Transat Jacques Vabre 2013, MOD70 & Multi50

News from Maitre Jacques they are preparing to fit a false bow so they can transport the boat back to France and aim to have the boat ready for the first event in April of the 2014 season.

Here is the "interesting" bing translate I think I like the bow of fortune the best .

Maître Jacques soon back in Brittany

Ten days after their damage (front of the starboard float ripped) forcing the master Jacques duo to the abandonment of the Transat Jacques Vabre, while he had just taken the head of the fleet of the Multi 50 Loïc Féquet prepares to leave in Spain, find his wounded trimaran. Next step: the return and repair of Maître Jacques for the 2014 season.

Waiting for a weather window that is conducive to the repatriation of the Multi 50 master Jacques, by the sea, in Brittany, Loïc Féquet will start tomorrow from Corunna to organize the construction of a bow of fortune on the float broke his trimaran. This "prosthesis" will facilitate the return of the Bay of Biscay crossing.

Weather windows are rare in winter and as soon as this false bow is in place, the two Loïc Féquet stand ready to go at any time to return the boat to the more quickly in France, because the countdown of the 2014 season is already launched...

The master Jacques skipper has not lost a second last week. Barely back in Ille-et-Vilaine and after having made the point with the leaders of the company master Jacques, he consulted the architects of the boat.

After analysis and discussion, General wear of the float may seems to be the main cause of this damage. If we do would be that all of the transatlantic races that this boat has travelled * this represents two circumnavigations of the globe and a half! What user a structure...


Then it took organise the return of the boat, find the site to host it and provide materials to build the false bow...

Then, to be operational for the 2014 season and its grand Rendez-vous Maeda, the Route du Rhum, the team must quickly consider the implementation of the Multi 50 red and white, so what he finds its full potential to the most quickly.
The boat must be returned to the water beginning of April to the first event of the season, scheduled late April 2014.


* In 9 seasons, this trimaran has hung on his record no less than 3 Transat Jacques Vabre, 2 Route du Rhum, 1 Québec Saint-Malo, Vendée-St Petersboug 1, dozens of Grand Prix and escorts... or whatever 65 000 nautical miles (more than 118 000 km). Besides escorts, Grand Prix and the coastal races.

 

^^^

And Lalou is said to be looking for a Rig of Fortune to get his boat home from Madeira.

When they right the boat, maybe they'll find they need a Wheel of Fortune?

 

Latest update:

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/long-lining

video link showing the Edmond de Rothschild finish and video from onboard the Multi50 Actual.

http://dai.ly/x17ds3m

 

Arkema is back in Madeira after a long and slow tow. Now righted and reported as being structurally sound they are debating the best way to repatriate the boat.

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/arkema-region-aquitaine-upright-madeira

 

The Multi50's Actual and FenetreA Cardinal are having a close battle at the front of the division with only about 15nm separation from FenetreA Cardinal leading to Actual in second place with a little under 300nm to go.

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/out-blue

 

Its amazing how fast these things are. They left from Brittany 5 days ahead of the Mini Fleet leaving Sada in Spain, and the mini fleet is about 1/3 of the way across and these guys are inside of 1 day to the finish!!!

 

FenetreA Cardinal have slipped away from Actual in the softening conditions near the coast extending the lead to 22nm.

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/brave-face

Multi Match
Meantime the match race in the Multi 50 class looks set to carry on right to the finish line. FenetreA-Cardinal were resolutely holding Actual in check this afternoon 13 miles ahead with 220 miles to the finish. Actual (Le Blévec and de Pavant) were 48 miles to the north of the leaders FenetreA-Cardinal and both sailing at very similar speeds. The first boat is expected between 0200hrs and 0400hrs UTC Friday morning.

 

Think I read this morning that Actual was having trouble with their gennaker.

Yup, here it is. You have to give credit to the organizers that they have a good english language version on the website!

Other news this morning was of course that Macif (Gabart, Desjoyeaux) had to abandon late last night when they were leading the Imoca 60's and their mast decided to take a bath. Quelle bordelle.

 

FenetreA Cardinal has arrived and won the Transat Jacques Vabre Multi50 division.

TJV latest tweet:

TOP CHRONO! FenetreA-Cardinal wins the Transat Jacques Vabre in Multi 50 after 14 days 17 hours 40 minutes and 15 seconds of racing! Kudos to Erwan Roux and Yann Eliès for this beautiful victory!

 

two week crossing is pretty amazing

 

Yves le Blevec and Kito de Pavant have arrived on the Multi50 Actual. Interesting to read their thoughts on the different designs and their performance. FenetreA Cardinal is a VPLP design and Actual Guillame-Verdier like Arkema.

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/actually-speaking-first-words-le-blevec-and-de-pavant

 

Agreed it's a fantastic achievement and also testament to how hard they pushed each other. I'm a bit surprised that Giles Lamire on Rennes Metropole/St Malo is so far off the Multi50 pace in the ex Prince de Bretagne. I understand that they may still be coming to grips with the boat but it should be more competitive than it is now. At this rate FenetreA Cardinal will once again easily defeat them in the next Quebec - St Malo race.

 

They set a pretty tough pace, those two leading Multi50's. From the different results this season, the ex PdB is not being sailed nearly as hard. I don't know if Andrea Mura, Lamire's co-skipper, has sailed multis before. Mura sailed an Open 50 last Route du Rhum, was first in the 'below 60' Rhum mixed class, but seven of the Class 40's were ahead of him.

...

A rousing finish going on with the Imoca60's!

Lots of wind and Vincent Riou/Jean Le Cam are averaging 17 knots, they should finish early morning, while the next two boats Safran and Maitre Coq have to duke it out for 2nd and 3rd.

 

...

Riou and Le Cam have finished. It is a happy day in Port la Foret!

The tracker has obvious inaccuracies, still showing them 46 NM from the finish, and the count-up race clock running well behind the reported finishing time of PRB which was:

 

The IMOCA podium is complete PRB 1st Vincent Riou and Jean le Cam, Safran 2nd Marc Guillemot and Pascal Bidegorry, Maitre Coq 3rd Jeremie Beyou and Christopher Pratt.

I'm wondering if Erik Nigon on the much older Multi50 Vers un Monde sans Sida is going to overhaul the Multi50 Rennes Metropole of Giles Lamire he is certainly setting a better pace at the moment .