Towards a great 2011 season! [08/01/2011]
After a very interesting year 2010 with the IMOCA 60' Brit Air team, involving research and racing, I'm know looking forward to a season in the Figaro Class, with the big rendez-vous being of course, La Solitaire in August this summer. My boat Keopsys, will be relaunched in 10 days after the winter refit. I'm now honored to be part of the reknown French training centre, 'Pole Finistere Course au Large', which is the ideal structure to be part in order to get competitive in the Figaro Class. The first race of the schedule is taking place mid-March, starting from Les Sables d'Olonnes... In the mean time training training and more training... Stay tuned!
Nick Bubb Chronicles! [10/10/2009]
Transat 650 2009's daily reports - thedailysail.com - by our very special guest: Nick Bubb
Sent: 21 October 2009 16:00
The big news in the
last 48 hours has been in the Series class where, as predicted, Charlie
Dalin has overtaken Francisco Lobato, his easterly track down the South
Atlantic allowing him to sail a fraction faster compared to his Portugese
rival out to the west. Dalin pulled ahead at the 1700 sched on Monday
and has slowly extended until he is 32 miles ahead at the latest update.
Overall and barring disaster, Dalin won't be able to make up the incredible
22 hour advantage Lobato has over him from leg one, when incredibly, he
was the third boat home overall (ie ahead of all but two Protos). But
nonetheless as Nick Bubb points out Dalin's effort is an impressive one
considering he is unsponsored and up against much better resourced competition.
Sent: 20 October 2009 16:00
And there he is, over 20 miles ahead with more to come as he is going
significantly faster than the others on the approach to Fernando. He’ll
never give up on the chance of overall victory and that is the happy position
he is now fighting for!! Baring disaster (which can never be discounted!!!)
Charlie needs to keep it all together and push on whilst Lobato will be
starting to get nervous for his overall victory. 22 odd hrs is a lot for
Charlie to pull back but if he stretches to say 40 or 50 miles ahead and
arrives in Salvador in mid morning say, with Lobato getting there late
eve he could get lucky as the wind often dies in the evening as it did
at the end of the last TJV. Expect to see Charlie over 30 miles ahead
by the end of the day. Great work, now for the bigger victory whilst looking
after his boat!
Sent: 20 October 2009 09:30
Looking v good for Charlie now. I guess the beauty of not knowing where
the others are, he kept his cool in the Doldrums and just kept plugging
south. He’s all over Lobato now and the next for hours I reckon
he’ll be up to 20 miles ahead and the others are out the back door.
Usual situation of the rich getting richer as the wind angle eases.
Sent:
19 October 2009
And Charlie is about to take the lead again, Lobato paying for being so
far West now and Charlie is powering down over the top of him.
Sent: 09 October 2009 09:35
And here comes Lobato!.
And here comes Lobato's. as I suggested yesterday he¹s ripped through
the leaderboard and this morning is now 5th and in reality is actually
4th. Charlie holds his lead but it¹s down to 20 miles and his nearest
competitors are still going slightly faster. His biggest threat is now
from Luca del Zozzo who is just south of Lobato and on a similar longitude.
These two look set for a cross with second placed Ricardo Apolloni and
will all end up very close. Charlie meanwhile has resisted any temptation
to stray too far from the great circle route and has seemingly worked
the shifts very well with an incredibly direct route compared to his counterparts.
This leading bunch of four (current 3rd placed Henri Meyniel) is more
actually more like 5th and heads a small group just north of Apolloni)
are now clear of the others and will be starting to line up their passage
through the Cape Verdes.
Artemis sailor Ollie Bond has had a good 24 hours after appearing to get
himself a little out of phase with the shifts, he has now dispatched those
around him only a day or so ago (the highly experienced Pierre Rolland
included!) and although he won¹t realise it, has consolidated his
top ten position nicely and currently holds 9th with a good chance to
move back up to 7th in the near future. Fabien Sellier who was looking
really good in second as the fleet dived south after the Canaries, has
now chosen a fairly extreme westerly option and from being one of Charlie¹s
main threats has now crossed a long way behind him back in 13th.
Although this is still the very early stages, it¹s worth a quick
look back at the results from leg 1 and interesting to see that Luca del
Zozzo who is currently 3rd directly ahead of Lobato, lost over a day and
a half to Lobato on leg 1 and nearly 15 hours to Charlie, the others in
the leading bunch are pretty much the same guys who were at the front
on the first leg.
Meanwhile in the protos, Bertrand Delesne continues to show the way and
is now nearly 90 miles ahead of Charlie. He has split from his main rivals
who have gone west whilst Bertie has dived south. It¹s worth mentioning
Matt Trautman¹s performance on my old 419, he is currently 10th but
is well east in good breeze and is probably more like 8th and very close
to those in front of him.
