Transat
Jacques Vabre - Groupama Gets Gold, Belgacom Bows
Out In 2nd And Sergio Tacchini Seals Third
Today
started at 0300hrs local time when in the pitch
black of Brazilian night a lot of excited French
people descended upon the Centro Nautico da Bahia
(CENAB) to welcome in the victors of the 6th Transat
Jacques Vabre – Groupama. The ‘green
flash’ trimaran came into view as dawn rose,
heralded by champagne coloured clouds and a smooth
sea, the nearest to a red carpet Franck Cammas
and Franck Proffit will get for their convincing
victory in the 6th edition of the Transat Jacques
Vabre. They crossed the finish line in Salvador
da Bahia on Sunday 16th November at 0810hrs and
41s GMT, or 0510hrs 41s local time. For the second
year running Groupama has taken the crown, covering
an actual distance 4,624m in 10 days, 23 hours,
10 minutes, 41 seconds at an average speed of
17.57 knots on the water. For Franck Proffit it
is his second victory as he was co-skipper with
Loick Peyron on Fujicolour which won in 1999.
Franck
Cammas’ words: “The race was shorter
but much harder than the last time. There were
a lot more weather systems to play with, strong
upwind, downwind – and we got fairly trapped
by the calms in the Doldrums too when the boats
behind didn’t have it so bad. Although the
last tack in is an easy solution in terms of strategy,
it’s the least comfortable one. Well, it
was great to arrive this morning, physically we
felt as if we’d just been in a night club
dancing til dawn – we were both awake and
on deck for the last 48 hours of the race. In
fact the whole race has been physically tough,
we didn’t eat our first hot meal until 4
days into the race! This victory is sweeter than
the one in 1999, because it was one which we had
to fight much harder for. She’s a great
boat, but in a race where pure boatspeed was crucial
for the last part and with Belgacom hard on our
heels for the last 2 days, we know that she’s
not as fast as the others now. But the team had
to put her back together after my capsize in the
Rhum and they deserve this victory as much as
we do.”
At
0922hrs and 42s GMT Belgacom slid across the finish
line to the sound of fireworks and samba drums
from the CENAB pontoons, to finish second, just
1 hour, 12 minutes and 1 second behind Groupama.
Helmed by Jean-Luc Nélias and Loick Peyron,
Belgacom had been storming in at high speed thanks
to well established SE Trade winds and eating
into Groupama 's lead all night, and if the race
had been any longer the result may have been different.
The turquoise tri covered an actual distance of
4,675m in 11 days, 00 hours, 22 minutes, 42 seconds
at an average speed of 17.68 knots on the water.
A great final result for what is sadly the end
of the Belgacom Sailing Team project.
Jean-Luc
Nélias’ words: “We had a much
better first part of the race, the boat is simple,
intelligent and we were looking very dominant.
Then our descent to Madeira was not so great,
and we got blocked by the weather, and then lost
control over Groupama. We fought hard in the Doldrums
and came out second and the rest of the race was
like ski-ing on new powder! This was our Transat,
for us two to enjoy, aside from the commercial
pressure there has been about the end of the sponsorship
by Belgacom. We would have liked the race to be
longer, who knows what will have happened, but
those guys on Groupama weren’t born on the
last wave! Now we are hoping the keys to this
2yr old boat may attract another sponsor soon…the
rest of life starts tomorrow!”
The
last spot on the podium was well fought and won
by mixed doubles of Karine Fauconnier, the first
lady in the race, and Irishman Damian Foxall on
Sergio Tacchini, who kept a lot of other hounds
at bay, not least Géant (Desjoyeaux/Jan),
and spent a measure of the race in second place,
to deserve their third place overall. Arriving
at a more civilized hour of 1220GMT and 28s across
the line and 4 hours, 9 minutes and 47s after
Groupama, Sergio Tacchini covered an actual distance
of 4,700m in 11 days, 03 hours, 20 minutes, 28
seconds at an average speed of 17.58 knots on
the water.
And
they kept coming like the Number 19 bus –
next up in 4th place the giants stormed in at
1527hrs 31 s GMT. Michel Desjoyeaux and Hervé
Jan on Géant covered the course in 11 days,
6 hours, 27mins and 31 seconds at an average speed
of 16.05 knots. They arrived 7 hours 16mins 50s
behind Groupama.
