It's hovering again on the Route du Café. In any case for the former,
Edmond de Rothschild
and
Banque Populaire XI
. At 9:00 am this Tuesday morning, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier were spinning at over 30 knots on their foils off Natal. The Doldrums behind, the leaders of the Transat Jacques Vabre extend their lead to 256 miles on the route to Trindade and Martim Vaz, a Brazilian archipelago off Rio de Janeiro and a compulsory passage point for the Ultim on the route to Fort-de-France. Armel Le Cléac'h and Kevin Escoffier, their closest pursuers, have also regained speed (28 knots) at the helm of their maxi-trimaran launched last spring. 3rd, 342 miles behind the leaders, François Gabart and Tom Laperche (
SVR Lazartigue)
are about to take off again.
It was not easy, we lost a lot of ground on our competitors.
Francois Gabart
“
We had a difficult Doldrums which extended well in the length
, blew Gabart at the radio session this Tuesday morning.
We had a first complicated cloud high in latitude with a wind which passed from the east to the west for 36 hours, then the day yesterday was marked by the total absence of wind. It was not easy, we lost a lot of ground on our competitors. We are happy to get out of it, we have not completely crossed the stable zone, we are between two trade winds (a weak and a stable). These last few hours we are making more than 15 knots and that feels good!
“They were progressing ten knots even faster at 9am (25), proof that the Pot is well behind them.
To read also "The fear of our life": Caudrelier recounts the frightening encounter of the maxi-trimaran Edmond de Rothschild with a cargo ship
Yves Le Blévec and Anthony Marchand (Actual Ultim 3, +410 miles) are also close to the exit while Thomas Coville-Thomas Rouxel, they are only starting their crossing of the Pot after their technical stopover in Madeira.
Sodebo Ultim 3
is 770 miles from the lead, in the middle of the Ocean Fifty fleet still led by Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben.
But
Primonial
slowed down sharply in the Pot (9 knots) and its lead is diminishing (89 miles over Erwan Le Roux and Xavier Macaire over
Koesio
).
Among the monohulls, the regatta is still very close in Imoca in the east of Cape Verde.
Thomas Rouillard and Morgan Lagravière (
LinkedOut
) lead this Tuesday morning with 7.3 miles ahead of Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat (
Apivia
) positioned a little further north.
Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt (
Charal
) are not far behind (+27 miles).
The battle is still raging in Class40 along the Moroccan coast.
Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde Del Arco (
Redman
) are 20 miles ahead of the Swiss duo Valentin Gautier-Simon Koster (
Banque du Léman
) followed closely by Jonas Gerckens and Benoît Hantzperg (
Volvo, +21
) and Emmanuel Le Roch and Pierre Quiroga (Endered, +24.5).
Hair dryer and Sahara dunes
“
Things are slipping hard last night aboard Banque du Léman.
Full south, port tack, at an average of nearly 15 knots with surfing around 20 knots ... a treat !,
savors Valentin Gautier
. Every now and then a gust hotter than the others blows on the back of our necks, like a hair dryer, to remind us that the air which is inflating our spinnaker at the moment has been heated a few miles to the wind on the dunes of the Sahara. This kind of reminder does a lot of good, by dint of being the nose in the handlebars, focused on the competition, we tend to forget that our toys also take us on a journey through the seas (…) It's very stimulating to find ourselves in the fight like this with two sister ships of our boat, there are no possible excuses and that pushes us to make the most of it. Especially since these two other Manuard plans are not led by the latest comers, a winner of the Transat (Antoine Carpentier) and the outgoing winner of the Solitaire du Figaro (Pierre Quiroga),there are worse than hares!
"
