Calais Round Britain Race - Day 3

Game on!

At 1600 hours (French time) the fleet of the Calais Round Britain had squeezed back into a 70 mile slot from head to tail, midway up the West coast of Ireland so it´s game on once more for the whole fleet. The top trio PRB, VM Materiaux and Temenos are in contact, less than 3 miles apart, and seemingly may well have just hit slightly fresher winds in the past hour from a new weather system. The Roxy girls are firing on all cyclinders, snatching 4th place from Bernard Stamm. The atmosphere is one of flat seas with a big swell, precision trimming and ballast shifting and light winds... for now at least.

Heading the fleet by 2.6 miles this afternoon, Sébastien Josse (PRB) described his recent entry into the fog as well as flat seas accompanied by a big swell. He fully intends to continue northwards accompanied by VM Matériaux and for good reason as the frontrunners pick up the pace a little at 0400 hours. "We´re doing well together. It´s motivating and there are not many options to be had other than playing with the wind. The weather models don't seem to be very accurate. It's good that the others have managed to get into the same weather system. They didn't deserve to be so far behind. This way it´s better for the competition". Fair play!

PRB was also fog bound just a shade further back."We´re into the fog again as we were in Calais, says Frédéric Berra. We can´t see Temenos though we could earlier on, but we can still see PRB. We have 9 knots of N´ly and we're making headway slowly. The wind is likely to fill in early this evening I think". How right he was.

Contacted by the shore crew, Michele Paret, Temenos described conditions earlier today. "Since this morning the swell has calmed, the wind is an established NE'ly as forecast, between 8 and 10 knots. The sea is a beautiful turquoise, the likes of which I´ve rarely seen. Now with the fog it's very damp onboard." Clearly things will be hotting up a bit for the Swiss team now as they feel the extra wind in their sails.

Now up in fourth position, setting a blistering pace through the fleet over the past 24 hours in particular, the Roxy girls will doubtless be delighted to have got ahead of Bernard Stamm and Conrad Humphreys on Cheminees Poujoulat, now in 5th. "We're on the attack! Trying to claw back some miles! It's a glamour day and great to steer Roxy, with the gennaker up we're going faster than the wind! Every position sched, Miranda comes on deck with the "results" and we are gaining each time! It is like the exam results, and she sticks the paper in front of the cockpit so we can all see how we're doing! Very motivating!"

Bernard Stamm was feeling confident about the next part of the race, even though it worried him to see that the leaders could take off again. "We had a quiet night but it wasn't easy! When we got level with the Skellig islands we had to take on the counter current and presently we´re suffering a little as we are missing a head sail, a Code 0... We saw Roxy this morning and now the girls are just behind us. The situation in Ireland has reshuffled the cards and that´s just as well as the start of the race had exploded the fleet a little too quickly! We need a little more breeze as I fear that the rich are going to get richer... The return of the wind should favour the front runners, but the weather files would have you believe that there will be more twists off Scotland. We´ll have to watch that we don´t start tacking backwards!"

Less than two miles behind and currently suffering from problems receiving calls on their Iridium phone, the skipper of Artemis, Jonny Malbon, instead called us here at Press HQ in Calais today so we were able to have contact for the first time this race. "Everything is good aboard. We´re very busy aboard because the wind is very light and so we have to make lots of course changes and sail changes. We´re very happy with our position though we´ve got thick, thick fog. Yesterday was a very long day after Bishop Rock. We had Aviva to port all last night and she stuck with us less than half a mile away. We did have a keel issue on Tuesday, where the top pin had worked its way out causing problems with our hydraulics. However, in the end it only took half an hour before the issue was resolved so we didn't lose any of our speed. Our main aim is to work really, really hard and try to get up to fourth. Fortunately Artemis is renowned for its upwind capabilities and it has a good sail wardrobe so we hope to maximise on that."

Just three miles astern of Artemis, Nigel King said today that they were "working on the speed" and doing a grand job of it too ahead of the two new Farr prototypes Delta Dore and Generali. We´ve got light winds and 7/8 knots of upwind N/NW. Artemis was alongside most of the day but we've lost her in the fog now. It's very close racing and we're really enjoying it. Our main aim is just to try and stay with the others." We´ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if they can pull it off...

Update from Aviva:

Light winds slow Dee & the rest of the fleet to a near standstill

The predicted calm weather has arrived and Dee Caffari and Aviva are parked up alongside most of the other Open 60 boats in the Calais Round Britain Race. The light winds off South West Ireland have brought most of the fleet back together and the race will effectively restart when the wind fills in again. The crew will be working hard to put themselves in the best position to gain from the forecasted wind when it finally arrives.

Caffari’s Diary - Received at 10.00 hrs Wednesday Morning:

‘Floating off the west coast of Ireland, it was refreshing to see that Artemis had suffered the same fate as us and were also floating nearby. The sad news this morning was to see the rest of the fleet close in behind as they carried wind until they too joined us in the floating car park that the leaders had displayed to us. With everyone facing the same fickle winds and getting closer in proximity, I feel as if we are starting the race again.

