Transat Jacques Vabre 2013, MOD70 & Multi50

On the tracker, if you scroll it back to 9/11/2013 03.52 TU (last night), then it shows Maitre Jacques making a couple of odd moves, followed quickly by Lalou's Arkema and Yves' Actual changing their course and heading for Maitre Jacques. I wonder if MJ sent out a mayday call and the other boat were responding.

Anyway... as I mentioned a while ago, if Maitre Jacques is still the same boat I saw 3 years ago being repaired for extensive delamination, then I'm glad the hulls failed at this stage and not in the middle of the ocean.

 

Maitre Jacques had new bows grafted on prior to this season it makes you wonder if there was a failure somewhere in the new laminate or where it joined the old.

 

Where it joined the old would be my bet. It was something resembling Frankenstein's monster, those repairs I mentioned.

 

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/meteo-sunday

Generally moderating conditions are being experienced by the fleet as they head South.

 

I can't find it now, but this morning Loic Fecquet, skipper of Maitre Jacques, described how the starboard float bow broke off with a couple of loud bangs (while sailing over 20 knots in 30 knots wind), and that his best guess as to why it happened was that the boat was from 2005, and it may have been 'one wave too many'.

 

oops, Lalou and Mayeul on the Multi50 Arkema have capsized. Both sailors are safe onboard and organizing rescue and recovery of the boat. Looks like Giles Lamire and the Rennes-Metropole/St Malo team might make it to the podium by default

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/news-flash-multi-50-arkema-region-aquitaine-has-capsized

 

A recent update from Team Lalou's FB page

Latest information: Multi50 Arkema - Region Aquitaine, skippered by Lalou Roucayrol and Mayeul Riffet, which capsized Sunday evening around 22:30 (French time) to 200 miles from the coastline of the Portugal, will be joined tomorrow by a Portuguese tug. The boat of 30 meters long and 8 meters high will leave the port of Lisbon on Tuesday, November 12 at 10:00 with 4 members of the crew on board. Is expected on area between midnight and 2 a.m. on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

Fabienne Roucayrol - supported rescue operations:
"We'll finally be able to get the two sailors! It is a huge relief for Lalou and Mayeul, their families and for the whole team. Romaric Neyhousser, the architect of the boat, has established a rollover procedure according to calculations of force on weight to lester, and where the boat should be strapped to the structure at risk. This procedure will be sent to the captain and team present on-site. »

Mayeul Riffet - Arkema co-skipper - Region Aquitaine:
"The trimaran, or any of less platform, is completely secure." We spent the morning and early afternoon in water in order to cut everything that man under the boat. There were a few pieces of the mast and we have all dropped. All last night, the boom and the rest of the mat slap in the central hull and we were afraid that this creates more damage. There are still many sea and we tossed in all directions. We are fortunate to have energy to recharge the satellite phone, to drink and to eat. This night, we will do monitoring outside the trimaran shifts to avoid any collision with other vessels. We are certain very shaken and await with great anticipation that our team and the tug come our way. »

 

Some extracts from recent press releases on the Transat Jacques Vabre website:

MOD70 : Tomorrow Cape Verde !

The leaders of the MOD70 fleet had about 500 miles to race to pass the latitude of the Cape Verde Islands. Sébastien Josse and Charles Caudrelier on Edmond de Rothschild polled another profitable day’s run on 572 miles with a suggestion of an ETA to Itajaí of 20th November. Both duos had alread indicated they expected to take between 12 and 14 days. Although they were 87 miles behind their rivals Oman Air - Musamdam are fighting back:
" We have changed some settings of the boat during the last six hours and now we're a little faster. A few problems added together and made ​​us lose a few more miles but we are doing well and we hope to catch up. There is still a long way to go! " skipper Sidney Gavignet reported this evening.

The leading Multi50 Actual is making a stop at Madeira to fix their wind instruments

Class leaders of the Multi50s, Actual, sailed by Yves Le Blévec and Kito de Pavant have confirmed that they have decided to make a technical stop in Madeira which lies 160 miles away pretty much on their direct course. They plan to re-instal part of their wind instrumenta at the top of the mast. Ronan Deshayes, technician, will be in situ to help. The stop is expected to be a short one. On the 1000hrs ranking this morning Actual were leading by 39 miles ahead of FenêtreA-Cardinal (Erwan Le Roux/Yann Eliès).

 

comprehensive update on the TJV. The tug is on it's way out to recover Arkema they are either going to try and right the boat or tow it based on the sea state:

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=116625&refre=y&ntid=0&rid=1

 

As of now Lalou and Mayeul have spent two days on their capsized boat, the boat with the most cramped interior of any in the race. I rotated the only interior photo we've seen, here above.

I suppose by now they'll have gotten so comfortable that they choose to remain in there during to tow back to Portugal...

lol

NOT!

 

Mike would you be able to give us the URL to the weather site.

Thanks

 

The Multi50 FenetreA Cardinal is about 100 miles ahead of Actual having taken advantage of the opportunity to put some miles on while Actual did their pitstop in Madeira to fix their wind instruments (Actual only stayed one hour at the dock and were on their way). The MOD70's are approaching the half way mark with Edmond de Rothschild maintaining a useful lead over Oman Sail.

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/tons-halfway-down

 

The latest from Lalou on Arkema.

A rough bing translate no warranty implied or otherwise against weird passages of text:

The 'WEST' tug departed at 11 pm (HF) Tuesday evening to the rescue of the Arkema trimaran - France

It is finally at 11 pm Tuesday evening that the 'West' tug has left the pontoons of the port of Lisbon. Setting up a tow is long. Between the administrative procedures of such an operation and the recovery of equipment to ship by Lalou Multi team to perform the manoeuvre of flipping on the open sea. The two sailors, Lalou Roucayrol and Mayeul Riffet, located since now more than 60 h 00 in the overturned trimaran, keep morale and waiting with great impatience his arrival. With the current sea conditions, the ETA of the West is planned for Thursday.

Quentin Vlamynck, Member of the team of Arkema - Region Aquitaine and currently embedded on the West, explains the reasons for the delay: "logistics to implement is heavy, including to collect 4 tons of ballast (4 blocks of scrap sunk in concrete), who arrived by truck around 21:00 Tuesday. '' The driver coming from the Netherlands (Editor's Note: the Sea Safe company being based in the Netherlands) and paperwork have been slow to be resolved. »

Lalou Roucayrol, skipper of the Arkema - Region Aquitaine trimaran: "we are inevitably disappointed about their late arrival, but are aware that this kind of relief operation requires some time to be implemented. Our shore crew also sends us many messages of support and our partners support us very much in this race. This allows us to hold! The State of the sea is deteriorating a little, so we leave less regularly outside. But we let's get philosophical and talk a lot with Mayeul. It makes the time pass and are looking forward to see our team arrive on zone. »

 

Lalou and Mayeul are safely onboard the rescue tug. It seems they are going to attempt to right Arkema onsite:

http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/lalou-roucayrol-and-mayeul-riffet-board-tug-west

 

Righting the boat...

"the technique is to ballast the stern (to sink it into the water) and then attach two straps to the front of the central hull of the trimaran and then pull the boat at low speed. The back sinks slowly, thanks to 4 tonnes of water ballast and the boat is turned slowly end over end 180°." vsail.info

It will interesting to read a detailed overview of the attempt (hopefully, successfully). The vsail article said that it has only been successful once before in 2005.