The Transat - Investing In The North

One of the key arts of singlehanded ocean racing is being able to drive your boat to the max without it breaking. All the skippers at the front of the monohull and multihull fleets in The Transat are currently walking this delicate tightrope.

Among the monohull front runners the only skipper to reveal their hand so far has been Mike Golding who shortly after passing the Eddystone Light yesterday afternoon said that the motor driving the hydraulic pump for Ecover's canting keel had broken. Golding has resorted to all manner of fixes but ultimately without success. As a result he is having to resort to the system's manual pump which involves an intense 30 minute work out pumping a lever. "I'm going to have arms like Popeye at the end of this race," he commented. However he has developed the system still further by bringing gravity to his aid. Tacking now involved dropping the keel prior to the manoeuvre, laying his boat over on her side so much that the mast is almost in the water, before putting his boat gingerly through the wind. This reduces the amount he has to pump.

Meanwhile knowing that the next 24 hours will see them slowed by light airs prior to getting pummelled by an intense depression the competitors in the Transat are currently gambling on their respective futures.

All the frontrunners are currently forging due west blown along by increasingly light northwesterly breeze. The ORMA 60ft multihulls are lying southwest of Ireland some 90 miles ahead of the first IMOCA Open 60 monohulls, but it is the present north-south positioning of the boats that could prove significant in the long term game.

Among the monohulls Pindar AlphaGraphics of Mike Sanderson has sacrificed distance to finish line to get north but as a result has dropped back to fourth, 16 miles astern of the leader. To the south lies Jean-Pierre Dick's Virbac, currently in first place while this morning's leader Mike Golding on Ecover has dropped to second taking the middle ground.

At present no course of action across the race course is paying among the 60ft multihulls where at present a match race for the lead is taking place between Thomas Coville's Sodebo and Geant of Vendée Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux, the two boats still within sight of one another just a mile apart. Race favourite Groupama lies to the south holding third while Giovanni Soldini's TIM is holding the northerly position a mere 6 miles astern of the front runners.

For the multihulls the next hours will see the boats tackling a high pressure ridge. The boats to the south can expect to see the wind drop off and continue veering to the north, before it drops off although and fills in from the south. Those who have taken the trouble to get north should benefit from the wind not dropping out altogether. If this proves to be true Soldini and Sanderson will be in a strong position.

Aside from the short term tactics, competitors are also looking further down the race track at how they will handle the next weather system - an intense depression the leading multihulls will encounter on Thursday. Making the best of these two significant weather systems while holding their boats together will be the deciding factor in who wins The Transat.

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