Heading offshore

Having competed in yesterday’s speed runs, those participating in the Défi Azimut are now lining up for the event’s main race. Indeed, at 13:00 hours today, they’ll be setting sail on a 665-mile triangular course, starting and finishing in Lorient, which will lead them across the Bay of Biscay to the top of the Arcachon basin and then on to a waypoint to the west of the northern tip of Brittany. “It should be fairly quick as there is a steady north-easterly breeze forecast across the entire course, before it eases towards the end of the course as it clocks round to the south. Conditions are set to be fairly comprehensive as we’re going to encounter nearly every point of sail, from downwind, to upwind, to a reach. For Anthony (Marchand) and I the aim is to get off to a good start, to really apply ourselves when manoeuvring, to try to quickly reach the boat’s target speeds and to keep up with the leading group. We certainly don’t want to attempt any extreme options. With 40 days to go to the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre, what we’re after is to utilise the opportunity to gauge our speed in relation to the competition, namely the boats from the same generation as ourselves,” explained the skipper of Prysmian Group, who left the dock early this morning so as to benefit from the fine conditions to do a photo and video shoot for his picture library. He is ready to go then and the current ETA for completing the course is lunchtime on Saturday.