Having spent the best part of two weeks in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote soaking up the sun and preparing for the grueling 3,000-mile second leg of the Transat 6.50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia which starts next Saturday, the 70 competitors have today just completed a two-hour Prologue race.
This round the cans practice race for the second leg from Lanzarote to Salvador de Bahia was sailed in a shifty 12kt breeze and was won by the young French sailor Adrien Hardy on Brossard after a close race with Yves Le Blevec in second.
Twenty-on-year-old Hardy, sailing a Magnen design, showed his true potential on Leg 1 from La Rochelle when he finished fifth, despite breaking a rudder. Commenting on the leg Hardy said: "I'm very happy with the boat, she's so fast. Even when I had a broken rudder and dropped to 43rd place on day one of the race, I was able carry out a repair and then progress up the fleet again to fifth at the finish."
The best British sailor in today's Prologue was Phil Sharp who narrowly took fifth place from fellow British sailor Toby Hochreutener. Speaking to Hochreutener as he stepped ashore this afternoon it seems that he's pleased with his result but just needs to work on a similar position on the second leg, commenting: "It was a great race but incredibly shifty reaching about 12kts. Interestingly I had both my parents on board so I'm really pleased with the result despite being pipped at the post by Phil [Sharp]. The thing I need to do now is improve my overall position in the race."
Hochreutener finished Leg 1 of the race from La Rochelle to Lanzarote in 30th place sailing Complete Freight - a Mergui 2002 designed Proto. Chatting about the result Hochreutener said: "Because she's relatively narrow the first leg conditions - 20kts downwind - were totally unsuitable for this particular design. She's also one of the lightest boats and not as powerful as many boats in the fleet, so today's conditions were far more suitable."
The chance of a light wind start on Saturday however, is looking fairly remote with the current forecast showing a south-westerly 20kt breeze 'on the nose'. But despite this news Hochreutener is itching to go, adding: "Because we [the fleet] completed the first leg from La Rochelle in record time, we've been here for a long time now. We're all really keen to go. I'm even trying not to get phased about the predicted Hurricane that's threatening to develop over Cape Verde. We'll know more about that in the next couple of days."
Sue Pelling/Yachting World, 5 October 2005
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