Since the start from Genova yesterday, the wind has rarely exceeded 5 knots. The crews have therefore decided to hug the coastline in an attempt to take advantage of the slightest variation in wind.
The fleet is extremely tightly packed, with less than 10 miles separating all the boats, and a very slight advantage for the current leader, Paprec Arkéa. Patience will be required: the road ahead still looks very long before heading south.
Since leaving Genova yesterday, the skippers have become almost philosophical. Every maneuver and every small strategic move is tied to two nagging questions: ‘Can you have a sailing race without wind?’ Or more to the point, ‘Can you race without going fast?’
Before the start, Yoann Richomme, skipper of Paprec Arkéa, warned:
“It looks like it’s going to be slow and very light—we could take 48 hours to cover the first 200 miles.”
That was borne out in the very first miles, with less than 5 knots of wind and boat speeds not exceeding 4 knots.
It’s very beautiful but very technical
“We’ve had very little wind and not much more since the start,” explains Paul Meilhat, the skipper of Biotherm. He described a tricky first few miles:
“It was tense, everyone wanted to turn right, but we decided not to take any risks.”
On the other hand, the Biotherm skipper noted that, “The sea is the flattest we’ve had since the start.”
“We’ve had flat seas since we left—it’s really enjoyable,” agrees Yoann Richomme.
As Paul Meilhat explained, two options were on the table in the first 24 hours: head towards Corsica, or “play with the thermal breeze by sailing along the coast.”
The whole fleet chose the second option.
“It’s very beautiful because it forces us to stay close to the land, but it’s also very technical,” he said.
“The challenge is to pick up some breeze off the coast and then hope to catch a bit of thermal wind,” added Yoann Richomme.
The race is in full swing
“We’re all very close,” emphasises Paul Meilhat.
Allagrande Mapei Racing had taken the lead right from the start, much to the delight of the local fans as well as sailor Thomas Ruyant: “We got off to a good start by managing to catch the little bit of thermal breeze that was near the coast. It was erratic, but it helped us move forward well.”
But then Biotherm overtook them, followed by Paprec Arkéa.
“We tried to break away at the front, and it’s really cool to have managed it,” smiled Yoann Richomme. The blue-and-red boat held onto the lead this morning, but the gaps are tiny: less than 10 miles across the seven IMOCAs, and only 5 miles between the top three with Holcim-PRB second and Biotherm third.
During the night, Allagrande Mapei Racing had a small speed challenge to overcome.
“We definitely had a speed problem, but it was hard to understand why,” explains Thomas Ruyant. When they put a light on the keel, they discovered that “lots of branches had accumulated at the top of the keel fin.”
Ambrogio Beccaria dived in to clear them before the boat resumed racing. “Of course, it was a bit frustrating, but we got going again and are trying to hang on to the pack.”
For the fleet as a whole, the battle will continue all day in light airs.
“We don’t really know yet when we’ll get more wind, so it’ll give us plenty to think about in terms of strategy,” said Richomme. “It’s always the wind that decides where you can go!”
“It’s going to be fun but it’s going to be very long,” agrees Paul Meilhat. “We’re nowhere near arriving at the first waypoint (off Sardinia). It’s going to take us two days to get there!”
