Bulletin: 3rd November 2006
TEMENOS II still the faster boat on last 24 hours!
Whilst there are ideal weather conditions forecast for the multihull fleet, the first of which may cross the finish line from next Monday onwards, the situation for the Imoca monohulls seems to be taking a bit of a turn for the worse. The arrival of a small depression may well influence the establishing of the trade winds and certain skippers have already altered course to avoid this eventuality.
Since yesterday, three options have opened up; Sill-Veolia is continuing to position itself on a S’ly option, Brit-Air remains to the North of the fleet and TEMENOS II, Virbac-Paprec and VM-Matérieux are opting for a median trajectory for the time being.
The pitfalls of the tricky and much feared Azores passage have failed to materialize for the leaders in the Imoca fleet. Save for some inevitable slowing on the approach to the archipelago, everyone has managed to avoid mishap, though interestingly their trajectories have been very different.
71 miles from the leader at the 1600 hour ranking, TEMENOS II is right up with the action. Over the past 48 hours, a very satisfied Dominique has grappled back no less than 44 miles from the head of the fleet and, as was the case this time yesterday, the boat is the fastest of the fleet having covered 373 miles in the past 24 hours…
After some crazy averages the day before, the fleet has been experiencing a slight drop in speed. This reduction is relative though as, at the latest ranking all the leaders were once again making fifteen knots of boat speed.
Contacted at 1600 hours the Swiss skipper, who had been experiencing some problems with his automatic pilot over the past couple of hours, was revelling in the delights of being bathed once more in sunshine; finally leaving the greyness behind that had been an almost constant companion since the start.
"It’s a beautiful day. It’s lovely and sunny, blue sky with a few small cumulus clouds and twenty knots of wind. The conditions are idyllic, save perhaps for the sea. There is a good cross swell which is destabilising the trim of the boat. It’s difficult to hold the speed. You have to stay at the helm, otherwise you lose ground. You have to choose between sleeping and going fast! I have been encountering a few problems with my main pilot, so I’ve switched its system over onto the emergency pilot which appears to be working.”
Now that the Azores are in their wake, the skippers and routers will be able to focus on which trajectory to adopt over the coming days. With three different options and minimal separation, there is everything to play for!
At the 1600 hour ranking, TEMENOS II was making 14. 9 knots of boat speed in 4th position