Route du Rhum Underway

In the very tough and ultra competitive Class 40, 7 boats are already over the finish line today with another 10 within a 35 mile radius of the finish line in Guadeloupe. That sounds every bit like a coastal regatta out of your local yacht club and is phenomenol for a race that strung the boats out across the Atlantic Ocean.

Wow.

Just this afternoon, in the space of 30 minutes, three boats that finished in 12th, Marc Lepesqueux on Marie Toit - Caen La Mer, 13th, Axel Strauss driving TZU HANG and 14th, Pete Goss skippering DMS, crossed the line in quick succession. That's tight racing no matter how you want to cut it and a tribute to all three of these guys for powering through all sorts of phyical issues to make things that close.

One can only wonder what we'll see with the next ten boats as they jockey hard for finishing positions.

 

This news from the website of 15th place skipper in Class 40 monohulls, Tanguy de Lamotte on board Novedia-Initiatives:

"20/11/10 Tanguy finished 15th in the Route du Rhum Passing the finish line in Guadeloupe to 20 hours 46 minutes, 00 seconds (Paris time) this Saturday, November 20, Tanguy de Lamotte was awarded the fifteenth place in the category Class 40 Road
Rhum - La Banque Postale 2010. The running time of Novedia-Initiatives is 20 days 07 hours 44 minutes. On the theoretical trajectory of 3539 min, Tanguy de Lamotte shows an average speed of 7.26 knots."

 

There is still a huge pile of boats wrangling their way around Guadeloupe's western shore with lots of tight racing going on as they haggle over positions at the finish line.

The graphic map below shows the collection. If you go to the home page of the Route du Rhum, you'll see this same map. You can click on the lower left corner of the map to enlarge it full page size. There's even a tool for determining the distances betwen boats and the distance to the finish line.

 

A small collection of photos showing some of today's finishers. You know the race is something very special when you see guys who have finished just a bit better than mid-pack and they look like this after 3,500 miles.

 

While the remaining 40+ boats of the Class 40 fleet continue to stream into Guadeloupe, our friend, Charlie Capelle on board his Rhum Class trimaran Acapella, is making steady progress to the finish line. He is now only 248 miles from the finish line, making just under 7 knots. He is shown below as the red boat on the map.

Well aft of Capelle is Jean-Paul Froc on the last multihull out on the water with 509 miles still remaining in his quest to complete the 2010 Route du Rhum.

 

The afternoon report brings us back to the status of Charlie Capelle and his classic, 80's era, 12m trimaran, as he runs down to the finish of the race just ten miles aft of Pierre-Yves Guennec on the 16.5m Rhum Class monohull launched in 2006, Jeunes Dirigeants - Lorans. Capelle is now just about 200 miles away from Guadeloupe. (Capelle's boat below)

Is it me, or does this guy, Guennoc, have a very strong resemblance to American actor, George Clooney? (portrait shot below)

As of now, there have been 26 boats from the Class 40 monohull division to have crossed the finish line, with 15 more to go. That's a big class of boats and it shows that an affordable, fast racing boat holds a lot of interest for sponsors and the fans who follow the racing. This should be a solid clue to anyone in the sailing world that bigger, more complex, boats do not necessarily have the ability to attract a lot of attention when it comes to the stuff that really makes for a successful racing class. That reality is echoed in recreational boats, as well.

 

A most beautiful thing happened in the Class 40 monohull division. Native son of Guadeloupe, Philippe Fiston on board his boat, Territoires Attitude, has completed the Route du Rhum in 24th place. Here is what they had to say on his website:

"Kick off the Route du Rhum La Banque Postale 2010, given by the Minister for Overseas Penchard Marie-Luce, and Mayor of Saint-Malo Rene Couanau October 31, 2010. This 9th edition of the Route du Rhum La Banque Postale 2010 had a smooth start at 13h02 in the wonder of its 20,000 spectators. 84 boats with Attitude le Territoires son of Philip, are now vying for the Rum towards Guadeloupe. Philip's son arrived in the 24th position of this 9th edition of the Route du Rhum La Banque Postale 2010 November 21, 2010. Under a beautiful blue sky at the rendezvous, son of the country the child passes the finish line just before the skipper Arnaud Daval. Again BRAVO son!"

A bit about Fiston...

"Philippe is a skipper who was born in Guadeloupe May 11, 1963 in Sainte Anne. He discovered the joys of browsing through windsurfing, dinghies and then later became a sailing instructor at CREPS. Licensee at the Club Nautique de Saint-François in 1992, he worked at St. Francis as captain of the catamaran "Ti-Manganao" so that tourists could discover the joys of sailing.

He is also a patron of traditional sailing boats; participating in the championship circumnavigation of Guadeloupe each year. The sea eats, she is passionate. He knows ...

For twenty years, now, Philippe has been a passionate sports sailor, living with the sea and a worthy representative of Boating and Tourism for the Country of Guadeloupe.

His score in the last Route du Rhum was the pride of an entire people. Today, he not only carries the hopes of Guadeloupe of course, but also those of Brittany, via a gateway between two coasts, two regions, two areas linked by history.

Become a Principal Partner in the present context is to better spread a positive image against the latent pessimism. It is a commitment to give back the urge to all those who continue to believe in their dreams."

 

The midday sighting now shos that Rhum Class multihuller, Charlie Capelle, has closed to withing 34 miles of the finish line and will be speeding up once again as he clears the southwest corner of Guadeloupe, heading into a fresh, tropical breeze.

It's been a long ride for this wily veteran and he is clearly one of the dedicated and highly respected proponents of classic multihull sailing.

Still out there and the last remaining multihull on the water, is Jean-Paul Froc, also in the Rhum Class, driving a classic trimaran of late 80's vintage from the board of Walter Greene. Jean-Paul is now 323 miles from his full Route du Rhum completion.