Sent: 08 October 2009 08:59
Lobato ready to pounce!!
Well as I look at the updates this morning I can¹t help but grin
slightly's. As I predicted yesterday, Charlie is still holding on to his
lead and Ollie Bond has slipped back to 10th. As I looked at the chart,
several things struck me immediately. Firstly that Charlie seems to have
sailed an incredibly direct route compared to the guys further East, including
Ollie who looks to have spent a bit too long on starboard gybe and I fear
may lose a few more places today. The other thing I looked for was where
was Lobato?!
The answer's down in 17th but the furthest East and the furthest South.
He should be enjoying good breeze now and will definitely be moving rapidly
up the leader board over the next few days. Will Charlie keep his lead?
Well he is in less breeze at the moment and his advantage has been cut
from 50 to under 30 miles so I¹d say his time is limited, unless
the stronger breeze moves West. Personally, I think the breeze will remain
stronger to the East for the next few days, so for the time being at least,
he may well have to relinquish his stranglehold on the top spot. Either
way with just under 2500 miles still to go, the front runners are going
to be incredibly close.
Not really got too much time to look at the race today in detail but I
have thought how odd that I should purely focus on the series boats when
Œback in my day¹ it was all about the protos. For sure the series
class is now the largest and most competitive fleet, as shown by the results
of Leg 1 which were effectively a repeat of last year¹s Azores race
where the series class
also triumphed on the water, notably with Lobato and Charlie Dalin also
the front runners with Ollie Bond close behind. Anyway as predicted the
protos are doing a much better job of dispatching the series class on
this leg and are over 60 miles ahead of Charlie now. Bertrand Delesne,
winner of leg 1 is currently 2nd but to my mind, effectively holds a good
lead being the most southerly boat and in the middle of the East
West spread.
Mixed fortunes for my two old boats racing, Matt Trautman in 419 continues
his great performance and is currently 9th , no doubt Œloving it¹
whilst sadly Andrew Wood on 500 has had to retire with pilot problems.
This is a massive blow for ŒWoody¹ after a huge effort to make
the race with no major sponsor and will be immensely frustrating for him,
a broken mast in 35 knots with a big spi up is so much easier to take
in some respects but a pilot failure is cruel and I really feel for him.
Sent: 07 October 2009 09:48
Today¹s action
Looks like good news For Charlie out to the West, he seems to have survived
the period of lighter airs expected on his part of the race course and
has extended his lead to over 45 miles on the rest of the fleet. As the
wind veers to the North and then to the NE Charlie will probably gybe
onto port for a while and converge with the main fleet to consolidate
his lead. He will suspect that a lot of the guys are to the East of him
and know that he is in the lead in terms of distance to the finish, so
I suspect he will try to slide across in front of them whilst picking
up stronger breeze. In reality it is a race to get South and right now
Charlie looks good purely by virtue of being further West. The main bunch
are still slightly South of him, however once the wind veers to the NE,
even if he is very slightly lighter breeze, Charlie should have a more
favourable angle to run down the Saharan coast. Expect to see his lead
reduce but not evaporate!
To give you an idea of the scale of Charlie¹s battle to get to the
start line, he is one of the youngest competitors in the race, is racing
one of the oldest boats, has no sponsor and I noticed in one of the pictures
on the race website yesterday, is wearing some of my old sailing kit's
This really is a great effort from a guy who has been meticulous in his
preparation. When we spoke after leg one, he was happy with his 2nd place,
a little disappointed the rest of the fleet caught up so much time near
the end but his main focus was looking forward not back. Lobato may have
said the pressure was on the others not him before the start of this second
leg, and in reality Charlie probably doesn¹t actually have a 45 mile
glad once he converges with the main bunch's. assuming he does, but either
way Lobato down in unfamiliar territory in 12th nearly 60 miles adrift,
will certainly be feeling the heat now.
My fellow teammate at Artemis Ocean Racing, Ollie Bond, will be very pleased
with himself this morning, up to 3rd and with a few boats around him to
pace against. It looks like he is being slowly lifted on starboard so
at some point expect to see him gybe back to the East too. This could
be a painful day or two for Ollie though as there are 15 odd boats further
south than him but off to the East, so not looking so good on the rankings
right now, but are a big threat later down the line. Ollie will be hoping
for the same favourable angle as Charlie on his rivals but I¹d expect
him to be back around 10th when, and if's. he converges with the pack
once again.
Sat in my armchair at home, it¹s much easier to see what appears
to be the sensible choices but most of the guys will just sail the breeze
they have and this always throws up some exciting options! Although most
people know, it¹s worth reminding everyone that the skippers have
no contact with the outside world other than VHF, which is effectively
not much more than line of sight.
