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30.10.2010 Back to news
The Rhum is off tomorrow!
 | © Bel Tchiz team |
Tomorrow, Sunday 31 October at 13:02, the start of the 9th Route du Rhum will see 85 single-handed sailors set off, making route to the West Indies!
The start is forecast to be slow going, with a south-easterly of between 5 and 10 knots with some sunny spells. It promises to be a fine spectacle with 85 boats at the starting line, 24 multihulls and 61 monohulls (9 of which are IMOCA Open 60 footers) ranging from 12 to 13 metres long. Also at sea will be the hundreds of spectators’ boats and, in the sky, no less than 12 helicopters for the live video coverage of the start on the National France 3 TV channel from 12:50 to 15:00.
Very quickly, Cap Fréhel (headland) will be in their wake (5 miles after the start) and the skippers will find themselves alone, or almost. They will make quick progress with the continuing fear of colliding with another contender, or with the many fishing boats or cargo ships they will encounter in the Channel, especially, since the wind is expected to get up in the night, reaching 25 knots, and swinging from East to North-East. In addition, this first rodeo downwind, with lots of manoeuvring, will take place in the pitch black, since the moon will be absent for two thirds of the crossing and will only be large as they approach the West Indies.
It will be competitive right from the start, with, for their first difficulties, the rounding of the tip of Brittany and the mandatory leaving of Ouessant (Ushant) to port, preventing all possibility of sailing inside the Four lighthouse. At this stage, the sailors will already need to know whether they wish to take a close turn or not, to angle their run up the Atlantic by the North or South route. There is nothing simple about the weather situation, to be honest, and the skippers of the 60 foot monohulls have decided together with IMOCA to prohibit weather routing (assistance from on shore) during this Route du Rhum, in order to come closer to the autonomy conditions required by the Vendée Globe.
This morning, when Kito was attending with his last media appointments before the start, he let us know what his frame of mind was, but also his viewpoint on this fascinating game of chess in which the first pawns will take up their positions during the first night.
Frame of mind
“I feel completely confident. I am much more certain about the qualities of the yacht. We know how she performs and we have adapted a huge number of items to make her faster. I’ve become accustomed to sailing on board Groupe Bel, I know her inside out; I know her sounds, I know when something is wrong and I am very confident about her. This is a good sign for a good Route du Rhum. It is going to be an incredible human adventure. In addition, a great many people are involved in this project, whether they are the thousands of Bel Group workers, the technical team, the fan club or the sponsors. They have all been tremendous and continue to encourage me. For the mind, this is wonderful.”
The weather
“The weather conditions look difficult but pleasant. For the start it will be fairly quiet, there won’t be too much wind. We will be setting off downwind so this will simplify things. With this many boats at sea, the risk of collision is very high so you need to be vigilant. This will be the first difficulty of the race. Then, the Channel crossing is forecast to be tough, because the wind will be changeable. The first to grab the north-westerly outside the low area will already have an advantage. In fact, this first day will be decisive and may well see gaps forming. Below the Azores, a low is starting to form at a place where you would expect the trade winds. From Monday, we will have to handle this low, no doubt by the North which, in principle, will be the route chosen by most of the skippers. This will make for an interesting race."
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