Passing some 195 to 200 miles west of the Canary Islands this Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of the ARKEA ULTIM CHALLENGE-Brest are setting up for the first big low pressure system of the race so far, one which holds winds to 40kts and a front which they will cross tonight.
After making the best passage out of a bubble of high pressure and some very light winds – as gentle as five or six knots at times – Tom Laperche (SVR Lazartigue) has held the lead since early this morning, but the main focus is getting safely through the front and into the NW'ly winds on the other side first.
Laperche, at 26 the youngest skipper on the race, has a margin of about 14 miles over Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) who has remained in close company with Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3) since early in the day.
"The low is quite deep and the further north you are right now, the windier it will be. And the wind is already picking up. So the aim it to get across the front in the best shape possible and then tack in the new breeze. From then it will be about finding the best TWS (true wind speed) and looking after the boat and the skipper." Summarises Pep Costa who works in the SVR Lazartigue routing cell.
Near its centre the depression shows mean windspeeds of 37 knots with gusts close to 45 or 50 at times so this will be the first big test for the six skippers since they left Brest on Sunday
"It will be stormy ," reports Tom Laperche (SVR-Lazartigue) this afternoon during the weekly live show. "We should be able to set up well though and find the right route between low risk and losing distance. We will do things carefully and be prudent all the same. The further south you go, the weaker the wind will be. These are always complex choices "
Still somewhat amazed at how close and intense the race has been so far – even tonight there are less than 50 miles between the top four – Thomas Coville on Sodebo Ultim3 reported on the Live show tonight: "We are waging an incredible close battle. I don't think it will last forever, but before the start I didn't think we would stay in contact this long. It's exciting to be here in the middle of it, experiencing it from the inside, we are incredibly lucky. I don't know how long we'll last at this pace, so close together, but it creates a level of competition between the boats that I never thought we would see Once again we discover another world."
On Actual – the current round the world record holding ULTIM which was previously MACIF - Anthony Marchand had been keeping up well with the faster, newer generation boats in front. That was until today when he shed more than 20 miles on the leaders.
He explained, "This morning I was not very happy with the speed of the boat at the end of the night and this morning. The polar percentages (the predicted boat speed) were not good, I had difficulty accelerating. After analyzing all the data, I checked everything and finally saw that there was a white plastic sheet on the centerboard which was difficult to see, but it really was quite large. In the end I had to back up to get it off but as soon as I did I was 10 knots quicker than before."
Meantime the early leader Charles Caudrelier admitted, "I am a little disappointed with last night (Tuesday). I was in contact with Sodebo and we had a wind hole we were stuck in for several hours. I was truly stuck in the anticyclone. We'll take stock of things again tomorrow, it's going to be a rough night!"
By late on Thursday the leading skippers should break into a weak trade wind which they are going to have to get quite far to the west to find. They should cross the Equator Saturday night around 2200hrs UTC.