ARMEN RACE
Sea Rescue on the Armen Race
A few days ago, during the Armen Race that took place from May 25th to 28th in La Trinité sur Mer, Vincent de Kerviler – Delnic crew member – had a close shave! On the first night of the race, he fell overboard during a maneuver and stayed some long minutes in the sea before being rescued.
Let’s go back to this rescue that could not happen without the onboard safety equipment and the solidarity of the Armen race competitors, especially Arnavel crew members…
Falling overboard sometimes comes to a tragic end. Fortunately on that night, Vincent de Kerviler was wearing his safety equipment: life jacket and individual SART AIS beacon. The rescue was made by the competitors behind him who were equipped with Adrena navigation software. It automatically displayed on screen the MOB activated by Mr de Kerviler’s beacon. Thanks to the MOB alarm, Anavel crew found him in less than 30 minutes: Adrena was indicating the distance and heading to the MOB.
Hervé Cardon, JPK10.10 Anavel: “Suddenly we heard on the VHF: “MOB rescue maneuver”. We thought that this information was coming from another boat but we were surprised not to hear anything else after this message. The crew members in front of the screen saw a MOB rectangle displayed on the chart… Then they clicked on the buoy and the MOB rectangle moved at the bottom right of the screen with distance display: 650m (2000ft), 500m (1600ft)… ADRENA automatically received the information via the AIS beacon of Vincent and sent a MOB message.“
Cecile Rodet, Adrena CEO: “For 14 years, we have been developing our software for racing, and we have always tried to offer to our users a complete and performant tool. When we develop a safety function like the MOB display sent by a SART AIS beacon, we are of course aware of the importance of such a function even if it can be a bit abstract. It is a lot of emotion and happiness to hear that somewhere, our company contributed to his rescue. Congratulations to Anavel crew and our best wishes to Mr de Kerviler from Adrena team.“
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©BernardBodin
The diversity of profiles and stories makes the success of the Armen Race!
Despite the incident, the race was a success. No fewer than 200 navigators were on the starting line in La Trinité sur Mer, France. The Armen Race gathered a mix of Ultim’, IMOCA, Multi 50, Pogo 8.50, and IRC boats.
On the Ultim’s side, the race was a good training before The Bridge event starting in less than one month. It was a great challenge that gave them the opportunity to confront themselves. After 18 hours 21 minutes and 26 seconds, MACIF finished in first position just ahead of Thomas Coville and his team onboard SODEBO who crossed the finish line 1 hour and 16 minutes later. ACTUAL finished in third position with an arrival in the beginning of the evening.
A first one for Francois Gabart and a last one for Morgan Lagraviere: Francois Gabart and his team raced onboard MACIF trimaran for the first time of this 2017 edition. The crew proved to have strong determination and ambition. For Morgan Lagraviere, a brilliant navigation throughout the route was also to be noted while he was sailing his very last race onboard IMOCA SAFRAN.
Talking about IMOCA, SMA finished in first position, just 2 minutes ahead of SAFRAN. INITIATIVES CŒUR completes the podium after a very nice demonstration.
For many IRC skippers, it was a good opportunity to experiment some tactical techniques in an intense and demanding race before the Transquadra that will start on July 12th in Barcelona, Spain and on July 16th in Lorient, France.
The route of the Armen Race is always very much appreciated by the Multi 50 category. REAUTE CHOCOLAT crew skippered by Armel Tripon was again on the top of the podium while they keep learning about the boat.
SOLITAIRE
Are there “Grand crus” competing in La Solitaire? Above all great champions!
A very festive atmosphere welcomed the 43 skippers, all of them very excited to take part in one of the biggest competitions of the season. Conviviality was the key word throughout the week in Bordeaux. Fireworks, parade of sail, visits of the Belem and many other entertainments took place on the arrival of the Figaro boats in Bordeaux. After all of these festivities, the skippers switched on a more serious aspect of the competition: equipment preparation, controls and measurements to check the conformity of the boats, briefings… a busy schedule for the competitors before the big start. Adrena navigation software is then an essential tool in the skippers’ preparation phase, especially in the analysis of routings and optimization.
©AlexiCouroux
1st Leg under chaotic conditions
Racing his ninth Solitaire, Nicolas Lunven claimed his first leg win in a time of 2 days, 7 hours, 31 minutes and 16 seconds! Massive congratulations to him!
It was a very difficult leg with heavy rain, hail and gusts picking up to 50 kts in the Bay of Biscay on the second night. These violent conditions caused a lot of damages on the boats and huge disappointments. Many skippers, like Erwan Tabarly, Anthony Marchand, Damien Guillou and Jérémie Beyou to name but a few, had to abandon the first stage.
Adrien Hardy finished this leg in second, just 13 minutes behind the leader. Sébastien Simon crossed the finish line in third, exhausted and very impressed by the grueling conditions. He was followed by Charlie Dalin, winner of the Solo Concarneau race, finishing at the foot of the podium.
Eventually, Yann Elies, who won the Solitaire du Figaro three times, finished in fifth position whereas he was in the leading group at the beginning of the leg.
The sailors have only a few days to get some rest before setting sail off on Leg 2 to Concarneau, France on Saturday. Good luck to them!
Back to the beginning of the season: THE NORMANDY CHANNEL RACE
Adrena was equipping most of the skippers of the competition!
The Normandy Channel Race is a popular double-handed offshore challenge in France. This 8th edition gathered 26 teams from many different countries. 70% of them were equipped with Adrena software, included the Jersey sailor Phil Sharp, winner of the race alongside his teammate Pablo Santurde.
However, they were not guaranteed to succeed. Indeed, V&B was leading until the end of the first day. From half of the course, Phil Sharp and Pablo Santurde overtook all of their rivals and pulled ahead far from them, being the first ones to round Wolf Rock lighthouse. They were already quite tired from the first part of the race but they managed to keep their lead, pushing the boat very hard until the end. The boats behind them did not spare their effort either. Serenis Consulting finished in second position, after a splendid navigation throughout the route and an all-out battle with their pursuers V&B.
This 8th edition was the richest edition ever in terms of tension and effort. During the first part of the race, the boats were navigating within sight of each other in rough weather conditions, close-reaching and seriously uncomfortable. The second part contrasted a lot with downwind in 15-20 knots planning conditions with the spinnaker. The skippers enjoyed these excellent sailing conditions, keeping the pedal pushed until the arrival.
