Category: Courses 2016-2017

The sailing world is at full tilt this weekend. Not only is the 8^th edition of the Vendée Globe starting while Francis Joyon with his Idec Sport crew wait to begin their Jules Verne Trophy attempt, Thomas Coville is also ready to set off at the helm of his multihull Sodebo. The sailor from Brittany is hoping to leave on Sunday for his attempt to beat the solo round-the-world record.

 

In Code Amber since Thursday, the Sodebo Ultim’ crew went into Code Green, on Saturday, for its attempt to beat the solo round-the-world record. This means a potential departure in the next 24 hours, in other words, on Sunday 6 November. Thomas plans to leave the Château de Brest port tomorrow morning at around 8 a.m.

As far as weather and routing go for the first part of the course until the Equator, a very fine departure is expected, with a practically straight-line route that will allow reaching the Equator in a little over 5 days. The next stage in the South Atlantic also offers the possibility of passing the Cape of Good Hope in good time.

Let’s remember that the solo round-the-world sailing record has been held, since 2008, by Francis Joyon (57 days, 13 hours and 34 minutes).

 

Source : www.sodebo.com

Despite his hopes of launching, on Sunday, his second attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy, Francis Joyon was forced to modify his plans on Saturday. Unfavorable weather conditions in the South Atlantic didn’t look like they’d let him beat the standing record. On the starting blocks in Brest since Friday, Joyon and his crew nonetheless remain hopeful of an improvement at the start of next week.

 

“The North Atlantic conditions are practically ideal, but our routing says that we’d arrive at Good Hope one and a half or even two days behind the record,” explains Francis Joyon, slightly disappointed at not being able to take advantage of the current strong northerly and northwesterly winds, capable of shooting the boat to 0° latitude in the space of 5 days. “The St Helena High is very far south at the moment, which would force us to go a long way south to sail downwind. This strategy would be costly because of the extra distance covered, and above all, very risky because of the presence of ice in those latitudes.”

IDEC SPORT, in top form as demonstrated by its fine trial run yesterday, has thus gone back to Code Red, and will not be taking advantage of tomorrow’s good conditions for sliding downwind, set to push Vendée Globe competitors towards Cape Finisterre and the Portuguese trade winds. “We’re going to watch our friends go off, and we hope that things will evolve favorably in the South Atlantic and possibly bring interesting conditions from Wednesday evening onwards. What I fear is seeing west south westerly winds settling in off the coast because we know that these can last a long time and prolong our stand-by state indefinitely…”

 

Source : www.idecsport-sailing.com

Arriving in Brest on Friday afternoon, Francis Joyon and his crew on the maxi trimaran Idec Sport are hoping that conditions will be favorable for them launching, this Sunday, their attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy. Before setting off on this second try at beating the record for sailing around the world, non-stop and without outside assistance, the navigator from France’s Eure-et-Loir department will be taking a close look, this Saturday, at weather conditions. The coming hours will be decisive.

 

“Regarding our departure date, I’d say that we’re 40 % likely to leave on Sunday,” declared Francis Joyon on Friday to the newspaper Ouest France. “We’re in no way certain about being able to leave quickly, but the boat is in position. We took four hours to come from La Trinité. The boat went really fast. We got up to 37 knots, so that’s really satisfying.”

Because speed will definitely be necessary if the maxi trimaran Idec Sport is to beat the record set in 2011 by Loïck Peyron at the helm of Banque Populaire (45 days, 13 hours and 42 minutes).

A good dose of confidence

Bear in mind that in 2015, Francis Joyon already made a first attempt at the Jules Verne Trophy, but missed out on beating the record when he crossed the finish line at Ushant in 47 days, 14 hours and 47 minutes. This time, Joyon and his crew show boundless determination and are dead set on having their names go down as winners of the competition.

“We know that it’ll be a difficult challenge,” Francis Joyon confided 24 hours ago to Ouest France. “The time that was achieved is quite remarkable, but we also know that we have a chance at succeeding because we’re trained up, we have a good boat, we’re a good team.”

All that the Idec Sport crew needs to do now is to pray that there will be wind on Sunday.

 

Isabelle Trancoen (article translated from French)