Speed Kings!

It’s an electric pace set by the top peloton which still has just on 2000 nautical miles to pass to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) continues to hold a small lead, about 49 miles ahead of Ruyant and Richomme who are only five or six miles apart on the Finot Conq-Koch IMOCAs. 

Briton Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) is seventh on the older generation boat which Ruyant sailed to sixth on the last race has, not unexpectedly, having lost a few miles to the latest boats as he carefully manages his race pace and risk. 

In the zone 

The leaders are directly north of the low pressure, closer to its centre and therefore have a little more wind and flatter seas than the boats which are a little further back like Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) in tenth and Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-Team Snef) – between about 250 and 300 miles behind Dalin who is in a NNW’ly wind of about 17kts, once again highlighting how the efficient modern IMOCAs foil fast in relatively modest winds, the sea state being the main determinant of consistent high speeds. 

Shaken

Thomas Ruyant reported this morning, “It's okay, we're getting a bit shaken up, it's going fast, but at the same time we're getting used to everything, I'm getting into the swing of things and the rhythm of the current conditions, which are still nice!” 

He added, “Mentally I'm fine, despite the conditions physically I'm managing to sleep well so I'm happy, that wasn't necessarily the case at the start of this leg but we're getting used to it and I'm managing to be pretty good! So after two weeks of racing, I'm doing well, I'm finding my bearings on board, the boat is good, at 100% so that's the main thing, and we'll soon be at the Cape of Good Hope so we're making up for the delay we had at the start of the race so that's great!”

When he spoke, in the early hours of the morning, he did not know the latest numbers, “It's flying along, we have the right boats for this. The record has been broken, Yoann at 574, I'm 3 miles behind! We're not going fast just to break the record but especially to try to keep the best position with this depression, we don't know what the rest will bring but in any case if we can keep it as long as possible, it's good. On a downwind course, I think I have a good machine, I'm getting used to it well, after Charlie and Yoann continue to go very fast, the rest of the fleet too, in the end there are still a bunch of boats quite close.”

And the race remains close at the front, “ We're all here within a hundred miles, so in IMOCA it's nothing! So the match is super tight, everyone is going fast, the fleet is really so impressive! 

I just had a spell at 32 knots there. But we live a life a little crouched, holding on, sitting, lying down, being extremely careful because the boat sometimes has movements and reactions that are a little bit unexpected because of the sea state, I feel like a small animal surviving in this hull that goes at Mach 12!”

“But surviving is going well, these are conditions that we will have for a while, this gybe is a long one  so we still have a while like that, and after that it drops off in the South and in the end this bit is all good.” 

“The next few days we are just out to stay on this this depression, to reach the Cape of Good Hope, which we are not going to pass very close, we will stay quite South or even close to the ice zone, but it is still far ahead, so for the moment we are moving towards the objective!”

“Am I eager to get into "the hard stuff"? The conditions we have are already good, but we will have to get harder, we will have to reduce sail. Here I still have a downwind configuration, I expect to sail with smaller sails and a few reefs in the mainsail! Sol really, no I am not keen to get into the hard stuff, but I accept that, but I know that we will also have magical conditions in the coming weeks in the South and I want to experience it!” 

Gap will grow 

All the way back to Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil) in 17th the skippers are in the NW’ly wind generated by this system – including Pip Hare in 15th on Medallia. She is wisely positioning herself a little more to the south to find stronger wind but they are the pack that are going to have to really work hard, in less favourable conditions – bigger waves more unsettled breeze – to try and stay with the tail of the depression. 

Otherwise the gap is growing back to the daggerboard boats where Violette Dorance (Devenir) still continues to impress, right up with Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère-Armor lux) and Eric Bellion (Stand as one-Altavia) on her older Farr boat against the brand new David Raison designs.