Lining up for the ice gate

Soldini is confident that his northerly position within the fleet is a good move with his next target sitting 480 miles to the south-west: "I think I'll arrive at the ice gate with no problems," he confirmed. Telecom Italia has three French yachts for company at the northern end of the fleet's 142 mile north-south spread; Mistal Loisirs - Pole Sante ELIOR (3rd place), Appart' City (2nd place) and Groupe Partouche (10th place).

The Italian skipper has had a few small "stupid problems" on board including replacing the mainsail's headboard car lashing and repairs to the mainsheet system, but Telecom Italia and the Class40 fleet in general have survived the first nine days of the race in good shape. "We haven't had any strong winds first of all," said Soldini, "and the 40s are very reasonable boats, there's no need to do anything strange, or take the boat to the limit. There is no real need to take big risks." With two IMOCA Open 60s retiring from the race due to damage, Soldini explains the key to this Class40 durability: "The mast and all the gear is all standard. This makes it cheaper and normally, this makes it stronger."

The northern group in the fleet is currently in north-westerly headwinds of around 15 knots with the more southerly group experiencing similar strength winds but slightly more westerly to south-westerly. However, the entire fleet are watching an area of light winds blocking their path to the south-west: a feature that has meant a number of options throughout the fleet. Overnight, Halvard Mabire on Custo Pol took a dive south: "We're beating with 15 knots right on the nose," he reported this morning. "I wanted to get south without losing to much ground to those staying in the northern group," explained Mabire, who is currently in 5th place having started his trip south in 4th. Custo Pol now trails Boris Herrmann and Beluga Racer in 5th by just 4 miles and holds the most southerly position in the fleet. "I'm trying to make a good route towards the ice gate, but it's far from easy."

Formerly part of the southern group, Benoit Parnaudeau is in 8th on Prevoir Vie after a climb north overnight: "I'm returning north because it's the winning tack right now, I think, and I'm going to get back in with the main part of the fleet." Parnaudeau sounded extremely fresh this morning and the reason soon became clear: "Everything is really good. I slept all night and occasionally checked the boat speed and heading before climbing back into my bunk." Simon Clarke in 11th place on Clarke Offshore Racing followed Prevoir Vie some of the way north and while Parnaudeau greeted dawn refreshed, Clarke had not fared so well: "Slamming upwind it's hard to find anywhere to sleep," he told the race office this morning. "The floor appears to be pretty good, wedged against the nav station is the best place to sleep currently." The wide Class40 hull is susceptible to a very heavy landing when the boat launches off a wave: "We did some massive slamming yesterday and thankfully the repairs we did to the top of the keel are holding alright. I need to book into a dentist, though, to get all my fillings replaced!"

Although Clarke sounded upbeat, a recent discovery has caused frustration: "I've been doing quite a lot of driving, trying to get the boat through the waves and it's pretty tiring," he admitted and this fatigue had a knock-on effect: "One of the whole upsets at the moment is that my wind instruments aren't particularly well calibrated. So the wind hasn't been where I thought it was. When you're tired, you don't seem to spot these things very easily, which is a bit average." Hypnotised by the green glow of the cockpit readouts while on the helm, Clarke now regrets his enforced reliance on technology: "I've sailed twice as many miles as everyone else..I've been zig-zagging all over the place. Tacking on non-existent shifts, not tacking when I should have done. Unbelievable!" Despite his frustration and disappointment, the British solo sailor has hung onto his sense of humour: "I'm going to get my 'Ladybird Book of Sailing' out later and have a really good read," he commented, referring to the sailing handbook for children aged 6-9 years-old.

The race leader's tips
Having lead the fleet since passing Lizard Point on the first night of racing, Giovanni Soldini, skipper of Telecom Italia, shared his secrets this morning: "To be the first, you need to make less errors. You also need good tactics and good preparation and - of course - you have to make the boat go fast. It's everything together. You will never get everything perfect, but if you get most things better than the others..then you're in front. My boat is very fast, but it's not a big difference and it depends on the conditions. In some conditions we are better, but you need everything together. A quick boat is not enough."

