Transat Café l’Or: Imoca 60s in the Canary chess match

We have reached the fourth day of racing for the Transat Café l’Or, and in the last 24 hours since the last update a few pieces have moved in the Atlantic chessboard.

Let’s start with the first news, the Class 40s are in port in La Coruna (HERE we told you about the ranking). Luca Rosetti and Matteo Sericano on Maccaferri Futura also finished these difficult 500 miles, with the 12-hour Cherbourg pit stop inevitably affecting their ranking.

They are more than 24 behind Corentin Douguet, the provisional leader, which they will try to make up at least in part during the final leg to Martinique that will start in 2 to 3 days. In fact, they have the makings of a great second leg, as they proved in the first hours of the race when they were in the leading group.

The Race Direction wants to let the deep depression that will soon hit the coast of Portugal parade by, and get the Class 40s going again after the front passes.

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ARC Rally, what a victory for Picomole! And there is an air of record…

Imoca 60s at the Canary Island junction.

Very interesting phase for the Imoca 60, as the chess game will take on Thrilling controls in the coming hours. The fleet must leave the Canary Islands to starboard, some 170 miles away, but there is a problem. Usually at this height of the Atlantic there is already a very well formed Trade Wind, but not this time. The big storm that will affect the Class 40 has crushed the Azores anticyclone farther south, which has thus shifted its zone of little wind to the Canaries.

The Trade Wind consequently is far to the south, say at least 400 miles south of the Canaries, and will remain there at the moment. In the next few hours the Imoca 60s in the lead group will execute a series of gybes to leave the Canaries to the right, then the time will come for an important first choice: how far south to look for the Trade Wind and thus lengthening the course to the Martinique finish line?

The direct course over the orthodromic seems capped by the anticyclone, so to find a north option one has to climb above the orthodromic, however, risking encountering a lot of upwind sailing, thus slower, but with less way to go. The feeling is that the Imoca 60s will be pushing south in pursuit of even a light trade wind to be able to sail fast at the leading swells. We have seen that 12 to 14 knots of wind is enough to enable these boats to make even more than 20 knots on the slack, and the choice is unlikely to fall on the difficult North option.

And here we come to our own, Francesca Clapcich and Ambrogio Beccaria. Meanwhile, we report the stroke of the Trieste-born Italian-American sailor, who with 11th Hour Racing has positioned herself further west and sailed better than Beccaria in the last 24 hours, so much so that she has moved up to third and left Ambrose in fourth. The two of them, with Macif and Charal ahead of them by a handful of miles, are about to enter the light wind zone we were talking about.

And here could come the problems: both Allagrande Mapei and 11th Hour Racing are not particularly brilliant boats in light winds compared to Charal and Macif who prefer it instead. So far they have defended themselves very well, but there have been several phases of wind above even 20-25 knots; for the next few days the weather menu may be harder for ours to digest. However, it seems difficult for Clapcich or Beccaria to take different options from the two outriders, the challenge will be to try to limit the damage in these first hours of expected becalmedness, and stay a minimum in contact, and then get back on the attack once the Trade Winds have hooked up.

Will they succeed? More on that tomorrow with the daily update on the Transat Café l’Or.

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ARC Dream, Voices from the Ocean by Picomole, Remax One and GG

Tracking

Mauro Giuffrè