 

Well, all right!

Charlie Capelle has crossed the finish line of the 2010 Route du Rhum. He arrived on 11/23/2010 at 02:38:46 (European time), in 22 days, 7 hours, 37 minutes and 0 seconds at the average speed of 6.61 knots.

Just one more trimaran out on the Atlantic now as Jean-Paul Froc winds his way home from 200 miles away. When Jean-Paul arrives, there will still be something like 7 boats remaining to conclude the RdR this year.


From Charlie's website... his ground crew is rightfully pleased with his completion of the race:

ARRIVAL!

"Charlie is close to the finish line, he should pass around 20h (local time) 1:00 am French time. CHARLIE BRAVO and THANK YOU for this great race!"

 

For the first time in more than a week, there are no boats being shown as close to the finish line in Guadeloupe. The map looks kinda weird, to be honest, after such a madcap surge of arrivals from all the classes.

There are now just 8 boats left out on the race course. Six of them are Class 40 monohulls and two are from the classic, Rhum category. Only one multihull out there, Jean-Paul Froc, and he should come rolling in within the next 24 hours, if the wind cooperates.

It's been an exciting Route du Rhum this time, with plenty of really good close racing and also some incredibly interesting routing decisions, both lucky and unlucky. All this should make for a whole lot of stuff to analyze when the sailors get back home with their shore teams. There is always another horizon to shoot for, another season of scheduled regattas and a ton of sponsor connected duties to fulfill, once back home.

I'll stay on line with this running thread until all the boats are in port and safe. Each and every sailor who has particpated has been working hard to connect with his, or her, particular dream as they engaged this Mack Daddy of solo, blue water races. Winning the RdR has not been on the list of stuff to do for many of the boats entered. For them, it has been more about the personal test as they worked with their teams and sponsors to prepare a boat that could get them across the Atlantic as quickly and safely as possible.

 

Driving his 80's vintage, Walter Greene designed, 12 meter trimaran, Jean-Paul Froc is now within 12 miles of the finish and moving at 9.5 knots in the beautiful Caribbean sun and wind.

Congratulations, Jean-Paul, on your terrific completion of the 2010 Route du Rhum.

 

And then, there were only five boats left on the water for the Route du Rhum


For followers of this thread throughout the Route du Rhum, all of the multihulls are home safe. The five remaining boats are all monohulls, with Yves Ecarlat in the Rhum Class about 150 miles away and four Class 40 boats, four of which are within 100 miles of the finish. The one boat that is still out there beyond that is Gilbert Chollet on board CHIMIREC - EVTV and he has right around 500 miles yet to complete the event.

Here's wishing the last skippers good luck and fair winds in your drive to the island of Guadeloupe and some great fresh food and beverages and the welcoming arms of close friends.

 

The next to last boat in Class 40, being driven by Denis Van Weynbergh on Green Energy 4 seasons - Diabetics Challenges, is now across the finish line in Guadeloupe.

Meanwhile, out there on the atlantic, is the last Class 40 boat of Gilbert Chollet, skippering CHIMIREC - EVTV. He is just under 500 miles to go as of the AM report and making dreadfully slow speed to the end. The reason... he has been stuck in a giant zone of nearly no wind for more than a week now and can only do his best to get away from the problem while still making passage to Guadeloupe. The map below shows his location and with the meteo overlay, you can see why he's been reduced to near zero boatspeed... he's only now emerging from a no-wind zone that has covered a massive area of the Atlantic.

Here is his report today from his website:

November 25, 1:54 p.m.,

News of the night:

"9 th day of no wind, I believed it if I thought someone threw me a lot !!!!! Or that someone well placed so prayed that I was not too windy, I finally did not get?

More than a day on 3 with less than 2 knots of wind!!

for comparison with something that everyone can understand is that you feel the wind under cover, say in the aisles of a store, (when no one is the fool around) when you walk just a step normal, try you will see !!!!!

With that I can still move, but at what price, it is exhausting, physically and morally!!

For the record, that night I left the big spinnaker that was just near her office and did not pose too many problems, I lie in the cockpit to watch, and to 2 am with two strokes of the wave here is wrapped around the hump of the sock!!

I quickly realized why: The wind had dropped to 0.4 knots at this level is no longer possible to do something.

At any silver lining, no wind, I had no difficulty in lowering the spinnaker on deck without picking it up or to return it to unravel in his sock. Night with the front, it still took me 3 hours !!!!!!

In the end the wind was a little income, but on the other side, I sent the Solent and went to bed !!!!!!

And 4 knots of wind, I do not know if I should return the spinnaker or not ????????????????????

The wind at all "

Photos below of Gilbert on his monohull, as well as a couple of shots of multihuller, Jean-Paul Froc, when he arrived at the finish line of the 2010 Route du Rhum.

 

Gilbert Chollet has, at last, emerged from the area of no wind and is making a snappy 9 knots towards Guadeloupe as of the morning positioning report.
He still has 350 miles to go, but with his boat in a good breeze and the relative comforts of warm water and air, he should be able to blast right down into the Caribbean in short order.

 

Gilbert Chollet, the last Class 40 boat on the water, has reduced his distance to finish to 299 miles, as of the 7:40 French time positioning report. He is making 7.7 knots at present and will be nearly 50 miles closer to the finish than this map indicates, as of this posting. So, there are approximately 250 miles to go to the completion of his Route du Rhum and the conclusion of the race for 2010. Maintaining this speed, he will arrive in 32 hours, but that has everything to do with his position relative to French time, which is quite a bit different from Guadeloupe time.

Here's hoping that he keeps his pace and can finish crisply and in good condition.