Bulletin: 7th November 2006

The front finally arrives for TEMENOS II!

Between 6 and 7 more knots on the speedo, nearly twice the speed of TEMENOS II, at this pace, the VM Matériaux / Virbac-Paprec duo didn’t need any persuading to take back the 2nd and 3rd places respectively, relegating TEMENOS to 4th position. Also now free of the ridge of high pressure, Dominique has logically lost some ground on his adversaries overnight.

It’s clearly taxing on the nerves to watch powerless as the top trio accelerate away ahead of you, whilst at the same time witnessing the thundering comeback of Brit-Air, who has been in the front since yesterday. The latter has snatched back 5th place and has made up over 100 miles on TEMENOS II over the past 24 hours. Fortunately, the 1600 hour ranking fortunately lifts the fear of seeing Armel Le Cleac’h’s monohull speed past TEMENOS II. Flashed doing over 21 knots of instantaneous speed , with the highest average of the fleet over the past 30 minutes, Dominique is currently encountering strong winds and is keen to make the most of the conditions to show off TEMENOS II’ true potential and make up some of his deficit…

Contacted at around 1500 hours, Dominique had some great news for the radio chat session. "I’ve finally made it into the front in the past couple of hours or so. I’m under working jib with one reef in the mainsail. I had a few hefty squalls which required a lot of manœuvres, then there was a little ray of sunshine and the wind clocked round to the North. For the time being I’ve still got medium winds so I’ll have to dive a little further West to hit the stronger wind."

The rotation of the wind from the South to the North is making the seas particularly difficult, forcing the skipper to show some restraint: "There are chaotic cross seas, with the waves hitting us from every angle. The boat is slamming and bouncing but it’s a fantastic sight. The wind is building and the boat is

accelerating well, but I can’t put the pedal to the metal due to the sea state."

When it comes to analysing the options which have caused such suspense over the past few days, the lead taken by Roland Jourdain’s boat reflects well on his router. For Dominique, who tailed Sill-Véolia closely but further along the track, it’s the ‘extremes’ which seem to have come off best.

"I rather think that the extreme courses were the way to go. It seems to me that with Sill-Véolia we had a more favourable passage. We didn’t slow as much as VM-Matériaux and Virbac-Paprec. Meantime Brit-Air was also able to make up some ground by getting into the front very early on."

Harsh conditions forecast with the arrival of the front

With the intensity of the manœuvres came a few computer issues, to which Dominique had to devote some precious hours. The computer black-out which reigned aboard TEMENOS II overnight has fortunately been partially resolved thanks to the help of his shore crew. The emergency computer is working to a degree, enabling the skipper to monitor the navigation and the receipt of weather files. Flaws of its infancy, problems encountered with the automatic pilots over the past few days are evidence of the usefulness of racing in this kind of event on a brand new boat, with the aim of making the boat reliable for longer races like the Vendée Globe. "I’ve had a lot of problems with the two onboard computers. These are ongoing, but the emergency pilot works fairly normally now and I’m receiving my weather charts again."

Squalls, many hours spent on manœuvres and the rest of the time devoted to the

computers, are all indicators that Dominique won’t have slept much once again over the past night. "I’ve slept for 10 minutes on three or four occasions and each time I fell asleep the wind turned, forcing me to make manoeuvres. It was a very eventful night."