Calais Round Britain Race - Day 4

Upwind Scottish Jig

Zigzagging up the West coast of Ireland today in around 8/10 knots of breeze, the Imoca fleet of this Calais Round Britain Race are making very similar speeds, all the fleet now bathed in sunshine. The outlook over the next 24 hours is fairly stable with a variable NNE to ENE wind relative to their position in relation to a ridge of high pressure. A warm front from the East is in the process of dissipating leaving flat seas with a slight swell and winds unlikely to exceed fifteen knots.

The top trio, Vincent Riou (PRB), Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux) and Dominique Wavre (Temenos) have a 42 mile lead over the chasing pack at 1600 hours. Gildas Morvan, star of the Figaro circuit and second in the Class 40 category of the last Route du Rhum, was called in to crew on VM Materiaux at the last minute and is clearly relishing the close racing in this Imoca fleet. At the lunch time radio session he alluded to a turn in the road in the near future. “ We’ve got great sailing conditions. The fog is just dissipating so we're in lovely warm sunshine with 8/9 knots of wind and around 9, 9.7 knots of boat speed with flat seas. PRB is 3 miles to windward and Temenos has a bit of S'ly separation in relation to us. We had a very wet night. We're v irtually on a direct course with a good trajectory and a NNE wind, 10 degrees to the direct course. There looks to be a light patch across our route so we may have to turn, but for now we're upwind on port tack and the boat speeds have been pretty much the same throughout the fleet for a while and we can see some other boats. We've got our work cut out with the trimming as the strength of the wind is very varied.

Leading the onslaught in 4th, Jonny Malbon on the older generation Owen Clarke Design, Artemis Ocean Racing sounded particularly chirpy today after a long, long recuperative sleep earlier today. “ It’s lovely; a very good day. The fog has lifted and we have clear blue skies and 10 knots of breeze. The boat feels very good and we're sailing her well too. In the next 24 hours we’ll be tacking at some point but we’re watching the guys behind and those in front before we decide when that will be. We've got 8/10 knots of stable, light wind and we've just had a little lift. We play the shifts and tack only when we really have to. I hope we've got enough food with us - otherwise we can always eat Nipper (their youngest crew member)! It's been such a good race with the positions going up and down. We feel lucky to have made a break at the right time. We expect to be level with Saint Kilda in about 18 hours time (he said at 1300 hours French time) but we may have to tack first! ” (Laughs).

Volvo sailor Sidney Gavignet on Delta Dore (Farr Yacht Design) was in good spirits with their massive jump up the rankings to 5th. “ Things are going very well, though it’s a bit calm. We’re sailing close hauled in ten knots of breeze with a slight swell and the sun is now burning off the remains of the fog. We're happy to be further up the rankings and we're looking to close down our deficit still further. It's a bit frustrating that we're not slightly better positioned as the sensations at the helm are good. We don’t see many options for the stretch up ahead and we don't see much wind up at the top of the course either. ” Currently 6 miles behind Artemis Ocean Racing, Delta Dore's current ETA at Saint Kilda is 7 hours later according to Gavignet, though the green and white boat has upped their pace in the 1600 ranking, on the hunt for 4th..

Still getting used to sailing his Farr Yacht Design, Bernard Stamm’s crew on Cheminees Poujoulat, including British sailor Conrad Humphreys, were all slightly frustrated today in 6th. “ We’re sailing a bit more open than close-hauled ” said Stamm and it has been a little difficult to find the controls on our machine at times. When it works it works well though. Trimming is ok but moving the daggerboards up and down is very demanding as they’re very sensitive.”

Round the world sailor Dee Caffari on Aviva was as positive as ever today in 7th with Generali hot on its heels. " Things are much better now but this morning we had very bad fog and it was very, very cold. Just now we have sunshine and we can see Bernard Stamm. The racing is fantastic but the visibility is bad so we haven’t actually seen much sadly. Instead we're concentrating on where the wind is so that keeps us on our toes. We're going to remain competitive right to the end. The boat is good and the team even better. We're not tired as we're sleeping well and our watch system works. It's looking very light up ahead so we're making a bit effort to move when can because the high pressure is getting better."

Generali, like Delta Dore, is starting to make an impression in the fleet now, Roxy reduced to 9th position now. Spirits on Roxy were a little down yesterday evening as Sam Davies explains. “ Last night was the first test of our morale on board Roxy, as we made a stupid mistake and let ourselves sail into a trap off the coast of Galway. We had had such a great run the previous day, and re-made contact with Artemis and Cheminees Poujolat, and we got distracted from our own route in favour of ‘match racing’ with these two. A silly mistake that cost us about 15 miles when we failed to escape the ‘dead zone’ of no wind at the end of the day. " Meantime, French crew and Figaro expert Jeanne Gregoire was more concerned about the eating habits of the different nationalities aboard. " We French add garlic to everything to give it flavour whilst Brits Sam and Miranda add tabasco and if that's too hot they mix in some soft Dairylea cheese!”

Update from Aviva:

Building winds get Aviva and the Calais Round Britain fleet racing again

Racing effectively restarted in the Calais Round Britain Race as the wind returned after 12 hours of gentle drifting. Dee Caffari and Aviva are holding their own in the chasing pack behind the three lead boats.

