Gitana 80 - Loïck Peyron

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Artemis Day 6 - Slow and Blind

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Boating and Sailing News 17 May

Fast sailing speeds were not in the cards today for the solo sailors in the Artemis Transat single-handed sailing race. As forecast, the calms have enveloped the head of the fleet and the sailors have simply had to put up with the conditions as they try to extract themselves from this tricky zone. The leaders, composed of Sébastien Josse, Vincent Riou and Loïck Peyron as first, second and third, are beginning to see greater speeds, but they're not out of the light winds quite yet. This, combined with the blackout now in effect, is sure to make for some interesting if not yet exciting racing.

IMOCA Open 60 Yachts

As we reported yesterday, there are now just twelve solo sailors in the running in the Imoca class for this 13th edition of this single-handed sailing race, after Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia was forced to announce his withdrawal from the competition following an impact with a whale. This encounter at just over 10 knots of boat speed damaged the starboard daggerboard of his Open 60 monohull, forcing the skipper to turn round and head back to his home port in Brittany. One can only imagine what may have happened had the boat been travelling at higher speed.

Aboard Gitana Eighty last night, Loïck Peyron spent more than two hours making 0 knots of boat speed and watched powerless as Sébastien Josse stretched his lead. This proved hard on the nerves: “It was a storm of nothing last night! No wind, seas like a millpond and the sails flogging every which way… I alternated between little siestas and checks of Gitana Eighty, trying to make headway as best I could. We’re all in the same situation though! The current conditions are extremely rare in this transatlantic route” said Peyron, the double winner of the event and five-time competitor.

Sailing this afternoon in a slightly fresher breeze again, the skippers of the Artemis Transat fleet are preparing for the wind to back from the NW to the W and then the SW. A rotation in which Loïck Peyron and his rivals will have to change to a port tack: “There aren’t many tactical choices to be made at the moment but the point where each of us decide to tack will be important further down the racetrack" explained Loïck Peyron.

Class40 Fleet

The Class 40 fleet has divided into three distinct groups, fanning out over 180 miles north-south across a relatively shallow (450 metres) section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the north, Soldini leads a French pack containing Thierry Bouchard on Mistral Loisirs – Pole Sante ELIOR (5th place), Yvan Noblet and Appart’ City (6th place) and Christophe Coatnoan on Groupe Partouche (8th place). The racing within the top four has been tight throughout the race and only 26 miles separating the pack as the 36 hour blackout approaches. For Bouchard, just 27 miles behind Soldini, this situation is becoming a habit: “In front of me, there’s always Telecom Italia,” he commented this morning. “It would be interesting to have a close look and see if this boat isn’t a Ferrari painted white! It was great to see him at the start of the race….but that’s probably the last we’ll see of him.”

Miranda Merron on 40 Degrees in 3rd place, was first in the middle group to report entering the high pressure: “Oily calm in the ridge, spending a lot of time keeping the boat moving. Currently 4 knots, has been as low as 2,” she informed the race office in an early email. “Think it's Beluga I can see. Must go!" 40 Degrees is part of an Anglo-Franco-Germanic sub-fleet of Boris Herrmann’s Beluga Racer (2nd place), Simon Clarke with Clarke Offshore Racing (11th place), Alex Bennett’s Fujifilm (4th place) and Halvard Mabire on Custo Pol (7th place). Mabire described conditions in the no-wind zone: “This calm patch is not so bad. There is a little magic to making the boat glide along with only a breath of wind. Obviously, to benefit from the beauty of the moment, there is a basic rule - not easy to apply - and it is important not to imagine that the others have wind and you are the only one without it! To do so is the best means of transforming one good moment into a nightmare.” Bouchard then shared some of his light-airs tips: “Physically it’s very demanding, because one spends all the time on the helm and not moving too much weight about in the boat.”

The southern group is an entirely French affair with the duo Louis Duc on Groupe Royer (9th place) and Benoit Parnaudeau with Prevoir Vie (10th place). For Duc, the youngest sailor in the race at 25 years-old, choosing the southerly option was a wise move: “I decided to go south to cross the high pressure ridge at the narrowest point,” he explained via satellite phone earlier. Groupe Royer maintained good boat speeds throughout the day, polling a higher average than many in the fleet. Like Bouchard in the middle group, Benoit Parnaudeau has been practicing his light-airs skills: “I’ve discovered there’s a huge difference between handsteering and letting the pilot drive the boat in these conditions,” he reported earlier. “I’m easily 1 knot faster than the pilot.”

The Artemis Transat Blackout

The 36 hour position blackout descends after this evening and will be lifted at 0600GMT on Sunday morning. During this time, the skippers will have no idea of the longitude or latitude of the other yachts, and only two people in The Artemis Transat race office will have this forbidden data. Effectively, the skippers will be sailing with a tactical blindfold. Reactions within the fleet to this innovation range from pleasure to sheer terror. The highly experienced solo sailor and current race leader, Giovanni Soldini, claims little will change on board Telecom Italia: “No change, really,” he commented this morning. “It is always nice to see if the tactical choices you have made are working, but I will make my own course and I will make my own race. The same as always.” Benoit Parnaudeau believes it will be ‘business as usual’ on Prevoir Vie: “ I don’t think the blackout changes things too much. In any case, the door remains open for all sorts of tactical options.” However, he does admit it might be strange. “It will be odd not to be able to keep an eye on all my little Class40 friends out there.” The most dramatic reaction came from the 27 year-old champion dinghy sailor, Boris Herrmann, on Beluga Racer: I’m really, really stressed about it,” he admitted in a conference call this morning. “I really can’t compete at the top of my game without the position information.”

Loick Peyron aboard Gitana Eighty in the IMOCA Open 60 class could not disagree more about the blackout: "I think it's a very good thing, an excellent idea on the part of the organisers. I'd even be in favour of a 15-day blackout to be honest! The last data we will get will be crucial, because they will be our last link with our little friends. I really like the notion that everything will be possible."