"The daggerboard boats can still be in the mix at Iceland"...Race Director Le Goff
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Of the 24 skippers still racing on the second Vendée Arctique – Les Sables d'Olonne, ten are sailing on IMOCAs with straight daggerboards. Out in the east it is rookies Benjamin Ferré and Guirec Soudée who are the top two on the rankings. Ferré races the 2015 boat which was formerly MACIF and SMA and Soudée has the 2007 Farr boat which was launched as Estrella Damm and took third in the 2012 Vendée Globe as Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss.
"From before the start, we knew that the situation meant that foilers and boats with straight daggerboards would likely choose different routes", explains race director Francis Le Goff. "The IMOCAs with daggerboards are more comfortable upwind in medium winds and with the high pressure ridge, two major possibilities emerged. The foilers went offshore but some daggerboard boats chose to stay closer to the (shorter) direct route. We could see a small pathway in the ridge and it turned out to be even more interesting than what the model showed."
This slightly punchy choice surprised some sailors, like Damien Seguin (Groupe APICIL): "The daggerboard boats which are leading had this very easterly course. No one thought they would manage to pass so well on that routing. But, hey, there are times when you have to be a little lucky too. Now it's up to us to push hard to get back in front!"
Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement - Water Family) agrees "They're smart guys compared to us, we went full speed ahead into the ridge and they were able to see what was going on in front of them. That has opened up opportunities. So the fastest are not necessarily the smartest."
"Everything does not always happen as decreed by computers!"
Further back, the Belgian Denis Van Weynbergh (Laboratoires de Biarritz) is also delighted that his friends and rivals without foils are doing so well. "It's fun to see them out in front," he said. "We're all trying to get the most out of our older generation boats and it's interesting to see that we've made good progress. As Jean Le Cam said: not everything always happens as it is decreed by computers!"
At the front all the way around Iceland?
On the recent Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race the course and weather allowed the non-foilers to shine. Three finished in the Top 10: Nicolas Lunven (4th), Eric Bellion (7th) and Conrad Colman (10th). And so now, too, the course of this Vendée Arctic which has many weather transitions sees multiple opportunities and the passages of these first ridges is proving it. Sailors like Benjamin Ferré or Guirec Soudée are new to the game and happy to take more strategic risks perhaps. And the IMOCAs with straight daggerboards are still simpler to set up and sail. But the foiling boats have a clear advantage as soon as they have a good angle to the wind and the sea is fairly flat. In these cases, they go 20 to 30% faster than daggerboard boats.
Race Director Francis Le Goff suggests, "At this stage, the foilers are pretty much on their expected race timings on the routings but the daggerboard boats are ahead. They can still very much be in the mix in this race over the next days and we might even see them among the front runners until around Iceland."