Just
in is 5th placed Biscuits La Trinitaine (Guillemot/Guichard),
whose best ranking in the race was third, but
lost the Doldrums battle and will have to be content
to finish just outside the top rankings. They
crossed the line at 1730hrs GMT (TBC)
As
the trimarans fall into line on the way in to
the finish, Banque Populaire continues to accumulate
more speeding tickets of over 600m in consecutive
24hr periods, Sodebo has become un-sandwiched
from Gitana by 74m now and Foncia (Gautier/MacArthur)
have moved up a place to 10th and the Anglo-French
mixed team has their sights on Sopra Group (Monnet/L.
Bourgnon) just 45m up ahead. The weather is no
longer a factor and it’s a straight line
in so it is becoming less likely that any of these
positions will change now in the final 24 hours
of the multihull class race.
**
Banque
Populaire, helmed by Lalou Roucayrol and Pascal
Bidegorry, may not be taking the crown in the
Transat Jacques Vabre but they will surely win
the overall Baume and Mercier trophy for the most
miles covered in 24hrs. They have been on the
rampage for the last day, and consistently clocking
over 600m over several position reports yesterday
evening. The most miles recorded in one 24hr period
was 613m, but they still have time to beat the
current record held by Yvan Bourgnon of 625m with
260m to the finish in perfect conditions as Banque
Populaire maintains an average speed above 20
knots. As a result, the trimaran moved into 6th
place in the rankings.
MONOHULL
OPEN 60’s &0’s
*
Virbac due to finish overnight Monday –
Tuesday; Ecover &ill just a handful of miles
apart closing in to the finish, Team Cowes and
VMI fight an even closer battle…
Virbac
(Dick/Abiven) leads still with 419m to go and
a consistent 130m advantage over second placed
Ecover (Golding/Thompson). With the Trades firmly
in place all the way to the finish, bar an unforeseen
technical incident onboard, Jean-Pierre Dick and
Nicolas Abiven look set to take their first major
offshore victory in their brand new Farr 60…
So,
while a lot of people start making phone calls
to the Farr design office, the real excitement
of the race is being played out on 600m of battlefield,
where the English and French are in their final
scrum against each other – but also in the
same boat. Feeling the pressure this morning,
Ecover’s Golding and Thompson found Jourdain
and Thomson just 4 miles behind them after a fast
overnight run on the red rocket ship Sill. Neither
boat is compromised right now as both are on optimum
points of sail, Ecover sailing tighter and faster
to the West, and Sill surging ahead on a close
reach. The wind sways in its loyalty, switching
from one to the other every few hours, and the
two-hourly position updates show incremental gains
or losses between both boats throughout the day.
This will continue until the final corner is reached
tomorrow, where the last 200 miles will be the
decider.
With
no words today from the Brits on Ecover, Alex
Thomson on Sill made his comment on what lies
ahead: “It’s just so close, I think
it’s going to be a real nail-biter of a
final between Sill and Ecover. If the last miles
turn out to be a spinnaker run then hopefully
we’ll be able to cream in ahead as they
have no spi’s left, but we’ll see,
they are sailing higher and faster, and are not
yet showing any signs of slowing up.” Both
boats are expected in on Tuesday morning –
but in which order is yet unknown for sure.
Behind
these two and 4th placed PRB (Riou/Beyou), VMI
and Team Cowes have been polled with exactly the
same distance to go twice today, as the Anglo-Aussie
pair of Moloney and Davies keep to their Westerly
option, now fully free from the Doldrums. Sam
Davies doesn’t give up for one moment even
though they are down 4 miles on VMI at the 1700
GMT poll: “We are on 100% form, sailing
as fast as possible to the finish. Our race is
not over, VMI and PRB have a better angle to the
wind right now and they are a little faster. We
need to hang in there until the breeze frees us
so that we are still in touch for a final attack
at the finish.”
WEATHER
The
Trades are well established for the rest of the
multihull arrivals and they will continue to come
in fast and straight. The gaps between any of
the trimarans will not change from now on so close
into the finish.
For
the monohulls, Tuesday will be their day to hurry
on in with the same regularity of trade winds.
However after Virbac it is still not clear what
the order will be down the rest of the rankings
as the boats remain within a few miles. So the
weather will play no further part in this battle,
it will be down to pure boat speed as to which
boat prevails.
Mary
Ambler
For TJV race information go to http://www.jacques-vabre.com
