Ad Lib 98

 

Stargazer's departure is delayed due to a sustained aerial attack. By a distraught Herring Gull whose bite-sized chick has swum into the open waters of the Port Olona fairway. Stargazer's skipper elects to retreat below. A decision which (narrowly) spares him from a direct hit by a foul smelling faecal deluge.

Several buckets of salt water restore order to, and banish the evil odour from, Stargazer's bespattered cockpit. We set off to greet the returning Classe Mini 6.50 fleet (see Ad Lib 93 & 94) at the pier head.

 Observing their track and adding a new short cut, to the chart plotter, in the process.

Progress is not rapid. But it is carefree and enjoyable. For we have a fair tide and only twenty nautical miles to cover. 

A three knot average will suffice, to bring Stargazer beneath the Pointe de Grosse Terre, shortly before local high water.

When the fierce current, for which the Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie approach channel is renowned, relents for an hour. Making for more relaxed berthing. Particularly when the Capitainerie insist upon sending out 'Le Zodiac' with a crew of skilled line handlers.

Ad Lib 97

 

Les Sables d'Olonne shrinks time. Just as the Vendee Globe records have fallen (see Ad Lib 92), Stargazer's week in port has flown by. Le Quatorze (Bastille Day) will soon be upon us. It is the time, in our annual migration, to turn north.

The faithful Vent Nocturn, which bore Stargazer south, can no longer a helping hand. Now that it has become a headwind.

Fortunately, after a middle of the day stalemate, whilst the Vent Nocturne and Vent Solaire tussle for supremacy, oft as not, a south wind springs up during the afternoon.

Stargazer intends to partially test a Vent Solaire driven strategy tomorrow. Within the constraints of timing our arrival to coincide with high water. For, the tide is not to be trifled with in our next Vendee port of call.

Ad Lib 96

 

Rochelaise Robin Marais has bought, Sablais Manu Cousin's IMOCA (Coup de Pouce in the 2024 Vendee Globe). With his eye to October's Route du Rhum for a first competitive outing.

The boat is a Farr daggerboard design, first launched in 2007, by Jean-Pierre Dick. Racing under Paprec's colours, he was forced to abandon into New Zealand during the 2008 Vendee Globe. After a collision with a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object) left him rudderless.

Robin is a graduate of the Classe Mini 6.50 (see Ad Lib 93 & 94). Cutting his solo offshore teeth on the 2013 Mini Transat.

Before placing eighteenth (out of a fleet of fifty seven), aboard Class40 Ma Chance, in the 2018 Route du Rhum.

The budget to campaign a foiling IMOCA, like those on the victory pontoon ahead of him (see Ad Lib 91), is not currently available. But steady, step-wise, progression is a strategy which has, thus far, served Robin well.

Picture Credits

Robin Marais Route du Rhum 2018 courtesy of Christophe Breschi

Ad Lib 95

 

Recreational sailing remains well represented, amid the solo ocean racing with which Les Sables d'Olonne has become synonymous.

A row of regularly sailed, small, simple wooden 'classiques,' is moored before the images of the Vendee Globe greats. Bringing a smile to their weatherbeaten faces.

As they remember simpler times and pleasures.

Of setting out purely for the pleasure of discovering what sailing joys the day has in store.

Stargazer's skipper shadows the outbound fleet, from the shade of Quai Garnier's alleyways.

Whilst maintaining a sharp lookout for a barber. His last haircut harking back to Poole.

Eventually he emerges, sharply shorn, at the pierhead.

Where the classiques are bobbing over the Biscay swell. Making for an anchorage, off the Grande Plage. To enjoy a picnic stop followed by a cooling dip.

Ad Lib 94

 

A lone Classe Mini slips back into Les Sables d'Olonne. After an early morning foray, courtesy of the Vent Nocturne.

Barely a zephyr remains. But such is the cloud of canvas set by the diminutive craft. . . .

. . . that she glides back to her berth without resort to engine. Her skipper sat down to leeward, milking every last ounce of power from the fading breeze.

By the time that Stargazer's skipper re emerges from the shadows of La Chaume, a warm-from-the-oven breakfast baguette in hand. . . .

. . . .a small convoy has formed. Of Mini Atlantique (see Ad Lib 93) competitors. Tempted out for a spot of boat on boat testing.

