Penalty for Queen Mary 2?

While the final four will soon be halfway, Macif (François Gabart) still leading, remains slightly ahead of IDEC SPORT (Francis Joyon) during that fourth night, while Sodebo Ultim' (Thomas Coville) has caught up with the two leaders, and was at the ranking of 3:00 UTC within 20 miles of Francis Joyon and his crew this morning. Actual (Yves Le Blevec) is performing a great race, taking advantage of all opportunities. Late at night, he was 190 miles away from Macif and the fastest fleet. 

At 3:00 UTC on Thursday morning, the sailors who did the first shift of the day were in good shape and rather loquacious. The key word is the concentration, while the Macif leader is the first to slow down under the effect of a new transition zone, before getting a new wind with a Southwest flow during the day which is expected to make them accelerate. And when going through a ridge, it's always the same thing! The first boats encountered ‘slack’ and the elastic relaxes, allowing Actual to sail twice as fast than Macif (20 knots for Actual and 10 for Macif) reducing some of his delay.

Tweet may protest The Queen !

While Queen Mary 2 is less than 1100 miles away from New York City, she sailed along the ice zone under Newfoundland, and even slightly “stepped” in the exclusion zone which the sailors are not allowed to enter. Jean-Luc Nélias, the sailor on Sodebo Ultim, joked about it by posting this tweet with a screenshot of the map:  : « Claim against the QM2 in forbidden Ice Zone. 3 days of penalty minimum! » More seriously, the fleet is still progressing close-hauled in very variable winds in strength and direction, and continues to manœuvrer. Judging by the small gaps (26 miles between Macif and Idec Sport) the regatta is in full swing.

They said:

Yves le Blévec (Actual) : « It has been alright, because even if we're not super fast, there is a lot of work on board Actual to adapt the wings and adjustments to the very variable conditions. The night is particularly dark and you cannot see the stars nor the horizon, but we're not even really in the fog, and it should emerge a little bit when its dawn. The wind is generally not very strong, but not necessarily in the right direction. It never allows us to take the direct route, and we must constantly weave with different systems to get towards New York City. This requires a lot of anticipation in terms of navigation and quite a lot of work for the crew. The wind is very unstable and it wanders between 15 to 22 knots. We navigate between 50 and 80 degrees of the wind. Right now, we have a small 20 knots and it's pretty fast since we sail at 22 knots... but it's still very irregular.  »

Vincent Riou (Sodebo Ultim) : « All is good! We're doing a hook to work around a small anticyclonic bubble. Inevitably, it slowed us down in front. We try to not lose focus to navigate well, because when you cross these areas here, you never know, there may be some things that should not be done and you have to be opportunistic. But it seems that we are on a quite dynamic phenomenon, and it shouldn't change the standings too much. In a few hours, we'll be in the Southwest. We're going to go flirt with the ice zone but it's still a real constraint in terms of strategy. There are always moments where we're going to get closer and others where you would have liked to be able to enter the area, but it's the game the same for everyone else. It is going perfectly well for Billy Besson (quadruple world champion of Nacra 17 competing his first transat race). He is in great shape, and as the others, he settled into the rhythm. He was a little afraid to get seasick at first, but did not get sick at all. The conditions are perfect for him and the others. »

Pascal Bidégorry (Macif) : « Approaching a kind of ridge and the wind is really unstable." We are moving quite chaotically. I think we'll have those conditions for most of the night. We still have three or four complicated hours. After we're out of this area I hope it will be better. Everything is fine on board. We have a good organization. Taking turns regularly gives the opportunity to use the whole range of our front sails. We do rotations of two to three hours depending on the need then we'll sleep two or three hours. Frankly, our rhythm is good. I just woke up and I slept well !  »

Sébastien Picault (IDEC SPORT) : « We're trying to make the boat move as much possible. There is not a lot of wind at the moment... but we do our best to pass the transitions. We're trying to keep Sodebo behind. We'll soon go towards the South of the ice zone where we will find a little more wind. We should accelerate. We're trying to create a small gap with Macif, because if we stay in its axis behind, it will be very hard. It's not too cold. We have a boat that is less protected than the others, but it's still very good. It would have been more comfortable with a Southern road. The temperature is probably more chilly than on the Queen Mary 2, but with our polar and our caps it is alright. It's still summer!  »