02.11.2010 Back to news

A "southerner" in the south!

© Gilles Martin-Raget / Groupe Bel

Since midday Monday, Groupe Bel is opening the way for the IMOCA fleet after one day of the Route du Rhum race. On clocking in at 16:00, Kito de Pavant was calling the tune with a short lead, 3 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) and 6.6 miles ahead of Armel Le Cléac'h (Brit Air). All week before the start in St. Malo, Kito saw only one choice; to head south. Is this a cultural question? The skipper lives in Languedoc. Perhaps it is a question of experience. He has crossed the Atlantic Ocean 40 times and that sliding down to the warmth and favourable currents of the south is pleasanter and faster that driving hard close hauled too far north. Or maybe it is a real question of tactics, but even then it has its ins and outs, linked to the weather situation in the Atlantic.

Although the large trimarans, already far ahead, are now broken up between the far North (Majan Oman Air) and far South (Groupama 3), the situation is a little different for the monohulls. Consistent in size and performance, the 60 footers are making progress more grouped together, even if a few gaps are appearing, such as Brit Air (Le Cléac’h) and DCNS (Pratt) to the north, and particularly Groupe Bel to the south and Foncia (Desjoyeaux), who is actually pulling to the south east.

Groupama 3 (Cammas) is attempting to go through a narrow band of wind by swinging close to Cape Finisterre (North-West of the Iberian Peninsula) with the idea of quickly picking up a fair wind before the window closes. No doubt this is tempting, but the monohulls that will reach this latitude later will have to tack for three days (according to Kito) before being able to lengthen their stride. The ideal route would appear to be relatively close to the Azores, but, behind, the trade wind’s "killer” lows are making the picture a little hazier.

“Everything is going well. The first 24 hours have gone just fine. There was more wind and it was faster than I thought. I had a little fright under spinnaker as I rounded Ouessant (Ushant) during the night. The wind began to change and take up speed, I was running at 20 knots and  wasn’t that far from the rocks. Afterwards, I tried to take the best advantage of the right side of the high ridge (wind at the edge of an anticyclone) and that’s not going too bad. There's a little more pressure in the South and I am taking advantage of it. This said, we’re going to find ourselves in the same weather system soon and it will be more complicated in the three days to come.

I was a little tense the hour before the start, but finally things have gone well. The starting line wasn’t too crowded even  though it was a slightly complicated exercise with quite a few puffs that kept dropping.

We know that the performance of the yachts is close, with skippers who know how to cross the Atlantic well, so the battle will be a good one.

We are all going to have to tack a lot for 3 days to get around the top of the high pressure area. We will then hit the wind of a new anticyclone that is beginning to form and move down.  Our course should be better a little further north, passing quite close to the Azores. It is at the end of the race that it will be complicated, with a low pressure area very far south, likely to break the trade wind, but for the 5 days to come things are fairly clear.”

IMOCA Ranking Monday at 16:00 (French time GMT+1):

1- Groupe Bel - Kito de Pavant – 3,194 miles from the finish
2 - Veolia Environnement - Roland Jourdain - 3 miles from leader
3 - Brit Air - Armel Le Cléac'h – 6.6 miles from leader
4 - DCNS 1000 - Christopher Pratt – 9.1 miles from leader
5 - Virbac Paprec 3 - Jean-Pierre Dick – 9.3 miles from leader
All the ranking: click here

La Route du Rhum - La Banque Postale 2010

Saint-Malo > Pointe-à-Pitre single-handed
9th anniversary of this race created in 1978 by Michel Etevenon
Start on Sunday 31 October 2010 at 13:02
Course: 3,543 miles leaving the island of Guadeloupe to port
85 participants divided among IMOCA, Class 40', Class Multi 50’, “Ultimes”, “Category Rhum” (multi 39’-59')
Real time winner in 2006: Lionel Lemonchois, 60 foot trimaran Gitana 11
IMOCA Winner: Roland Jourdain, Sill and Véolia
Routing is prohibited for the IMOCA Class
Official website: www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com

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