Showtime onboard BT as Seb takes the lead!
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Article Date: 2008-05-15
View Count: 224
Seb
Josse onboard BT leads the IMOCA 60 fleet this morning and clearly expresses his
ambitions in The Artemis Transat.
Since
his magnificent start last Sunday in The Artemis Transat, the 33-year old
skipper clearly opted for a Southern route and sticked
to it. A long day of match-racing yesterday brought to light that the choice was
the right one and he cashed the miles in taking the biggest lead in the race so
far at the first positions report this morning of 32 miles (in this fleet the
top 4 boats have only been separated by a few miles since the start): “I match raced with my favourite builder yesterday (i.e. Vincent Riou onboard PRB)! We’ve been together all afternoon, at
less than half a mile from each other at some point. I spent quite a few hours
at the helm. But after a tough day of hard work, I decided to try something
different and trimmed my sails, and maybe I got a bit more wind, a bit sooner
than him and then, there is a bit of luck as well. All the effort has paid
off!”
After
just a few days of racing, Seb proves he’s got the
hang of his boat and that BT is very comfortable in light airs. “My closest
competition right now is still Vincent Riou onboard
PRB as well as Loïck Peyron
onboard Gitana Eighty. I’m very wary of PRB because
the boat has been tested and her skipper knows her very well. And Loïck is an old sea dog who’s won this race twice. But I’m
very happy to be where I am and I keep my fingers crossed for what’s coming up
next.”
Seb
made the most out of the more established breeze last night and got some rest:
“I’m fine, I got some good rest last night and I’m ready to focus on the next
ridge of light winds to cross. It won’t be easy. The rest of the fleet is moving
into a more centered position, this new ridge to negotiate could see us all
regroup and re-start. There’s a tough job ahead to negotiate it
properly.”
In
effect, the race could ‘re-start’ as the leaders hit the zone of little to no
wind, allowing those behind to catch up. But if Seb
can get BT through the light wind zone first he also gets to the stronger winds
the other side first and can start to pull away again. The Artemis Transat fleet
will then hit stronger upwind weather which is more typical on this North
Atlantic course and the difference between boats could be measured by
reliability as breakages and gear failure could become an issue. But before
then, the race will go back in time thanks to the “Black-out” period put in
place by the organisers when no position reports will
be published for 36 hours between Friday 1800 GMT until Sunday 0600 GMT:
“The
blackout is interesting for the race and for us. Normally we check where the
fleet are and our strategy is about knowing where they are - for the 36hrs we
have nothing just the weather forecast so I am sure to make my decisions alone
and not to look where the others are.” .More
than ever, game on!
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