Caffari’s Diary - Received Wednesday Morning:

To receive Dee’s diary automatically, visit to sign up for the RSS feed.

“A bitterly cold night with upwind sailing conditions made us realise just how far north we are heading. After much discussion over the last four days as to when and how the watches work, we have re-written them and now have them stored on the computer. There are no excuses now. The problem now is what time we have our watches set to. In order to get the weather forecasts and newest gribfiles (weather data) Chook (Liz Wardley) has her watch on UTC, the rest of us are still in French time as the race is run in that time. Confused yet? Now you know how we have been.

“Our French is coming on a treat but as is always the case I am not sure how much of it we can use in public. If it isn't bad language then it is sailing terms, so it may not help my skills in the street.

“With the weather turning and everyone being keen to stay warm, we are now wearing all our layers of clothes and movement gets a little restricted. The funniest sight is to watch people getting in and out of the cabin. It is a full contortionist’s act.

“Daylight has kept the breeze that feels a little lighter but a swell that has reduced in size. We are now concentrating on sailing good boat speed”.

Dee, Chook, Frog, Pants and Hugo

Team commentary from weather expert Mike Broughton:

“Light winds look like they are going to prevail all the way to the turning point of Muckle Flugga at the northern point of the Shetland Islands. Still dominating the race track, the high pressure system that originated in the Azores last week, is now positioned half way between Iceland and Norway. Light north-easterly winds on its southern flank mean the fleet will have to sail on the wind virtually all the way to the Shetlands. Our team on Aviva won’t be too happy as this is the boats least competitive conditions - uphill in light winds. Normally at this latitude we see active low pressure systems sweeping east through the area and generating strong westerly winds.

“Mixing it with the newer boats is a very good effort so far. Racing a ten year old Open 60 was always going to be difficult against much newer boats. With a shorter mast and therefore smaller sail area (crucial in light winds), Dee’s training boat will struggle against the new boats. Apart from smaller lee-boards, the early generation boat also has much less sophisticated ballast systems compared to generation four or five boats.

“There is one glimmer of hope for the team, in that there is a low pressure system presently over southern Germany and moving up the North Sea. We will see northerly winds on its western side and that could mean we will eventually see some downwind running conditions for the fleet. Speeds will pick up and downwind conditions are definitely better suited to the Aviva team. It will be interesting to see how weather conditions play out on Sunday and Monday.”

Update from Artemis:

High spirits onboard Artemis Ocean Racing

An impressive 4th position in the Calais Round Britain Race

“We are currently doing 9 knots due North in fantastic up wind conditions. This morning the breeze died down from 13 to 10 knots and we changed from the Solent to the masthead Genoa. At about 10 am we sailed out of the thick cold damp fog for the second time this race and we are starting to dry out. The boat is fully powered up with a full stack of sails on the windward rail and down below everything we can possible get our hands on is stacked up on the windward side of the boat.

At the moment we are looking good on the polls and are in a very favourable position in the second group of boats in the fleet. So far, it has been an extremely exciting race with most of the boats within sight of each other. Yesterday we did some great work in the bay of Galway were there was a big park up in no breeze. Roxy and Aviva managed to get ahead of us for a little while but after some great sail choices and excellent nav we pulled ahead of them and Bernard Stamm!

Although we are looking good at the moment the other boats will be pushing just as hard as us and there is still a long way to go. Things are great onboard with everyone in good spirits with the results of our hard work. I’m off for a roast chicken and mash freeze dry and then a bit of sleep whilst Gringo and Paul do their best on deck to keep the chasing pack at bay. Let’s hope the rest of the race is as good as the first half.”

Position : N 55 27’ W 10 53.7’

Cheers

Nipper”

Update from Temenos:

At the 1600 hour ranking, TEMENOS was 6 miles behind the leader PRB. Positioned 10 miles away in the early hours, the monohull has managed to regain a few small but nonetheless precious miles on the leading duo.

"We lost a few miles on a tack we made in the latter part of the afternoon yesterday, whilst our little playmates remained on the other tack visibly benefiting from a better wind. It’s a very fine line either way sometimes. Since then TEMENOS has made up a bit of ground, which is always welcome. Everyone is on the same course, there's no option to be had. It's a straight drag race pure and simple. You have to plug away hour by hour to gain a few tenths of a knot", explained Dominique when contacted by his shore crew mid-afternoon.

"The fog is lifting nicely and we’re sailing close to the wind with everything hoisted. We’re going to have to put a bit more Easting into our course but for the time being the direction of the wind isn‘t enabling us to do that. The wind is oscillating between 7 and 10 knots, which is enough to allow us to make some fine variations in speed. Our boats are very sensitive and their speed can be increased by up to a third just with 2 or 3 knots of extra wind in the sails."

"We have more of the same kind of conditions for at least the next two days and for the time being the descent from Calais promises to be calm. However the weather models aren’t very reliable in these types of conditions. The organisation of onboard watches is working perfectly. Everyone is managing to rest well and it's important to remain fresh. The level of concentration required in the light winds can lead to severe nervous exhaustion.

All the crew are very happy to be sailing aboard TEMENOS and is understanding more and more about the way the boat reacts and its potential. We are adapting faster and faster to the changes in conditions, even the quick ones, and we are taking less and less time to find the right trim. With time, I think we are going to go some way to achieving the boat’s true speed potential."