There is an air of expectancy about the port of St. Malo,and the main topic of conversation with the race teams is the weather or more importantly the wind! Projected weather and wind reports have been flowing in for several days now, and are eagerly studied in their minutest detail. One weather guru is saying ”stay north of the Azores” whilst another favours the more southerly route. With no definate pattern emerging it may be a lottery as to who makes the correct call on the day!
One thing however is certain. The big Tri’s will be across and into Quadalupe long before the other fleets. Rough estimates with presently predicted winds are for 9 to 15 days for their race. The Class 40’s however will still be at sea their predictions being somewhere between 19 and 25 days.
I include in my report today a gallery of just some of the ”Cate’gorie Ultime” boats. ‘Sodebo’ skippered by Thomas Coville looks good with her graphics that represent childrens doodles! I had the good luck to meet Thomas whilst I was on holiday in Bali a few years ago. I managed to get an interview for C&A and he gave me a guided tour of his rocket ship! I for one would love to go for a blast, maybe one day.
‘Idec’ with Francis Joyon is another very powerful looking boat. Well proven she will be one to watch.
Sydney Gavignet will be piloting ‘Oman Air Majan’. This boat is beautifully turned out and certainly looks the business.
As a complete contrast two lovely old ‘Gaffers’ lay near the multihulls and what a pretty sight they made. Respendant in perfectly varnished wood they were getting as many admiring glances as the ‘rock stars’ further along the Quay!
Also moored a short distance from the race boats was the all aluminium ‘Pen Duick VI’ Built in 1973 she still looks the business today
With everything now completed it was party time last night for the team on DMS. Pete Tom and myself welcomed on board the main sponsor Dave Summers and his family.
Dave’s company packages vinyl and CDs for the music industry, and a few years ago Dave made up his mind that he would get rid of all plastic used in the packaging process. I think to date there is only 10% of his packaging that is plastic but this will reduce to 0% in the next couple of years. This is a tremendous gesture and one which needs to be taken up by all packaging manufactures. Plastic never goes away or degrades, it’s here to stay! Hence the logo on the hull of ‘DMS’ reads ”PACK IT IN”. Just sitting on the pontoon she has had many asking about her message. Just wait till she gets her monster kite up with ”Barney” emblazoned thereon. A sight that will surely stay in everyone’s mind!
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