After a first day marked by high pressure, erratic winds and low speed, the four Ultime Trimarans have finally picked up their speed and are racing between fifteen and twenty knots in a depression, At the top of the standings, the race between IDEC SPORT (Francis Joyon) and MACIF (François Gabart) is extremely tight. SOBEDO (Thomas Coville) is falling a bit behind while ACTUAL (Yves Le Blévec) has fallen behind.
At 03:00 URC UTC, on Tuesday June 23rd, there was a change in the situation on board the four Ultime Trimarans. IDEC SPORT, were in the lead were the first to tack before dawn and are now sailing in a strong but unstable wind that is more than 25 knots, causing the two watch-keepers to be cautious.
”I will keep it short as I do not want to leave Alex Pella on The Bridge for too long on his own. It is quite tough”, explains Sébastien Picault, who competes alongside Francis Joyon on IDEC SPORT. On board, the trimarans that are West from the British Island and between 49 and 52 degrees North, tension has risen at the end of the night and the crew are satisfied that they were able to speed up after a stressful day with a light breeze. This Tuesday will be tough on the starboard tack towards the middle of the Atlantic North. On the skippers’ briefing of THE BRIDGE on Sunday morning, meteorologist, Dominic Vittet, indicated that the area of the Gascogne golf exit will be delicate and could split rom the Loire’s estuary, the four Ultime trimarans. Northern or Southern route? It seems that the boats will not follow the same trajectory as Queen Mary 2.
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Words from the skippers at 03:00 UTC (timetable 3H, UTC) :
Yves le Blévec (Actual) : « We had rough day due to the high pressure on the ridge so we did not sail fast enough. Currently, we are at approximatively 20 knots of gust of wind and on the bridge we have to keep our hands steady as the wind is rather unstable. We get settled, each of us gets in the rhythm and globally it is going well on board»
Sébastien Picault (IDEC SPORT) : « There are a few things to adjust, and as there are only two of us on the Bridge), I will not be able to stay on the line because I do want to leave Alex alone for long, especially as the wind is rising. We took the start that Francis (Joyon) suggested and now we are trying to get hold of Macif but sometimes it travels too fast! To get straight to the point everything is going well on board and there is a great atmosphere. Yesterday we hoisted the gennaker sail and it was great ! »
Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim’) : « Yesterday we were very close to MACIF and IDEC SPORT, but now we are falling a bit behind. They went very, very fast in front and we took five, six hours before getting some wind. Now they are 35 miles ahead. Last night we did quite a lot of manoeuvres and - it is a luxury to be working with a crew in these moments. We were reaching with good burst of speed, but an irregular wind. The wind has dropped and we are travelling at around sixteen knots. We have not passed the front and. we will have to tack soon as the sun is rising. T. Currently, Jean-Luc (Nélias) and Vincent (Riou) are on the bridge, Billy (Besson) and myself are on stand-by, and Loïc (Le Mignon) and Thierry (Briend) are off. »