‘After another really cold night it is again wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun on your face as the day progresses. The smooth water occasionally interrupted by dark patches signifying wind, becomes our main obsession, along with how much Haribo we will have left if we continue at this speed.

‘It is tiring in concentration when the wind is this light as the total focus must be on keeping the boat moving fast. In order to help reduce weight we have encouraged the pigeon that had settled in for the night, to depart and fly home. We then had to wash down the deck as it was covered in mess from the pigeon.

‘The new patchy breeze is filling in and with each puff the direction is slightly different. We are now tacking to try and make the most of it and fear that the inside boats may have been luckier with the new breeze’.

Dee, Chook, Frog, Pants and Hugo

Team Update from Campaign Director Andrew Roberts:

‘An average of only 3 knots for the last 8 hours is very frustrating for the Aviva crew to say the least! The latest position reports show Aviva, Artemis, Roxy and Cheminees Poujoulat, all within 5 miles of each other off Tralee Bay in South West Ireland, and all desperately looking for wind. Aviva, Roxy and Cheminees Poujoulat have altered course towards Tralee Bay and the entrance to the River Shannon in the hope of finding a sea breeze further inshore whilst Artemis appears to be continuing her course offshore. The leading group of three boats, approximately 40 miles away are also heading inshore but towards the Arran Islands and Galway Bay. The boats that find the wind earliest could gain a very big advantage as they race north towards Eagle Island and onwards to St Kilda.

‘The race so far has been rewarding for the Aviva team because it has demonstrated that they are on the pace and have so far made all the right tactical decisions, but the next few hours before the wind fills in from the North East are crucial to staying in touch with the leaders. It's still a long way to go and anything could happen’.

Update from Artemis:

Keel scare quickly resolved

“Although the morning light brought clear skies and glassy seas, the patchy fog has returned. Aviva has proven to be pretty hard to shake. Last night we were the first into the parking lot off the South West tip of Ireland and all the gains made across the Irish sea was quickly lost. That’s the way it goes and it may well go that way for the whole fleet for many more times to come.

We are clever when we gain and unlucky when we lose! The main thing is to keep on working the boat all the time and not become complacent. It’s been a fascinating race.

I was awoken last night by a persistent tapping noise and crawled out of the dark aft bunk to investigate. The boat was also slewing about, constantly loading up and unloading. Johnny and Gringo were either side of the Nav station in the keel box. Both of them had head torches on. Jonny had noticed a new noise that he couldn’t attribute to anything so he went and inspected the keel. The keel pin which attaches the head of the keel to the hydraulics had worked itself loose.

Fortunately conditions had been light and Jonny had spotted it in time. Fraser was dialling Artemis up and down to load and unload the keel whilst Jonny and Gringo tapped away with the ‘persuader’ (hammer). Nothing was damaged and everything dropped back into place as it should be; remarkably unremarkable as far as keel issues go.

We had spent the night gradually overtaking Aviva and only lost around half of a slender lead in the whole operation. The morning brought glassy conditions but there was still enough wind higher up to keep us creeping along. The first sched was eagerly awaited. The ‘parking lot’ had served as a leveler. There was now nothing in it for four of us. We were in full light wind mode with the keel fully canted to leeward in order to get the sails to sort of ‘hang-set’.

Stamm had proven to be the days ‘unluckiest’ and the Roxy Chicks the ‘cleverest’. Aviva was sticking to us like glue. An hour or so ago we began to pick up enough breeze to sail properly. The keel at least moved up to centre. The wind moved into the north at around 4-6 knots. We were working up a line of fog and as soon as we got sucked in and out of sight of Aviva we flopped over and headed in shore. It was nice to feel pressure again even if fog was the trade-off.

When Artemis stuck her nose out of the fog two boats appeared in the distance. They could only be Roxy and Cheminées Poujoulat. They were heading across on the other tack a few miles ahead. There was nothing in it. We had good pressure so we flopped back over and back off into the fog. We have lost visual contact with them at the moment and are focusing on sailing upwind and working the shifts to our advantage. Aviva hadn’t fared so well in the last couple of shifts but then they have a habit of hanging on which is getting concerning.

Considering the ground we have all made up, the leaders don’t feel out of reach. It all makes for a highly challenging race on all fronts and that makes it great fun. It’s great to see that the older generation of boats can still keep a few of the new ones tucked away.

The wind has just swung westwards which is to our advantage so we have tacked back inshore to see if we can consolidate our position on the others. Too foggy to tell just yet. Can’t pick anything big up on the radar… but they are there. Gringo is asleep, Gareth is making a brew, Fraser is driving… with his head at a funny angle and Jonny is lying behind me watching the numbers. His alarm just went off. I don’t know if it is to remind him to wake up or go to sleep.

Time to go up and get ‘clever’.

Cheers, Paul’