After 11 days of racing, the week has started with some major upsets in the Barcelona World Race. First of all there was the decision not to change crews on Hugo Boss, as Alex Thomson delayed his return to the race. Then, Jean Le Cam’s monohull Président was dismasted off the Cape Verde Islands and finally, Michel Desjoyeaux has scheduled a pit stop in Brazil following damage to the bow of his Foncia. As for the weather, the trade winds are blowing powerfully over the Cape Verde Islands, but easing off close to the coast of Africa. The leaders Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron are already approaching the Doldrums.
The eleventh day of racing in the Barcelona World Race was Black Tuesday. Certainly some people are feeling down in the Doldrums, while the leaders, Jean-Pierre Dick and Loïck Peyron are facing the real Doldrums. Their monohull Virbac-Paprec 3 began to enter the inter-tropical convergence zone separating the trade winds in the northern and southern hemispheres. However, in the next 48 hours, the situation is likely to undergo a major change with the trade winds in the north being shut off and the Doldrums expanding. Virbac-Paprec 3 is showing everyone the way with those chasing her lining up on more or less the same trajectory with just a few miles of longitude separating them.
Damage to Foncia
Following a collision with an unidentified floating object, the bow on Foncia was seriously damaged to such an extent that Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart have scheduled a pit stop with their technical team in Brazil to change the part that has been affected. For Michel Desjoyeaux and François Gabart, the incident that happened on Sunday has led to the delaminating of the crash-box on the bow, but this can be repaired in or near Recife, where they intend to stop on Friday 14th January. This will not take them too far off their course and the Brazilian port has the facilities that are required to raise the boat and replace the part that is currently being prepared in Port-la-Forêt in Brittany. This should mean they will not find themselves left behind in a different weather system and the loss should be less than eight hours.
A black day for Le Cam
For Jean Le Cam and Bruno Garcia, it has been difficult to bear. On Monday evening as the sun was going down, their monohull Président hit a wave and the mast fell onto the deck. Jean Le Cam at the helm could only watch powerless to do anything. They hurried to clear the mess and cut away the rigging and sails so that the hull would not be damaged by the carbon rig, which broke into several pieces. Once they were clear and there was no danger to the propeller, the crew started the engine and set off with the wind on the beam at low speed (4 knots), towards the island of San Antoa some fifty miles to their south east. Président reached the port of Mindelo in Sao Vicente, the second most populated island in the Cape Verdes, yesterday evening.
The race goes on
Behind Virbac-Paprec, the first group of boats is only a few miles off in terms of longitude. The way through the Doldrums is situated at around 28°W and Foncia was set to enter the Doldrums between six and eight hours later some time during the night. For the three following on behind, Estrella Damm, Mapfre and Mirabaud, the gap is expected to be around twenty hours, while Groupe Bel and Neutrogena are a good day’s sailing behind. But for the others, the change in the weather pattern is going to create much more uncertainty. The four trailing boats, FMC, Hugo Boss, We are water and Central Lechera Asturiana, are going to have to move westwards to avoid carrying out a series of gybes in the light conditions forecast off Cape Verde: they are quite likely to see themselves falling much further behind the leaders before we reach the weekend.
