The Transat - Skippers Face Significant Tactical Choices Tonight

For the multihull skipper their choice of tactics tonight will prove to be one of the most significant moments in The Transat as they tackle their first major depression of the race.

Some years ago competitors in this race would see an ugly sky ahead and the waves increasing and realising a gale and raging seas were approaching would be battening down hatches, preparing their storm sails and saying their prayers.

Skippers of today's 60ft racing multihulls taking part in The Transat have been liasing with their shore-based meteorologists and routers to monitor the track and speed of this depression using a variety of sophisticated tools from GRIB weather files to satellite images since the start of the race. While the skippers could sail the shortest course down the great circle route this would have presented them with slow and potentially boat breaking strong headwinds. Instead for the last 48 hours they have been aiming for the bulls eye - the centre of the depression. The object of the exercise is to keep the wind at a favourable angle ie not from ahead, thus allowing the boats to sail fast without threatening their safety.

Sailing towards the heart of the depression from the east the multihulls are currently experiencing southerly winds of 30-35 knots. Past the centre of the depression the wind will rapidly turn to the northwest providing them with a fast wind angle to sail south west out of the depression. In short, instead of surviving the gale, they are not merely racing through it - they are using it to their tactical advantage.

The game in this particular scenario has been intercepting the depression. This has been no easy task as throughout today the depression's centre has been flying northwest at around 30 knots. At present race leader Michel Desjoyeaux may pass to its north early this evening.

Meanwhile Karine Fauconnier on board Sergio Tacchini is trying another tactic and has turned left early in the hope that she can make gains not through sailing as fast but by sailing less miles. At present all the multihulls are well north of the great circle (and shortest) route to Boston.

While the next 24 hours are looking rosy for the multihulls' speed, there is also considerable danger ahead as to the southeast of Newfoundland is a minefield of icebergs. In the area between 50 and 51degW and between two and three degrees due east of Newfoundland the latest charts show there to be 85 recorded icebergs currently resident. Bergs are reported as far east as 46degW and as far south as 46degN. This area is right on the track of the trimarans and is possible that the more prudent skippers may dive hard south to avoid this area.

It requires little imagination to realise the prospects of colliding with an iceberg for a trimaran being sailed at night at 25 knots by a sleep deprived single-handed skipper. While big bergs can be spotted with some degree of reliability using radar (which all the trimarans have), the much smaller growlers or 'bergy bits' that barely appear above the surface cannot, and thus represent a greater hazard.

Prior to the start of The Transat the icebergs appeared to represent no greater threat than they normally do - Ellen MacArthur for example saw a berg when she sailed this course in 2000.

Offshore Challenges Events CEO Mark Turner sums up the scenario: "This race has never had an ice limit before, but for the first time we did allow ourselves in the Sailing Instrutions to set one in the course before the start. However, before the start the ice reports gave us no valid reason to set an ice gate due to the reported positions being relatively far north, but also the path of those icebergs not being predictable enough to make an ice gate of any particular value. Consequently, there has been an increase in the number of icebergs located to the east and southeast of Newfoundland but significantly the weather encountered by the multihulls in particular has forced their route very far north which means that skippers will have more difficult choices as to whether they take a more dangerous route or return more south to minimuse the risk of ice. Short of making the race via Bermuda the danger of ice will always be present and forms one of a number of challenges skippers expect to face on this race course."

For the Open 60s monohulls, now some 500 miles astern of the multihulls, the threat of icebergs is greatly reduced as their track currently takes them along the present southerly limit of the iceberg field. In preparation for the depression and then the negotiation of iceberg alley the skippers are spending more time getting themselves prepared. Sailing what is probably the wettest boat in the race Yves Parlier commented: "With the heavy weather forecast I slept a lot last night and I have eaten. I have also prepared myself mentally. I have my head torch on, I have bailed out the boat so that it is dry and I will put on my dry suit."

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