Leading Charlie Dalin ("Apivia"), Thomas Ruyant ("LinkedOut") and Yannick Bestaven ("Maître Coq") passed Cape Leeuwin just over three hours apart yesterday. Dalin's lead has dwindled to around 60 nautical miles, but he seems to have kept it constant ever since. Anything but a reassuring cushion, the race has already shown with Boris Herrmann's problems with his J2 sail alone (which has since been repaired) that even simple defects can quickly cost a skipper 100 or 200 nautical miles.
And at this distance, Dalin should actually lose his lead on Wednesday if he doesn't add a few more miles. At least mathematically. Because on Wednesday, the race organisers will finally announce how much time credit the skippers involved in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier will receive. And third-placed Yannick Bestaven was also involved, alongside Jean Le Cam, Boris Herrmann and Sébastien Simon. As they spent hours searching for Escoffier in the life raft and had to change their course while Thomas Ruyant and Charlie Dalin were able to continue sailing, it is probably safe to assume that they will be credited with at least five or six hours or even more. Bestaven would then be ahead of Charlie Dalin. That would only be of any use to him when he crosses the finish line, because only then will the credit be taken into account, but still.
Boris Herrmann would certainly prefer to sail 100 miles further east instead of a time credit. Because it looks as if the leading trio on the back of a depression could stay in fast conditions for another day, while the chasing pack is likely to fall out of the strong wind today and lose a lot of ground.
The German was able to successfully repair his defective J2 sail yesterday, but once again lost miles overnight to the "non-foiler trio" in front of him, Jean Le Cam ("Yes We Cam"), Damien Seguin ("Groupe Apicil") and Benjamin Dutreux ("Omnia Water Family"). French-German Isabelle Joschke also briefly overtook Herrmann in the rankings yesterday with her "MACSF" before she had to jibe due to the ice limit.
Joschke received the accolade from grandmaster Loïck Peyron yesterday. He praised her clever race, which was characterised above all by consistency: "If you look at her wake, it is a very harmonious straight line, which indicates that she sails the boat very smoothly. "That doesn't always mean that you are as fast as possible, but often very effective," says Peyron. Jean Le Cam's course line also reflects this. "The last generation of foilers, on the other hand, often have strong jags in the course lines because the boats accelerate so much in gusts and become too fast. The skippers then have to drop off quickly to slow the boat down," reported the Frenchman. Because changing sails every time in such cases is simply not feasible for the skippers single-handed, as they have to economise on their strength. And that sometimes means a weaker VMG (speed in the direction of the target) for hours than other skippers are travelling. Joschke may have an older boat, but he uses modern, large foils, just like Boris Herrmann on his "Seaexplorer"
Joschke also gave an insight into how she sails her boat yesterday: "Sometimes it goes really fast, and then it suddenly stops because you have to repair something or the sea is really rough. And then it's full speed ahead again. That's how it was last week. Honestly, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow and I'm trying to manage things on a day-to-day basis. If it's possible to sail fast, I'll do it, but I also know it's very stressful for me and the boat. I have to preserve my boat. I would say that's the most important thing in this race. At the beginning I was scared, really scared of the cold, of having technical problems in these conditions and not being able to fix them. I also found a sea that was much more uncomfortable than I had expected. I thought there would be more nice moments. There were, but it was very difficult and challenging, especially mentally. The lakes were really chaotic. But I also saw impressive landscapes and felt a real sense of loneliness. The fact that it's hard emphasises the loneliness even more, being here alone in the middle of nowhere. On the one hand, it's not easy to live with, but on the other, it makes it all so beautiful."
In the course of the morning, the first seven boats passed Cape Leeuwin. Thomas Ruyant also seems to have found a good rhythm, having to find new ways of sailing his "LinkedOut" after the port foil broke. This is because the new generation of foilers are not as easy to sail as a non-foiler if it loses its appendage: The boats are designed narrower than before and often have less keel weight, as the righting moment is largely generated by the foil.
Boris Herrmann once put it in a nutshell in an interview with YACHT: "I could sail the boat without a keel." This means that a new foiler without a foil lies significantly more on the cheek than older boats, has less sail area and goes through the waves differently. Accordingly, Ruyant explains that he has to adjust the sails on his "bad" bow and work more with the ballast tanks. But the new boats have fewer of these than the older ones. So his achievement of staying so close on Dalin's heels cannot be overestimated. However, it also looks as if it will continue like this for the next few days: there is no sign of him finally getting the wind from port and being able to jibe onto the intact foil side.
Clément Giraud provided a humorous greeting from on board yesterday, sending a torero-style video from on board in which he held his red sailing jacket overboard as a scarf, as "the bull" (Jérémie Beyou's "Charal") steamed past his "Compagnie du Lit" from behind (but at a good distance): Beyou, for his part, sent videos in which he is travelling at over 25 knots; Giraud is travelling at around 11 knots. Beyou has caught up with the last boats and has already left four behind him, with two more expected to follow today. It will be interesting to see how far ahead he can go after starting ten days later following repairs.
Video of yesterday's highlights
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
