The leaders of the Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe, the Ultim giants of the ocean, were making the best of the fast conditions as they sprint westwards on the second day of racing since leaving Saint-Malo in beautiful sunshine and modest breezes Sunday lunchtime.
After a gybe in the small hours of the morning Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) has been working hard to maintain his margin of 20 miles ahead of Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) as they head towards a frontal transition zone
Laperche, racing his first Route du Rhum at 27 enthused, “It's great to be able to race like this in these Ultims, with speed differences of around half a knot. It's super close, so you really have to be on top of it all the time. We should get to a transition zone at the end of the day. The emotions at the start are mostly left on land. But it's always a special moment to find yourself alone, but you quickly have something to do, so you don't have much time to think. Eeven so there are still small moments when we say to ourselves that it's great to start this Route du Rhum, to be well placed, with a great well prepared boat.”
The top trio remain close – Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3) is only 16 miles further back behind Armel. But, after a modest start yesterday, skipper Charles Caudrelier seeming to be struggling to get speed from the brand new, relatively untested Gitana 18 in the light breeze, the winner of the last, 2022 ocean sprint to Gaudeloupe, had clearly unlocked some of the huge potential of the newest Ultim. He is quickest this Monday afternoon, clawing back small miles on the two leading skipper at some four knots quicker than Laperche.
Early stages This 3524 nautical miles race to Gaudeloupe comes very early in the development of the revolutionary new Gitana 18 and in the transitions after the start yesterday it looked unwieldy in the marginal conditions but Caudrelier seems to be going better and better in the straight line conditions. The Ultim on which he won the race last time as Gitana 17, was struggling this afternoon. Anthony Marchand and the tech team of Actual Ultim 4 were desperately trying to find a solution to problem with the main, central rudder. Actual 4 was pointing NE making eight or nine knots.
Italy on top 1.0 Beccaria v Goodchild And just as the widely anticipated, high octane duel between SVR Lazartigue and Banque Populaire XI is simmering on the boil, so too the IMOCA head to head clash between Franco Brit Sam Goodchild (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) and the slightly more flamboyant Italian Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei) has been alight since Beccaria took the lead last night slightly closer to the shore. Goodchild was faster through the middle of the day, but the Italian is back in front. “It’s been a lot more sporty than it was yesterday, we had a gybe in the south of Ireland and now it is fast. It is going well. I slept well. I’m happy. I’m happy it is good conditions, it is not easy but it is fast. Ambrogio is fast and the only way to stay ahead is foot to the floor.” The British born skipper reported this morning.
Dorange on the ropes but will fight on A collision between young Violette Dorange (Initiatives Coeur) and Romain Pilliard’s 75 foot trimaran Use it Again saw both head for Roscoff. But the damage to a foil on Dorange’s IMOCA means she is heading to her home port of Lorient to make a repair. Dorange reported from Roscoff, It's a racing incident, like sometimes happens. Shortly after the start, after passing the Fréhel mark, the wind picked up. Romain had to make a maneuver which put Use It Again ahead of Initiatives-Cœur's course. I didn't have enough time to adjust my settings and avoid the collision The impact was violent. In this state, it was impossible to cross the Atlantic. It's a huge disappointment, for me as for the whole team. I'm also thinking of Romain and his team My goal remains to reach Guadeloupe: as soon as the repairs are finished, I will set off again to complete my first Route du Rhum. The whole point is to repair as quickly as possible, because I have to cross the finish line before it closes on December 3rd. ”
New boats in the mix The two newest, most recently launched IMOCAs – Seb Simon’s new Verdier designed Groupe Dubreuil-Air Caraibes and Germany’s Boris Herrmann’s Koch Malizia 3 were sixth and seventh at about 60 miles behind the duelling Beccaria and Goodchild. Immediately behind was Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing). She reported this morning, “In the night I struggled a little bit to find the pace compared to the first group, but now after the gybe, I felt I could finally find a bit more pace and more rhythm. Hopefully, it will be a really nice run here for a day or so. I was pretty much straight line downwind. I got a little bit of rest, and I think it will be important to get a bit of rest also on this long port, because then as we approach the front, it will be pretty complicated.”
“It is maybe around 500 miles to the front something like that. I just put in waypoints where I think it could be, and then I think it's about having the updates on the weather and adjusting a little bit these points. I think it will be around 24 hours or less to get ther. In the end, all the boats in the front are new boats but I'm really pushing, trying to do my best to keep up with the fleet.”
Italy on top 2.0 Rosetti pushing hard And it is an Italian skipper who leads the biggest fleet in the race, the 49 strong Class 40. Luca Rosetti (Macaferri Futura). He was just less than one mile ahead of 2012 470 Olympian Pierre Leboucher (Insititute Imagine) whilst the early leader, pre-race favourite Guillaume Priouelle (Sogestran Seafrigo) had made a strategic gybe to the north, diverging away from the leaders and was in third.Rosetti reported, “ It’s been a pretty intense first night, quite rock and roll, mainly because of the sea state. There’s a sea running. We had a minor issue: with the waves coming from different directions, we broached a few times. Nothing serious, but two sheets got tangled up. We lost a bit of time this morning untangling them once I noticed what had happened. It was quite a mess! But overall, we’re moving well. We’re up with the leading group, in a good position. There’s still a very long way to go in this race. We’re keeping an eye on a low-pressure system that I’ll encounter around the Azores. For now, all we can do is keep pushing hard, Anyway, we’re doing 20 knots, 23–24, dead downwind.
”Guerra in the wars, Le Nabour dismasts Rosetti’s compatriot Marco Guerra (Imagin’Act-Socomec) was experiencing issues with his keel, water ingress, and problems with his electronics. In consultation with his team, he has decided to make a technical stopover at Port-La-Forêt, partly to investigate some unusual movement in the keel. He is expected to arrive around 2200hrs this evening. He aims to continue but the race is surely over for Quentin Le Nabour (Bleu Blanc Planète Location) who dismasted while he was in the top five.
Bourgnon leads Ocean Fifty, as expected, Cigar Rouge is smoking The outstanding favourite in the Ocean Fifty class, Basile Bourgnon (EdenRed) has built a five miles lead and was polling nearly two knots faster than Thibault Vauchel Camus (Solidaires en Peloton) by Delanchy in second. The vastly experience Sidney Gavignet has eased the famous Le Cigar Rouge into the lead in the Vintage Mono class whilst the battle at the front of Vintage Multi class is a three cornered battle between the ORMAs of leader Francis Joyon (Oceans), Damien Seguin (Arkea Handicap International) and Eric Péron (French Touch-Oceania Hotels)