The top five boats rounded the Italian island of Ustica overnight in the midst of a powerful thunderstorm that delivered brilliant flashes of sheet lightning and heavy rain, but little in the way of breeze.
However, the threat of a sudden squall was ever present, making for nervous times on board the boats, with the sailors on high alert as they ghosted downwind along the island’s shoreline.
Just 11 nautical miles separated the top four teams with Yoann Richomme’s Paprec Arkéa (FRA) continuing to hold the lead by around three miles over Paul Meilhat’s Biotherm (FRA) in second. Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia (GER), rounded in third with Ambrogio Beccaria’s Italian entry Allagrande Mapei close behind in fourth.
“There were two waypoints – one north and one south – on the northern side of the island of Ustica,” explained Team Malizia’s Italian sailor Francesca Clapcich. “We are in fourth position and we are still in the fight. It was definitely extremely tricky: we had thunderstorms and lightning, a lot of windshifts. Most of the time we were on the wrong side of the shift [which was] quite frustrating but it’s part of the game.
“Now we are making our way south and going around Sicily. We are making our way slowly but surely. There is still some lightning outside, lots of clouds, there are so many squalls. The Med is not a joke – especially this time of year. I’m looking forward to getting a bit further south and into the Adriatic where hopefully it will be a little bit more stable. We will see.”
After rounding Ustica the leading group faced upwind conditions in around 10 knots of westerly breeze, but this soon transitioned into faster downwind sailing as the breeze turned northerly, sending the leading group tearing past the small island of Favignana off the western side of Sicily at foiling speeds over 20 knots.
The top four has now split into two pairs, with overall race leader Biotherm trying to chase down Paprec Arkéa for the leg lead, and Allagrande Mapei similarly locked in a match race with Team Malizia.
With both pairs within clear sight of each other, the pressure is high aboard all four yachts as the sleep-deprived crews try to pick their way through the many potential pitfalls presented by the predominantly cloudy and unstable conditions. There is little time for sleep as the sailors split their attention between optimising their own boats for speed in the changing conditions and monitoring their rivals’ sail set up and performance.
“At the moment we are averaging 12.9 [knots] and Mapei they average about eight – so [we are] a couple of knots quicker,” commented Team Malizia skipper Boris Herrmann, glued to the yacht’s navigation screen. “We can see them. It depends on how you are under the clouds and whether you are lucky or not. We have the spinnaker up and they have the J0.”
Meanwhile Rosalin Kuiper’s fifth-placed Team Holcim – PRB has been working hard and using the uncertain weather conditions to chip away at the gap to the leading four after being caught on the wrong side of a line of low pressure yesterday.
While British sailor Alan Roberts says he can see “no silver linings right now” in the heavy cloud cover, he said the team was remaining positive with more than 700 nm still to go on the fifth leg and plenty of potential opportunity before the finish.
“Whatever the clouds bring we will try to use it to our advantage. At the moment it’s bringing us wind – so not too bad,” he said.
Likewise, on sixth-placed Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive the mood is also positive, with French sailor Sébastien Marsset saying he was having fun sailing in a solid breeze and flat water.
“We haven’t had so much of these conditions since we started so it’s good to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s good to see that we are doing a better job [of helming] than the pilot. The sea state is not so good and I think the pilot struggles to get us in between those small sideways waves. So I think we are doing better while we can see. Night time will be different, that will be difficult.”
At 1200 today the frontrunners were starting to compress on the approach to another wind transition zone to the south of Sicily. Paprec Arkéa still led the fleet by two nautical miles from Biotherm, with Allagrande Mapei three miles back in third, and Team Malizia a further five miles behind – but still in good breeze and closing up fast.
