Calais Round Britain Race - Day 2

Ireland bound

No change at the head of this Calais Round Britain Race. Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) and Vincent Riou (PRB) are not letting go. They are on the same trajectory, less than 70 miles from the Fastnet rock at the 0400 hour ranking and set to round the lighthouse before noon.

Along with Temenos (Dominique Wavre) and Cheminées Poujoulat (Bernard Stamm), VM Matériaux and PRB are the only ones to be sailing in the Irish Sea. The other seven competitors will pass the Scilly Isles during the course of the day. Over the last 24 hours the leaders have covered a little over 300 miles, whilst at the back of the fleet, Alexandre Toulorge (Maisonneuve) has racked up just 150 miles. However, the speed of the various competitors, spread out across 180 miles of the race zone, seems to have evened out now to around 10 knots.

Sometime between now and tomorrow, we may see the situation reversed, with those at the back making up ground on the leaders. "The fleet is going to bunch up again that's for sure, the question is how much? Those at the back are a long way behind" explains Vincent Riou who is anticipating a slow rounding of Ireland. "We´re currently reaching, with the true wind at 70°, and the automatic pilot is helming. The sailing is calm and that's something we're just going to have to get used to for a while".

Three miles ahead, Jean Le Cam was also relishing the conditions. "Yesterday evening, we had a bit of a blow, well not a real blow, but we did switch to staysail when rounding the Scillies. Right now we have everything hoisted, the weather is good and I can see the light from PRB behind. With daybreak, we'll definitely be able to see them that's for sure".

70 miles behind leader VM Matériaux, Cheminées Poujoulat is the best placed to quickly make up ground on the head of the fleet. "It's still foggy. We passed the Scillies three hours ago (2 hours ago), recalls Xavier Briault, full time member of Bernard Stamm´s team for the past two year. "I am on watch with Conrad Humphreys. It´s great, he´s teaching me English and I´m teaching him French. We´re having a right laugh".

Though the front four are sailing under solent, the rest of the fleet are still slipping along downwind as they make their way out of the English Channel. "We are still sailing under large spinnaker with an established 15 knots of breeze. We´re finally enjoying being at the helm and since yesterday evening we´re at last seeing something good come of it, says Yann Eliès, 10th on his Generali, with a 177 mile deficit on the leaders. "The frontrunners are so far ahead that we´re no longer in the same race. However, there are lots of little playmates around us to play with and if conditions lighten at the head of the fleet again we´re more than ready to reap all the benefits we can from the concertina effects".

With the gentle or even sporadic winds forecast over the next 36 hours, it´s clear that all eleven competitors still have everything to play for.

Update from AVIVA:

Dee Caffari and AVIVA at the front of the chasing pack

Caffari and her crew have kept Aviva moving in the light winds overnight to maintain fifth place in Calais Round Britain Race. The lead boats have created two distinct groups in the fleet with Caffari at the front of the chasing pack. Aviva is currently the leading British boat. The forecast is for light winds, which will make it tough for Caffari to maintain her position considering the boat’s age and design.

Caffari’s Diary - Received at 03.45 hrs Tuesday Morning:

‘It was great to see the position reports arrive throughout today and see how much our hard work had paid off. Despite the fog and fickle winds we really tried hard to get the right sail for the wind we had and prayed that we could keep the boat moving as good as the rest of the fleet. Frog, (Laurent Mahy) the sail maker, has been doing a great job of making us get the best from our sails. Chook (Liz Wardley) has a dogged determination to make sure we are making the best use of the current and wind that is forecast. She has also tirelessly prepared her foredeck meticulously to ensure we have repeated sail changes take place without incident.

‘Hugo (Simon Clarke) has been paying attention to our power usage and making sure we continue to have power as well as probably coiling hundreds of kilometres of rope after each sail change. Then there is Nigel, Flame proof pants, King. He has talked non stop since the start but is clearly having an effect because we are all communicating and talking about the right subject, what else can we do to make our boat, Aviva, go fast.