Before the heat of the mid morning sun stuns the wind.

Ad Lib 93

 

In the shadow of the Vendee Globe hall of fame, two, very different, solo race fleets form up.

Seventy Classe Mini 6.50's (the boats' length in metres) will sail to the Azores and back. Leaving on the twenty second of July. The craft forever pushing the boundaries of nautical design. Spawning, for example, the scow bow and square top main.

The Mini Atlantique race is established as an important rung, on the career ladder of aspiring Class40 and IMOCA skippers. Such as Ambroggio Beccaria. A past winner. Before becoming the skipper to beat in the Class40 calender. Last month, he was victorious in the Vendee Arctique, aboard an IMOCA.

Further along the pontoon, an emphatically "old school" solo fleet is assembling. Bound around the world. Departure date the sixth of September. "Sail like its 1966," the race strapline. August 1966 being the date of Francis Chichester's celebrated solo circumnavigation, aboard Gypsy Moth. 

Entrants for the Golden Globe Race are required to sail traditional long keel designs, between thirty two and thirty six feet long, with no 'modern' electronic aids. Such as GPS, autopilot, AIS and radar. No internet or mobile phone connectivity, nor outside weather routing assistance of any kind, is permitted.

Skippers must sail arduous qualifying passages prior to the start. Daniel Alfredsson deciding, whilst Stargazer was sheltering in Camaret (see Ad Lib 64), to retire as a result. After facing four severe North Atlantic gales in succession, whilst on passage from Norway to Les Sables.

The svelte looking, Holman & Pye designed, Rustler 36 is a popular choice for competitors. The more so since Sablaise local, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede ('VDH'), won the 2018 event, at the spritely age of seventy three, aboard one.

Ad Lib 92

 

"A high impact event that is difficult to predict. . . . .but that in retrospect. . . .appears inevitable." Is the Encyclopedia Britannica's definition of a Black Swan occurence.

Stargazer's skipper's day has certainly had a dreamlike quality. Yesterday's early start, to catch the night breeze, exacting an unusually severe toll. I take a sleepy stroll around the lagoons, behind Port Olonna, in an attempt to clear my head. Sighting our, possibly portentous, Black Swan.

Beyond the tranquil lakes lies a supermarket sized Decathlon store. Proud to declare, at the door, its support for the 2028 Vendee Globe campaign of local lad, Benj Dutreux. Who runs the Eole yard and J-Boat dealership in nearby Bourgenay. And who raced the ex-Hugo Boss (see Ad Lib 91) in 2024.

By the time I return to the waterfront, with a fresh bag of shorts and polo shirts to salt water abuse, Stargazer's washing is ready to retrieve from the Lavarie Automatique. The operation of which is the most complex task that my fuddled brain is today capable of.

The victors, of the ten editions of the Vendee Globe Race, smile knowingly. Their ever decreasing record times proudly displayed beside their likenesses. One hundred and nine days, for Titouan Lamazou, reduced to sixty four by Charlie Dalin. Experts all, at the art of maintaining peak physical function in the face of sustained sleep deprivation.

Ad Lib 91

 

Alex Thomson's British built (Green Marine, Southampton) Hugo Boss, from the 2016 Vendee Globe, waits for the start of the 2028 race. Smartly suited and booted, in assertive carbon black, beneath the shimmering white heat of the midday sun. Now under the command of Arnaud Boissieres.

Stargazer left Ile d'Yeu in the predawn cool. Her skipper, dressed in shorts and polo shirt, watching as the flames of sunrise lick the horizon. Red turns to pink turns to orange.

Heralding the appearance of the incandescent orb itself.

Stargazer clears the southern tip of Yeu. Making better than six knots, with the help of the Vent Nocturne and a fair tide.

Orange turns to gold, upon the canvas of Stargazer's tautly bellied sails.

Then to a diamond sharp white. To match the foam flecked bow wave, Which streams aft over azure waters.

Wind and tide begin to flag by mid morning. Exhausted by an exuberant sun close to its midsummer zenith. Stargazer skirts Les Barges reefs to shorten her distance in.

Slowly we overtake the red topped land bound lighthouse.

Stargazer closes the pierheads of Les Sables d'Olonne's famous channel. Which turns into a spectator lined amphitheatre, every four years, for the Vendee Globe race.