Finally, it¹s very sad to see Caroline Vielle in Gomero and Andrew
Wood, in one of my old boats, in Tenerife. Hopefully both these stops
are only temporary for these skippers who are both ompeting in their second
Mini Transat.
Sent: 06 October 2009 09:47
Charlie's had a good afternoon!!
Today¹s going to be really interesting as this evening the fleet
should get into the start of those NE trades, hope Charlie doesn¹t
get tempted to go too far west as eventually the breeze will be lighter
but right now he is gaining miles all the time by virtue of being nearer
the rhumb line. Don¹t see much chance of a repeat of Lobato¹s
leg 1 performance, the leading protos are gone and in what ooks like the
ideal position to pick up the trades first which are now looking well
established. Meanwhile of the guys who went through the Canaries, it¹s
quite impressive how the leading six protos have pulled away from the
rest of the fleet, whilst the small band of brothers out in the East look
to have taken a big hit, some even having to take a hike back to the west
on port to avoid Fuerteventura and they are definitely in less breeze
right now. One thing¹s for sure, the next 24 hours are going to be
compelling viewing!
Nick Bubb to join force for Mini Fastnet! [19/05/2009]
I'm delighted to announce that top sailor and friend Nick Bubb will be onboard for this year's mini Fastnet. Starting on the 14th of June. Amongst many other things, Nick was watch captain aboard Team Russia for the Volvo Ocean Race, raced around the world in the Oryx Quest and competed in the transat Jacques Vabre 07, the Route du Rhum 06 and mini transat 05...
Another project, another country but still a trimaran! [19/05/2009]
Rare enough to mention, it is a French project...which is very new to me! The boat is for top ocean sailor Yves Le Blevec. She is a Verdier design. The race program will be this year's transat Jacques Vabre, next year's route du Rhum and many other high profile events. The boat is part of the growing multi 50 class.
The first Arabian 100' Emerges from the shed... [10/04/2009]
That's it, the project I came to Australia for is out of the Shed. Another great project, with a very different design philosophy than what can be seen on a high performance monohull. The trimaran is now on it's way to Salalah in Oman, where it will be put together during a 3 month long commissioning; more an end of build really as the floats, beams and main hull have to be put together...
It will soon be time for me to head back to France and start working hard on my own goal, the Transat 650 from France to Brazil in which I will be competing in September 09, Stay tuned!
Ericsson 4 is the fastest monohull on the planet with 596nm in 24hrs! [29/10/2008]
On Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race, Alicante-Cap Town, Ericsson 4, has done it, and is the new record holder. They managed to stay head of the cold front longer than anyone else and hence win leg 1. A good start for the team!
Objective achieved! [10/09/2008]
It's been a very busy summer for me, switching from the Ericsson Racing Team project to my mini campaign just 5 weeks before the start of the Acores Race. I have worked or sail every single day during that period. ANTALIS had to be in top shape to compete in a very demanding singlehanded race, 2600nm long, with a stop over in Horta too short to fix any major problems. On the weather side some say that the Acores race is much more complex than the transat; You first have to negotiate the Bay of Biscay, then get the transition right at Cape Finistere, position yourself in the stretch to the Acores, deal with the Acores high and finally pick the right passage through the Acores Islands...! That is the theory anyway...
What happened for real was a 12 day long leg, virtually upwind all the way to the Acores, with three low pressures to negotiate. Each of this low pressure managed to take away competing minis. A bit more than half of the 49 starters managed to get through... In the end I reached Horta 3rd in my class 4th overall, overtaking 4 boats in the last 24 hours, the last unlucky one just 50 meters from the finish line! One of the reasons I can put forward is that ANTALIS was still at 100% of its capacity, and very light too, as I had only one tin of food left onboard...! I only had 8-9 days worth of food for the leg, I started my ration program 3 days in the race when I realised that I didn't have enough. Back then, 9 days to the finish I worked out a 'worth case scenario' ETA which was a finish on friday the 8th in the morning, I crossed the finish line at 4am on that friday!
After a short stop in Horta, we were back at it again, this time with a forecast of a strong downwind sailing all the way to Les Sables d'Olonne. The leg was hard but in a different way than leg one. Sleep and feeding time were much harder to find, steering is much more efficient than the Autopilot in these conditions, and often the sea state didn't even allow for autopilot use with the risk of a broach within 2 minutes. We had up to 35kts of wind and a 6m swell. Only one front to negotiate but it was followed with the longest trail I ever experienced, it lasted almost 3 days! With a squall every 45 minutes on that period, wind ranging from 18 to 30kts+. I found the solution by flying my gennaker and only playing with the main reefs and my genoa, going from full main + genoa + gennaker up to 3 reefed main + gennaker only. It proved much faster than switching flying sails. The leg was over in less than 7 days for me, I averaged 8kts on the 1300nm of the leg, which is a pretty high average for a 6.5m long yacht with only one person on board! I crossed the line 3rd in my class and 4th overall. Which on cumulated time put me 2nd overall!