‘Great gang and doing a great job, but something tells me this is going to be a long race around the British Isles!’

Update from Artemis Racing:

Morning all,

It’s 0645 GMT and we are now racing across the Irish Sea. We rounded Bishop Rock at approximately 0535 in 8-10 knots of breeze from the NE. We had Aviva in our sights on the radar (yes it was foggy!) only 3 miles away from us. We are now 330 miles in the race, and the racing is going to be close all the way to the end I think. We are currently fighting for 5th place with Dee, and have our sights firmly set on Bernard Stamm who is approx 70 miles directly in front of us.

Last night was spent in light changeable conditions, and we were kept busy (and warm) by continually changing head sails to try and claw back every mile possible from the front runners…… It’s was horrible to see how the 3 boats in front had pulled away by an amazing 100 miles, which felt like a kick in the stomach, as we had been working so hard to get where we were on the race course, and make 3rd place, only to lose out in the morning and end up further down the field. Now the weather is stable, we can focus on dragging out every last ounce of performance out of Artemis. Everything is stacked to windward at the moment. Sails, food, personal gear, water etc. You name it, we’ve stacked it!

Jonny has been glued to the computer screen to keep updated on the weather, to see how it is developing, and make sure we don’t miss any valuable opportunities, whilst Nipper (Gareth) and Fraser, or Paul and myself are driving the boat and making sure she is up at full speed.

Our watch system has settled into 3 on, 3 off at night time, and 4 on, 4 off during the day. This seems to be working well for us at the moment. Obviously there are times when all of us are up to do big changes, and you lose out on some sleep, but we have a long way to go, so the sleep will even out I’m sure… and if not, well, we can sleep like champions once the race is finished!

I’m going to grab some sleep now, as the boat is settled, and Fraser & Nipper have just got up, so I bid you farewell for today.

Cheers, Gringo

PS : You’ll be pleased to know there are 5 of us onboard for this race, so you have a broader selection of blogs to keep you entertained!

Update from Temenos:

Though yesterday's sailing soon made the crew on Temenos forget the first gruelling hours of racing spent tracking the slightest sniff of breeze and avoiding windless zones, it would seem that the progress of the leading group will now be dramatically slowed. The spectre of light winds is expected to surface at the front of the fleet. Over the past 24 hours, the leading trio has continued to rack up the miles, even extending their lead. After a little over two days at sea, the fleet is now stretched out across 180 miles, substantial deficits that the very calm weather conditions expected at the head of the fleet should go someway to reabsorbing - it remains to be seen what that proportion is.

As regards the ranking, it’s the status quo; TEMENOS firmly holding onto it’s 3rd place and keeping to within twenty miles of Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam. The latter are sailing within sight of each other off the Irish coast and Dominique Wavre fully intends to make the most of the advantage which his position as 'hunter' provides him.

"The calm zones are forecast over Ireland and the two leaders will slow up considerably in the next few hours. We’re going to try to hang a left! joked Dominique when questioned at the noon radio session at Press HQ today. With a slight W'ly separation, TEMENOS was displaying 3 more knots of boat speed than his two predecessors at the latest 1600 hour ranking. We’re making the most of it to make up some ground; four miles already since the 1200 hour ranking.

Behind, relegated to nearly 70 miles from the leaders, Bernard Stamm will be hoping to benefit from the situation in order to get back with the top trio.

Though the back runners see the arrival of this high pressure over Ireland as a chance to make up all or some of their deficit, the leaders will inevitably be less enthusiastic. Aboard TEMENOS we are preparing for a difficult night, "we’re going to need some energy to get through this tricky stage in the calm conditions… Temenos is slipping along nicely in the light winds. It's very enjoyable, but we'll have to be on top of things in order to do well."

The next couple of days clearly aren't going to be ideal for showing off the true potential of their machine…