Francesca Clapcich: Route du Rhum, Day 9
After several days of very fast sailing in strong winds, the Route du Rhum fleet encountered a complete change of pace overnight. Yesterday’s tropical low pressure system has moved away, leaving the sailors to contend with a total absence of the usual north-easterly trade winds.
“There is literally no wind here,” Francesca confirmed in a voice note to her team early this morning. “I think the best that I can try to do is to move towards Guadeloupe, and I would love to slide a little bit more southeast, if possible, but it's a bit of an impossible mission.”
Francesca and 11th Hour Racing are now 454 nautical miles [522 miles | 840km] from the finish line, but at 0700 UTC this morning she was moving at only 1.8 knots [2mph | 3.3kmh] of boat speed. No appreciable change is expected for at least 24 hours, although a very light breeze might fill in this evening.
She is still in fifth place and at 0700 UTC this morning, continued to hold a slender advantage on Sébastian Simon (Groupe Dubreuil - Air Caraïbes). Leader of the IMOCA fleet Corentin Horeau (MACSF) is 65 nautical miles [75 miles | 120km] ahead of second placed Boris Herrmann (Malizia 4) and less than 140 nautical miles [161 miles | 260km] from the finish.
On the other hand, for the moment the boats behind Francesca are still in better wind and are closing the gap. When the trade winds start to return they will fill in from the south, but it may further advantage the boats to the east, benefitting Maxime Sorel (Vaincre la Mucoviscidose) and Davy Beaudart (Bureau Vallée) who are respectively 51 and 97 nautical miles [59 miles | 95km and 112 miles | 180km] behind at the moment.
In the meantime she has been catching up on sleep and is sailing under mainsail and J2 jib. Is 11th Hour Racing’s broken bowsprit impacting performance at the moment? “To be honest, not having any big front sails doesn't make a difference,” she says. “Even with the jib, you try to use it as a bit of a windseeker, maybe even half furled, with the clew pretty high up.
“So, having a big sail would not be an advantage at this point. But if the wind picks up and you start to have five knots of breeze, then definitely it's a big advantage to have a bigger sail.”
She has a system ready to implement that will enable the FR0 (fractional code zero) to be tacked down on the bow, rather than at the end of the bowsprit, giving a larger sail to use when there’s a little more wind. Otherwise, right now she says “it's a bit of a patience game.”
When will the wind start to return? “Maybe this evening, I think around 1800 UTC, we might start feeling some flow. It’s hard to know, but you can tell already in the south there is some easterly / northeasterly building. So the trade winds are there, starting to form.”