Charles Caudrelier: This epic race through the Southern Ocean will not be about optimal routing
Charles Caudrelier, skipper of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and winner of the last ex-Volvo Ocean Race, says the IMOCA crews on Leg 3 of The Ocean Race are not going for the same routing choices as he did in a Volvo Ocean 65
And that’s because in this fleet of what he calls “prototype” IMOCAs, boat preservation is more important than going as fast as possible in the strongest conditions available on the way from Cape Town to Itajaí in Brazil.
As the five IMOCAs, led by Kevin Escoffier’s crew on Holcim-PRB, tackle their first day in downwind conditions off the top of a big low pressure system centred SSE of Cape Town, Caudrelier has been watching their collective decision to stay well north of the main area of the system.
“My feeling is that probably none of the boats will finish this leg in perfect condition,” said Caudrelier, who remains on standby for this winter's Jules Verne Trophy attempt on the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. “It is a really tough stage and the boats are new – the foiling boats are still new – and I think the challenge is to find a good balance between speed and reliability.”
“We can see that they are not doing the optimal routing because they want to avoid strong winds and big waves and, for sure, everybody has that in mind in quite new boats and everybody wants to take care of their boats,” Caudrelier added.
In contrast, he recalls, he and his crew on the VO65 Dongfeng Race Team hammered the boat through the Southern Ocean in the 2017-’18 race, confident that the hull and rig could take it. “In the 65s, we were pushing the limits a lot because it was a one-design class and because the boats were strong,” he recalled. “Here it is different because they are prototype boats and we know they are not as strong as the 65s were. But it is much more interesting because you have to manage that – it is a different race, managing the boat – not pushing it to the maximum.”
Chased by Benjamin Dutreux and his team on Guyot Environnement-Team Europe, Escoffier has led this action-packed leg almost from the start. They were the first into and out of the area of light winds, south of the Cape of Good Hope, and they are now the most southerly boat of the five, as the speeds increase on the way east.