IMOCA 60When will they finally get some rest, when will the boats will finally enjoy stable conditions, allowing the autopilots to perform the task they've been designed for? Bumping at mid-morning into yet another light patch - foreseen by our expert Jean-Luc Nélias four days ago - the leaders have to be on deck, trying to prevent the dreaded speedometer values downfall. Less than 0,5 knots of speed for PRB, race leader, at the 10:00 GMT position update - Vincent Riou sees Loick Peyron gradually gaining miles while Brit Air, even faster, closes the gap as well.

"It's warm, it will be the warmest ice gate I've ever seen", said Loick Peyron this morning, commenting on the very peculiar weather situation Gitana Eighty had to cope with. As Jean-Luc Nélias points out in his daily analysis, the effect of the Gulf Stream certainly partly explains these conditions temperature-wise... but Loick didn't have time this morning to stay on the phone and discuss the matter over - it was getting lighter and lighter, boat speed was dramatically dropping and something had to be done in order to maximise the gain on Vincent Riou, already stuck in the light winds zone Gitana Eighty was entering when we called. Looking back, it was completely foolish to hope we'd be able to reach the leader during our daily mid-morning calls session. If making a boat go fast is a job that requires accuracy, preventing t from stopping when the winds dies is an even more demanding task. Aboard Brit Air, Armel Le Cléac'h managed to reduce the gap, before being trapped too - but receiving the 10:00 positions update, Armel certainly made everything he could to avoid the sticky trapped the leading duet fell into.

Further north, Yann Elies aboard Generali was expected to tack upon receiving the aforementioned update, clearly showing the demise of the leading trio - were we going to witness a Yann attack on the western front, was the white and red Finot-designed monohull going to take advantage of the situation to gain in longitude, remaining parallel to 40º North, slightly delaying his dive towards the south? The 12:00 position update showed the wind on the zone was not exactly as forecasted, since Generali did tack but managed to keep sailing to the SW.Heading straight towards the front of the fleet, Marc Guillemot aboard Safran (5th) is getting better everyday, and now only feels the pain from his ribcage after having performed physically demanding manoeuvres such as tacks (be sure not to miss Kito de Pavant's feature concerning that particular matter). While the "Vintage Finot division" (as Yannick Bestaven aboard Cervin EnR calls Roxy, Akena Verandas and his own ex-Aquitaine Innovations) is putting on a great fight, Marco is gradually escaping, getting his physical potential back. Sam Davies (Roxy) and Yannick Bestaven (Cervin EnR), positioned north, are seen as coveted targets by Arnaud Boissieres (Akena Verandas) who thinks his position further south is favourable. Seeming tired (see below), Dee Caffari aboard Aviva could come back into the game when the boats in front will slow down in lighter airs... but crossing the ice gate conditions tactics for the moment, and the obstacles will be the same for everyone.

Musto Newfoundland Trophy
The first boat is expected to cross the Musto race gate off Newfoundland tomorrow and will win the beautiful Musto Trophy. Loick Peyron (Gitana Eighty) has so far picked up all the race gate prizes including an Omega watch at Eddystone and his height in G.H. Mumm champagne at the Lizard – can he get ahead of Vincent Riou to claim the Musto Trophy as well?

Dee Caffari tells it like it is
"I’m going to tell you how it really is. Yesterday felt like day two of the endless tacks, and I have a sneaky suspicion that it will be like this until the end. I’ve seriously lost count of the number of tacks I have done, the number of reefs in and out I have done and then the number of sail changes period. My arms ache, I can definitely say that there are no bingo wings on me at the moment, but the speed at which I turn the handles of the pedestal has definitely slowed. I even tacked twice yesterday where through fatigue I made silly mistakes to leave me ‘stuck in irons’ as we say in the trade, which is basically stuck in the middle neither on one tack or the other. That was tricky to get out of and much more hard work than you want at that time."

Ready to tack? The complete guide to an exhausting manoeuvre - by Kito de Pavant
It's probably the most basic manoeuvres of them all, the first one every kid learns when he takes up sailing lessons. Yet this move, which each entrant in The Artemis Transat has performed a million times on all types of boats, remains a very tricky one to carry out swiftly aboard an IMOCA Open 60. Let's set the scenery - the front has passed, the shift to the right has occurred, let's seize the opportunity and shorten the route, reducing the angle. The boat sails on port tack in 25 knots of wind with two reefs in the main and the staysail, the seas are chaotic.