In the previous episode of our ArMen Race on the Ultim Actual Leader, we were leaving Quibero Bay n as Gitana and Sodebo escaped. We are hunters and we are looking for the opportunity to catch up. In the heart of Antyicyclone, the 3 Ultims band is looking for the little wind left.
The arms of the busy crew members at the coffee grinder get as hot as they can. The sails are constantly adjusted to the nearest centimetre. Those who do not manoeuvre are positioned at the bow to try to reduce the drag.
Unfortunately, our fierce desire to get back into the game is frustrated by the wind that is abandoning us, but is taking our 2 competitors almost directly to the breast pavement.
A very open race
In the absence of wind, we are plunged into immobility and waiting. Since the beginning of the race, we have still overtaken most of the boats entered in the race, we have caught up with the series before us: Imoca, Class40, IRC, and Osiris.
It's a joyful mix of genres. A Tina, an Ultim and a First 31.7 share the same event and that's the magic of the ArMen Race: mixing amateurs and offshore professionals for the duration of a race.
Don't panic and be optimistic
The wind has literally planted us between Groix and the Glénans and we are breaking the Ultim's slow record by hitting 0.38 knots... Instead of 40 knots, hoisted on a float as in my dreams. Meanwhile, our competitors are "taking off" at almost 5 knots.
The crew is working tirelessly. You need to have strong nerves to support sailing at less than 1 knot when you know that Actual Leader can exceed 35 knots. Bad fortunes, let's make a good heart, because the arrival is not for now.
A dinner on the terrace
The sun is declining, Davy Beaudard is officiating in the lazarette and preparing the crew's dinner. On the menu, one freeze-dried bag per person. Against a backdrop of sunset, I let myself be tempted by couscous. We sit on the terrace, just at the bow to enjoy this dinner.
We discuss, we exchange, the most experienced crew members tell stories of offshore racing where big names are associated with sometimes truculent anecdotes.
The wind reappears
It is only around 2 a.m. that the wind comes back to vitalize our sails, but it remains erratic and weak. Only importe?! And at the cost of sustained physical effort, the crew woke up the sleeping giant.
The wind still turns a little bit and Yves Le Blevec gives the instruction to hoist the gennaker. The sail is monstrous to move, the connection tips are disproportionate, as is the amount of effort required to hoist, tension, unroll and tuck the sail in. We reach 5 knots...
If the conditions did not allow us to titillate the high speeds, they nevertheless offered me to discover the complexity of such a bateau?! However, not being a novice in the field of racing boats, here, the manoeuvres are all flattened out.
The day before, the day before...
During the night, we pass many fishing boats in addition to pleasure boats. Vigilance does not tolerate any flaws with our moderately manoeuvrable boats. Suddenly, we realize that a fishing vessel can't see us. The shift manager announced a 90° surge to avoid the collision. Fortunately, there are many of us on board and the conditions are very manageable. The vessel running on the engine was not in fishing action, was it really a previous day visuelle??
When it doesn't want to...
Unfortunately, during the night a drifting branch gets caught in the rudder foil. In addition to slowing us down, if we do nothing, it can damage the profile. The hulls are so high that it is difficult and dangerous to approach the rudders. However, we are forced to stop and manoeuvre to remove this hydrobrake and lose 20 minutes in the battle.
You can't see anything anymore, but it's back on
We sail blind. During the almost moonless night, the fog covered the lake and all the sailboats staying there. At dawn, in the evanescence of the mist, we turn at the foot of the Penmarch rocks. It's like being on the edge of the Kingdom of Mordor.
After a few hours, the wind, which is increasing at 14 knots, finishes dissipating the fog. We are now downwind at 135° from the wind and we are sailing at 15 knots. Come to think of it, I realize that of all this race, I've never seen Actual Leader sail below actual wind speed.
Once we get to the top of the mountain, we go down again
Around 11am, i.e. after 20 hours of racing, we finally touch our 2 virtual brands on the breast pavement. The switch from one brand to another makes us luff to reaching under gennaker. It is at this precise moment that I understand what an Ultim is capable of: with only 13 knots of wind, it literally flies away at 20 knots. The tense listening squeals, the appendixes whistle and instinctively I cling to something solid.
We round the marks and head upwind towards La Trinité sur Mer. We put the gennaker away on the trampoline (4 people) and sent back the J2 (medium genoa). There is 12 knots of real wind and we are sailing at 12 knots upwind at 49° to the wind.
At around 4 p. m., the wind picks up. Now we are receiving it almost through the beam. Yves the skipper asked for a sail change. Once again, I realize that these boats are incredibly energy consuming and require impressive physical strength. D1 in place, we are sailing at 13kt with 10kt of wind.
Succeeding in escaping
At 6:00 p. m., we monitor what is happening at the AIS and on the weather maps. It seems that we are barely escaping the "big soft" that once again covers the ArMen Race fleet. But for the moment on Actual Leader we are going faster than the routing.
We work on the adjustments and pray not to stop our beautiful bird that seems to create its own wind to move on the shimmering surface of the water.
With the help of the last breezes of day and nightfall, we managed to exfil ourselves just in time to enter Quiberon Bay, where the finish line awaits us.
At 1am, we cross the finish line of the ArMen Race. Our playmates already passed it a few hours ago. It's a shame they left as soon as the finish line was crossed. Their presence will be missed by the other competitors, who are happy to share the same event as the ocean racing pros.
At the finish, the words of our skipper, Yves Le Blevec
"It went well for us. We've really done a lot of manoeuvring, a lot of work. We are third in the category, and we can say that it is a podium (laughs). But especially for us we worked well, we learned a lot about the boat and we experimented with many sail combinations. We are happy with our navigation, good crew, good atmosphere on board, overall only positive."
Photo Credit: Ronan Gladu
