Fuente info Transat650
October 05. 2009
Rendez-vous in the archipelago!
The first reef of the second stage of The Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50 is the Canary Islands. And if we only have look at the fleet and how it spreads in the north of the archipelago, we can understand the importance of choices made just after the buoy Funchal Naval Club buoy on Saturday afternoon!
A very spread fleet with at the extreme positions Charlie Dalin (Cherche Sponsor-Charliedalin.com) lonely in the West and four East fans with Andrea Caracci (Speedy Maltese), Gerard Marin (Gaes 727), Toni Weijl (Gaes 684) for prototypes and Joel Miro (Gaes 677) for series. If Charlie wants to slide overnight in the west of the Spanish archipelago, the group of four will try to slip between the islands of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. And what about the rest of the fleet? The majority of the fleet is a clearly opting for a passage between the islands of La Palma and Tenerife. Fabien Després (Soitec) leads the fleet with Nicolas Boidevezi (Groupe GDE) for protos, HP Schipman (Maison de l’avenir-Urbatys), Matt Trautman (Mini Mac), Pierre Brasseur (Nord Pas de Calais-Ripolin), Stéphane Le Diraison (Cultisol Marins sans frontières), Bertrand Delesne (Entreprendre Durablement) Franck Colin (Loukkoummama) and Oliver Avram (Cap Monde 2)... This group of nine - including many favourites - all sailed in contact and will slip into the night in a wind that could be disordered, so disturbing, between the islands. The 10th proto is the brave Thomas Ruyant (Faber France), which has continued his way in the West yesterday, a reverse at 3.00pm to avoid entering the archipelago.
The night will decide...
On the side of Series, the fleet is more spread out and if Francisco Lobato (ROFF TMN) is once again in pole position, he must observe Charlie Dalin’s West option, Xavier Macaire (Masoco Bay) path that is still taking advantage of La Palma’s wind and Henry Meyniel’s (Beveac Consulting) sailing edge to edge with the Portuguese who, sails the at the incredible speed of 7.1 knots (Ed, the highest speed of the entire fleet!). Nice race’s start for a group led by the Portuguese. Behind him, there are Brice Aqué (CNTL-Scube Sails), Mathis Prochasson (Manupoki-Avico), Pierre Rolland (D2 Marée Haute), Antoine Debled (Régionsjob.com)… For sure the night will be interesting: Will the wind weaken? Does the wind as will take even more West? Will the islands hide some traps? Anyway, that night will be the result of choices made from the start because if some boats will have to increase transfers to slip in between the islands and irreversibly lose valuable miles on the road, others will slip into the South and have the archipelago in the mirror in the morning.
What about East then?
The four fans of the East option continue to sail upwind while approaching the island of Fuerteventura. There is front wind at the moment and they will have to tack and tack to slide between the islands. A complex situation in an area without much wind...
Ranking at 3 pm, Monday the 5th of October 2009:
Prototypes:
1. Fabien Després (Soitec): 2810 miles from the finish
2. Nicolas Boidevezi (Groupe GDE): 2,78 miles from the leader
3. HP Schipman (Maisons de l’avenir Urbatys): 3,56 miles from the leader 4. Matt Trautman (Mini Mac): 4,85 miles from the leader
5. Pierre Brasseur (Région Nord Pas de Calais-Ripolin): 5,13 miles from the leader
Series:
1. Francisco Lobato (ROFF TMN): 2824,6 miles from the finish
2. Henri Meyniel (Beveac Consulting): 5,17 miles from the leader
3. Charlie Dalin (Cherche Sponsor-charliedalin.com): 10,05 miles from the leader
4. Xavier Macaire (Masoco Bay): 10,79 miles from the leader
5. Fabien Sellier (Surfrider Foundation): 13,21 miles from the leader
