Day 2 Daily Download - a firm foot in the leading pack

Before the start of the Transat Cafe L’OR, Will Harris talked about the importance of being in the leading group in the early stages of a race that is all about getting to the Trade Winds in a competitive position.

Will Harris, and skipper Francesca Clapcich, onboard 11th Hour Racing have done exactly that. And as they approach the end of their second day at sea on their journey from Le Havre to Martinique, they have secured for themselves a berth in the top-four as the leading boats approach Cape Finisterre.

11th Hour Racing was well-placed at Ushant on the northwest corner of France in fifth place after the rough and tumble of the first hours in the English Channel. At that stage they were just a couple of miles behind Association Petits Princes-Queguiner in fourth, with Charal in third, Allagrande MAPEI second and MACIF Santé Prevoyance leading, as she continues to do.

A fast reach south of Ushant into the Bay of Biscay saw Harris and Clapcich overtake Elodie Bonafous and Yann Eliès on Queguiner and then maintain and even improve their position as the leaders hit the anticipated light airs ridge. 

Harris and Clapcich were always on the pace during this section despite having had almost no sleep since the start on Sunday. At various times they climbed as high as second and were in the game when the leaders started to accelerate in a south-easterly air stream blowing off the Spanish coast.

This morning, approaching Finisterre with boatspeeds rising, 11th Hour Racing is handily-placed in third position on the 0700 UTC ranking, neck-and-neck with Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière’s Charal, who are about 17 miles behind MACIF, while Queguiner is now over 30 miles astern in fifth position still trapped in light airs.

Being in this group gives Harris and Clapcich a good chance of getting into the Trades in exactly the sort of position Harris had talked about. Behind them several of their expected rivals – among them Bureau Vallée, Teamwork-Team SNEF and Initiatives Cœur – are still trapped in the light patch and are losing miles with every new update of the tracker.

Up ahead on the racecourse, the low pressure system south-southeast of the Azores continues to be the dominant feature and is currently centred about 800 miles southwest of Finisterre. It looks likely that this system could give the leading crews a fast run down the Iberian coast towards Madeira in northerly winds as they head towards the sunshine of the Trades.

Onboard 11th Hour Racing all seems to be well bar a crash gybe last night when the main autopilot lost the plot for a few seconds, forcing Harris and Clapcich to switch to the back-up system. Clapcich sent a video showing Harris with his head in the complex electrical set-up that controls the pilot as he established the fault and solved the problem.

Ed Gorman