The start of the La Charente-Maritime/Bahia - Transat 650 2011 now only 24 hours away! Ulf Brändström has finally done the last preparations to the Nacira 650. But still in the race village the activity is high and the sailors and their shorecrew always seem to find new things that have to be sorted before the leave tomorrow. Many of the sailors are fully sponsored and have a shorecrew with them and others have friends that help them with the preparations and some seem to be working alone. One of the professionals I spoke to envied Ulf with his help. He´s almost a little bit posh, he said with the glimps in his eyes.
- I´ve had some trouble with my autopilots that did not work two days ago, now thats fixed I hope. Best would have been if I had the possibility to go out for a trial but we are not allowed to leave the harbour. The "NKE guy" worked with my boat until five this morning. My friend and Nacira representative Aymeric Belloir, have also helped me with the preparations of the boat. To night I will sneak under the boat and clean the hull, says Ulf.The sailors are not allowed to dive into the water before the start but at many boats there are drysuits hanging and diving equipment on the kay.
The weather for the first leg to Madeira seem to be quit light upwind. This is not the strongest side of the Nacira.
- I have to be focused on steering on this first leg, to be able to keep the speed up. Sail a little bit lower and go for the 6 knot speed. Not to much sleeping on this firts leg. My strategy will be to sail rumbline down to La Coruna or Finisterre and follow the Portugeese coastline and then aim for Madeira. This is the current strategy for most of the production boats but some of the protos seem to go further west to hope for stronger winds but it´s too much of a risk. My hopes will be to end up around the places of 25 to 30 within the production class, Ulf says.When I look into Ulfs boat the stacking is prepared for lightwind, all sails are in the front of the boat and all the 60 liter of drinking water is stacked at the hullside in front of ther middle. Ursuit foul weather suit and just one set of clothes is brought on the boat. Shorts, t-shirt and one pair of underwear! Ulf will use a special kind of soft "chair" when resting and steering to save an aiching back. It will be interesting to get feedback from that. All food is of course freeze dried.
- The water for the food will be boiled in a kettle that my father have used during his sailing trips so it has some special feelings attached to it, Ulf says.Before I leave Ulf for his swim under the boat I ask him who will be the winner of the mini transat 2011.
- I think for the protoclass that at least I wish Guillaume Le Brec (FRA667), Antoine Rioux (FRA800) and Thomas Normand (FRA787) will be fighting for the victory.In the production class it´s almost impossible to pic a winner. The TipTop and the D2 boats may have a chance in the upwinds but Nacira and Pogo2 are faster downwind. So probably one of the french top sailors in a Pogo2 will win, Ulf says.
