Groupama 3 On Standby For Marseilles – Carthage Record Attempt

The weather along the course or the `right window’:

There is a single imperative for setting off from the city of Marseilles: a well established Mistral which extends beyond the Southern tip of Sardinia. In order to avoid overly built-up seas, it is best to set off as a N to NW’ly wind is forming, which gradually fills as it heads along the coast of Corsica, easing progressively the further South it gets…

Renowned for its short, breaking seas when the Mistral punches the air at over 40 knots, the Mediterranean makes the first third of the course particularly feisty and tricky, before things become more manageable as far as the south of Sardinia. It’s the final third which is the most uncertain though, with the Mistral adopting a W’ly element to it between Sardinia and Tunisia, which can very quickly run out of steam. As far as the last thirty miles are concerned between Cap Blanc and Cap Carthage, you can but hope the calm conditions aren’t reigning and that a thermal breeze kicks in: as such it’s better to arrive in daylight hours.

The viewpoint of skipper Franck Cammas:

“Since we left Lorient, Brittany, on 17th March 2009, we’ve covered nearly 8,000 miles aboard Groupama 3. The crew know the boat well and we’re ready to cast off. In order to be as fast as we possibly can be, there will be just seven of us onboard instead of the usual ten. The length of the record (17 hours) enables this as we won’t require any watches to get rest. All we have to do now is to wait for a good Mistral. It’s a really great record which sets off from a place where I began sailing over twenty years ago”.

The course time, from Marseilles to Carthage: 458 miles

The start line lies abeam of the Pomegues lighthouse (43°15,7′ N- 005°17,4′ E), located at the exit from the harbour of Marseilles, on the islands of Frioul. The logical route takes you towards the Golfe de Tunis, leaving Corsica and Sardinia to port.

The finish line is positioned abeam of the Ras Quartajamah lighthouse, on Cap Carthage, near Sidi Bou Saïd (36°52.3′ N – 10°20.9′ E).

The departure procedures

Code Red Stand-by from 6th May
Nothing to report, no favourable weather pattern.

Code Orange Possible departure within the next 72 to 96 hours.
A possible departure to the site is taking shape

Code Yellow Departure possible within the next 48 to 72 hours.
Ready to head off to the site. Will be followed within the next 24 hours by a return to Code Orange or Red, or a switch to Code Green.

Code Green Departure possible within the next 24 to 48 hours.
The crew on stand-by on site, ready to leave within the next 24 hours.

Frédéric Le Peutrec, boat manager

comments on the management of the crew and the boat during these stand-by phases:

“As far as Groupama 3 is concerned, the trimaran is now ready to go in her record configuration, which means that she’s had as much ballast removed as possible which was surplus to requirements: engine, needless sails, bunks, galley and so on… She’s moored in the port of Estaque right out to the West of Marseilles, which will enable her to get out to the start line quickly downwind.

As far as the crew of Groupama 3 is concerned, we’re all on stand-by at home or on various race zones. The only important thing is to remain contactable by email or mobile so as to receive warning about the current code in force! With code green, everyone must be on site, ready to leave. In fact the most active of us during this waiting period is Sylvain Mondon at Météo France, who consults grib files to find the best weather window!”

The crew of Groupama 3

1 – Franck Cammas (Skipper)
2 – Frédéric Le Peutrec (Helm)
3 – Stève Ravussin (Helm)
or Lionel Lemonchois (Helm)
4 – Loïc Le Mignon (Helm)
5 – Ronan Le Goff (No.1)
6 – Jacques Caraës (No.1)
7 – Bruno Jeanjean (No.1)
Onshore: Sylvain Mondon (Router)

A little history

The genesis of the Mediterranean record:

Founded by the Phoenicians of Tyre in 814 BC, Carthage was the dominant force on Mediterranean waters for nearly four centuries, particularly in the western section from Gibraltar to Sicily. However, confrontations with the Romans, who were extending their territory to the South, were given concrete expression in a series of three wars known as the Punic wars and ultimately led to the destruction of the town in 146 BC after a four year siege. Upon its ruins, Julius Caesar rebuilt a city which became the capital of Africa, prior to being conquered by the Vandals (in 439 AD), then regained by the Byzantines (533) and then the Arabs (698).

The commercial town and link between Africa and Europe, Carthage created bonds with Marseilles among other places, the latter its former rival against which it waged war to defend its fishing zones… The two towns forged trade links, despite the competition being tough, but the winds reigning over the western Mediterranean are favourable to sea routes, with numerous stopover ports and safe havens in the event of bad weather: Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily…

A record is born:

It’s to celebrate this crossing between Europe and Africa that this sailing record was born, with François Boucher leading the chase on Marc Pajot’s ex-Elf Aquitaine, a catamaran with a sprit rechristened Saab Turbo in 1988. Serge Madec’s crew tackled this new reference time two years later on the formidable Jet Services V, completing the 458 mile course in under a day. However, boosted by their experiences in the Route du Rhum, Laurent Bourgnon and Florence Arthaud were preparing themselves in Marseilles at just about the same time in 1991: setting out a few days earlier RMO came within a hair’s breadth of 22 hours, but Pierre 1er snatched the record by just 45 seconds!

The record stood for nearly eleven years as few skippers attempt what is a very tricky course on a 60 foot trimaran, as a result of the very short seas and the difficulty of starting out in a favourable wind and sticking with it all the way across. The construction of giant multihulls was to give new impetus to proceedings with an American record hunter, the late Steve Fossett, taking the start on the catamaran PlayStation and reducing the reference time to 18 hours 46 minutes 48 seconds… However, fresh out of the yard, Orange II was to improve on that time by a further fifty minutes at a speed of 25.53 knots, one of the best average speeds after the records of the Atlantic (Groupama 3 at 29.26 knots), Miami-New York (Groupama 3 at 27 knots) and Cowes-Dinard (Maiden 2 at 25.6 knots)!