Bretagne of Lionel Lemonchois and Roland Jourdain has capsized while they were 140 miles off La Coruna. The two co-skippers are safe and have taken shelter inside the trimaran. They have not requested assistance and their technical team is making every effort to organise help to rescue them and their vessel. At the time of the incident the boat was upwind in 20 to 25kts of SSW’ly wind.

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Transat Jacques Vabre in brief
• A legendary race 22 years old and 2015 marks the 12th edition
• Two founding partners: the city of Le Havre and brand Jacques Vabre
• Four classes on the starting line: Class40, Multi50, IMOCA and Ultimate
• Starting October 25 in Le Havre (FRA) for the 5400nm course to Itajaí (BRA)

Report by event media.