The end of the first week of the Route du Rhum continued to challenge the leading group of IMOCAs, with a gybe to the south followed by a rough night in the strong winds of an active tropical low pressure system.
Francesca sailed fast all night, with average speeds of around 20 knots [23 mph | 37kmh]. This morning onboard 11th Hour Racing she is just over 1,000 nautical miles from the finish, is still holding fifth place behind Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes-Quéguiner), and has slightly extended her advantage on sixth placed Maxime Sorel (Vaincre la Mucoviscidose).
11th Hour Racing is currently sailing downwind with the J2 headsail and one reef after what Francesca said in a voice note was “another brutal night” with 30 knot plus winds and a big sea state. “Life onboard is really hard, with pretty much no sleep, just trying to manage the boat, trying to control the acceleration,” she added.
© Francesca Clapcich | 11th Hour Racing
“I’m actually staying inside most of the time, in my nav chair. It’s safe. I try not to move too much around and try to keep myself in one piece.”
Earlier yesterday the fleet had to gybe south, away from an area of high pressure and towards the low. Every tack or gybe requires up to two hours of hard physical labor lifting sails, stacking gear, pulling lines and so on, yet judging exactly where to do so is invariably difficult. This decision was more complex than usual for Francesca thanks to her broken bowsprit.
“It was really complicated because the only option I had was J2, so the angles I could sail made it really hard and I was getting sucked in towards the high pressure all the time,” she says. “At one point I just committed on a good wind shift. The beginning was painful, but the wind picked up pretty quickly after that and we’ve had really strong winds for the last few hours.”
Next is a big transition into an 80 nautical mile [92 mile | 148km] wide band of light winds associated with the centre of the low pressure system. It would be easy to assume the broken sprit will again represent a big problem for this phase, but Francesca says she is happy to stay with the smaller sails, saying: “With the thunderstorms and all the squalls you can very quickly get 30 knots of wind or more again.”
In the meantime, early this morning third-placed Boris Herrmann onboard Malizia 4 gybed away from his nearest competitors, appearing to favour sailing a longer distance, but in stronger and more favourable winds to the west of the centre of the low. Right now it looks like a brave move and we won’t know whether it’s likely to pay off for at least 12 hours.
Looking further ahead, winds are likely to be very light winds on the approach to Guadeloupe towards the end of the race. This will present big challenges for Francesca, again because the broken sprit means the biggest sails, that fly from the end of the spar, can’t be used.
“We’re studying with the team an option to see if I can use the FR0 [fractional Code Zero] from a different tack place,” she says. “It requires a lot of work and a lot of going on deck and doing a lot of things, so we will need to see [if it’s possible] with the sea state. I don’t have lifelines [the safety fence that runs around the perimeter of the deck] anymore, so there is not a lot of safety on deck at the moment.”