Samantha Davies, the talented british yachtswoman based in France, raced the 220 nm cross-channel “Transmanche” last friday and arrived in a time of 13h30m, 15 minutes from the record set by Sébastien Josse (13h14m), a french skipper based in Brittany.
The courageous sailor, who’s sponsored by MaxSea and Furuno, didn’t beat the record but had the chance to run many weather routings with the help of her MaxSea TimeZero software. The weather wasn’t good to her Savéol boat, just as the routing predicted, so it was at least a great training for the races to come, particularly the Vendée Globe.
The information offered by the Routing module was accurate, a crucial and sometimes painful point in sailboat racing.
Here’s a little abstract of Sam’s post about the Transmanche race:
“Last Friday we raced the Transmanche on board Saveol. The course is simple: L’Aber Wrac’h – Plymouth breakwater – L’Aber Wrac’h. For the IMOCA 60s the race is a “time trial” format, and the record to beat is Seb Josse on board BT – 13h14minutes. I was joined by Erwan Lemeilleur and Roger Capitaine for the race.
For the few days before the race I had been running weather routings that gave us a time of 13h28 at the best and so I knew that we were in for a good try at the record! The conditions were strong easterly winds – reaching both ways – so strong that the other boats in the race were sent on a different course to avoid the gale force winds. “
Read Samantha Davies’ post: The Transmanche
