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The 27/11/2009

Fast learners?

Finishing in fifth, bookending Foncia and Veolia Environnement, the Spanish duo of Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella sailed a remarkable race considering this was their first race together, and they are relative beginners in the IMOCA Open 60 Class.....

Fast learners. They had only sailed on W-Hotels for few days together before the start of this Transat Jacques Vabre Race. They had never raced two-handed together, and only learned the IMOCA Open 60 on the Istanbul Race in the summer.

But Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella pulled off the coup of the race when they clinched fifth place today by just four and a half minutes ahead of Roland Jourdain and Jean-Luc Nélias, getting the best of an exciting final tussle over the final 24 hours.

In squally, intermittent winds which prompted big gains and losses through the final hours of this scrap for fifth to eighth places, the intensity was more akin to an inshore regatta.

W-Hotels passed Veolia Environnement three times since yesterday, the final time just half a mile from the finishing line. Sportingly, Ribes was apologetic to the Veolia skipper when they docked in Peurto Limon, drenched from the torrential tropical rain.

Their margin was just four minutes and 16 seconds after over 5,500 miles of racing and just two hours less than 20 days of racing.

At one point, when all four emerged from Stealth mode this morning W-Hotels were over 5 miles behind Veolia Environnement.

The Spanish pair were especially quick downwind, hard driving in the trades and the Caribbean, learning quickly what makes the former Paprec-Virbac. Pella, previously a top Mini 650 sailor, admitted they missed the option to push west with the trio who took the top three places, and that they made many small mistakes on their learning curve.

Clearly they are a duo with a potent chemistry. Ribes – one of the world’s top bowmen - has huge experience on the Volvo 70’s racing with Telefonica Blue and previously with Movistar, as well as a wealth of America’s Cup and IMS racing experience.

Pepe Ribes, (ESP), W-Hotels: “ The last 36 hours have been no sleep, no eating, nothing. We played the stealth card and so did everyone else at the same time. And when we played the stealth it was the first time that we saw a boat, with Veolia just crossing our bows, that was yesterday morning. Then since then we passed them once and then they passed us again, then we passed them again just half a mile from the finish line. I really don’t know what made the difference in the end. We went to the beach and then we saw Aviva, who were very close to us, only 50 metres away.

We went with Aviva to the beach and we waited for them to tack but they did not tack, and so we tacked and from there we were reaching really, really fast maybe 18-19 knots.

Then we saw a light and thought it was a cruising boat. We were sure Veolia were way ahead. In one of the squalls they managed to drop their spinnaker and put up their masthead genoa and go straight, so we had to bear away. So they left. And when we saw a green light we thought it was a cruising boat. I looked with the binos and told Alex and we could not believe.”

“ I think it is good result for us, very very good. We were not expecting such a good result at all. We did not know the level, and for me I thought between tenth and fourteenth and we finished fifth, so, fantastic. It is a good result for me, and I hope for Spain.”

“ I feel very, very tired. But we made many, many mistakes. At the beginning, not so much now. We made a lot of mistakes and lost a lot of miles. But we are going forwards.”

“ I think we were pushing the boat very, very hard and broke a lot of things. We were good together. We tried to share everything and learn about each other. He has a lot of strong points and I have strong points and it works well. He is more like an offshore sailor, more relaxed and I am more go, go, go. It is a good mix, I am always 100%. We pushed, I don’t care, I sail it like a Volvo boat, we keep pushing and I don’t care if the boat breaks.”

“But we made mistakes, it is double handed and it is new for us.”

Alex Pella (ESP) W-Hotels: “ The boat is OK, but we broke a lot of small things, the spinnaker. We had problems with the pilots, sometimes they worked, sometimes they did not work. But we fived them with a spare compass, and they worked, and then two days later they did not. But the boat is nice and work towards the Barcelona World Race.

Pepe is a very good sailor. He has so much experience and pushes very hard, he has experience with the Volvo boats which helped, and I learned so much from sailing with Pepe.”

“ On the one hand he is a very methodical guy, very ordered but he wants to push all the time, to push hard.”

“ At the beginning of the race we had decided to go south, but then when we saw some going west, we said ok we try to catch this option but it was too late. In fact there was a time when we tried but we were too late. We went with the wrong option.

But we are here!”  

“ Foncia and Akena went further south. We had a maximum of 50 knots in the third storm and big waves.”

“ I am really, really happy. We are hear to learn the boat. This is a training for the Barcelona World Race and here we are in Costa Rica, it is incredible….in between Foncia and Veolia. It is fantastic!”

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