12:11 AM Tue 17 Nov 2009 GMT
Always up with the Solidaire du Chocolat leaders and in the match, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon crossed the finishing line to take fourth place after 28 days, 10 hours, 51 minutes and 55 seconds at sea.
The Nantes-based crew logged a fine result in what turned out to be an extremely tough race marked by virulent weather conditions. Enthusiastic and motivated, Damien and Armel never left anything to chance and did everything they possibly could to finish among the top boats. Tried by the passage of six lows over the Atlantic passage, recurring energy problems on board forced the decision to make a pitstop in Saint Barts to repair the alternator belt.
After the statutory minimum three hours (and 1 minute) stopover in the port of Gustavia, the crew of Cargill-MTTM set sail again having recharged their batteries in every sense of the term, determined to get onto the podium. Never the less, conditions that followed were such that little room was left for tactical tricks to juggle the rankings in the Caribbean. At an average speed of 7.33 knots, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon sailed a fine race indeed over the 5 000 nautical miles ((9 260 km) from France to Mexico.
Taking fifth placed in La Solidaire du Chocolat, British yachtsman, Tim Wright, and his Australian co-skipper, Nicko Brennan, crossed the finish line off Progreso at 1447 GMT today, Monday 16 November, on Wright's two year-old Akilaria Class40, Sail4Cancer.
'It is a real relief to finish and it is great to finally stop racing. The race was very difficult and very long,' said Tim Wright shortly after crossing the finish line. 'Sailing through the gate at St. Barts was a very memorable moment: it was a great relief, but at the same time, we still had 1,500 miles to sail,' he continued. 'The last week wasn't easy with very unstable wind in both force in direction,' recalls Wright. 'Very hard on the nerves! We are happy to have completed this beautiful race, but we were severely tested right up to the finish line,' admits the British skipper. 'For my part, I am not sure I could embark on such a huge challenge again,' says Wright. 'We were really punished by the weather conditions and sailed the entire race on our own, without seeing another boat.'
Stephen Card (skipper ORBIS):
'We just don't have any wind. We got about six hours of light breeze last night, which has now turned into flat calm. We had a look at the water situation yesterday and if the wind picks-up, we should be OK to sail straight to Progreso. If we have anymore weather like we have at the moment, we will probably have to stick our heads into Grand Cayman. Apart from the water, everything is OK. All our group arrived in Progreso last night and they will leave on the 24th. The GRIBs are showing 9-12 knots of breeze and we've got just two knots. Watching everyone else sail away from you is not good. Adriatech, the nearest boat to us is 140 miles ahead now.'
Felipe Cubillos (skipper Desafio Cabo de Hornos):
'It's dawn and we have the coast of Yucatan to leeward and the breeze stayed with us overnight. We've reduced the distance of Sail4Cancer ahead of us and have increased our lead over 40 Degrees behind us. As always, congratulations to the winners and it has been a privilege to share the race with Tanguy de Lamotte, Giovanni Soldini and Bernard Stamm. We don't want to just pay tribute to these giants of offshore sailing, but also to congratulate all the other boats in the race: all the boats still racing and the boats that fought hard, but have had to retire. Many of the boats still racing are already with very little food, tired, very tired, and some are frustrated and with little water..but they continue fighting. They do not surrender and they are giving everything to get to the finish line, even though some of them may be five days from Progreso. In a society where the important thing is often success and victory with a culture of winner-takes-all, we want to pay tribute to the teams still fighting who don't care about fame or recognition and for whom the finishing of the race is fulfilling and of prime importance.'
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