Aims and projects for the 2008 season[02/01/2008]
- Finish the build of the VO70 Ericsson 4.
- Take part in the singlehanded race Les Sables – Les Acores.
- Finish the design of my future mini 650 prototype.
- Start the build of the prototype for the transat 650 2009.
I have just bought a sail yacht, the mini number 435. I already have good results on this boat in races I entered with the ex owner. (1st transgascogne 2007, 3rd open demi cle 2006 with leg win). The ultimate goal with the boat is to gain valuable experience in long distance single handed offshore racing, to be prepared for the transat 2009.
Transgascogne leg 2 : Santander – les Sables : We win ! [02/08/2007]
Hi everyone, the 2007 edition of the transgascogne finishes well for us, very well even, as we get the leg 2 win and the overall victory!
After a pretty average first leg, we are ready to fight against the leaders on the way back to France. The forecast is for a light westerly breeze, dropping to 1 to 3kts in the middle of the first night and increasing back to 15-18kts in the afternoon of day2. The combination of no wind and night very often shuffle and stretches the fleet. The rule was once again verified…
The start line is set below the cliffs of Santander, under a gentle Spanish sea breeze. After about 30 minutes of beating, the spreader mark is passed and the fleet heads north towards home.
We are now reaching. Our boat speed is good comparing to the opposition… The night falls and so does the wind. We worked hard all night to keep the boat going in the evanescent breeze. The morning comes and we are now anxiously waiting for the 8am ranking. We were right, all was played overnight. We are 2rd of our class, but the 1st boat is not far ahead but more importantly is few miles to leeward of us. That means that they are sailing at a tighter wind angle than us and therefore should be slower! Moreover, we are very confident on our boat speed when reaching. The boat is certainly one of the fastest of the fleet in these conditions.
At about 1am the following day the line is crossed, first in our class and just before the tidal change. Then the wind speed dropped again. The 2nd boat crossed the line over 2 hours behind us and the leaders of the first leg are yet to be seen. The overall race is finally won with the 2nd boat over 3hours behind us!
Transgascogne leg 1. Les Sables-Santander. It’s blowing hard! [26/07/2007]
Hello everyone, here I am in Santander, after a first leg which didn’t lack in wind to say the least!
Due to a special starting sequence, we crossed the start line before de gun which forced us to go around and cross the start line again. That positioned us not far from last! The following hours are stent taking over at the back of the fleet. By sun set we are finally back at a ranking corresponding more to what we hoped to do in the race, that is the leaders’ pack of the series class.
On the weather side of things, the forecast is for an active front passing over around midnight.
At about 3am the wind started to build up steadily. The sail area is reduced in consequence and we rapidly end up with two reefs in the mainsail and… Day-light comes but the breeze is still solid and increase in strength regularly. By midday, the wind stabilises at about 40-45kts. We are slowly progressing south, beating. The sail combination is 3 reef in the main and storm jib. The sea state is getting big too and some breaking waves are even dangerous. The rest of the day is spent in a pretty unreal scenery, with a cloudless sky and bright sun. The long white stripes are spread all over the sea as the wave crests are blown away into a mix of spray and white foam, very often the boat sail across a snow white patch of water, were a wave just broke.
We finally cross the finish line at about 2 the following day, the leg took us about 38 hours. Twice the boat was taken aside by breaking waves, surfing sideways at about 10 kts over the ground, luckily the sheer never gripped in the water…
Ranking wise, crossed the line third in our class. Unfortunately due to the early start, we ended up with 1hours penalty, which made us loose 1 place. Likely, the race is not over, the second leg still remains…
Happy New Year 2007[03/01/2007]
An excellent new year (or season) 2007 to you all! The 2007
season is taking shape for Charlie, more details to come rapidly...
Delivery of the class 40 "Kenmore Homes"[05/12/2006]
Boat and Team safe in Douarnenez
Preparation of Nick Bubb's Class 40 for the route du rhum[29/10/2006]
St Malo.
Build of the class 40 #19[30/09/2006]
La trinité sur mer.
Skandia Cowes week aboard the Farr 52 "Chernikeeff 2"[03/08/2006]
Cowes, Isle of Wight. One week of racing in the hottest sail class of the famous event!
Open Demi clé on the pogo 2 #435: 3rd overall winner of leg 3![08/07/2006]