H-48 for the first arrivals in Fort-de-France.
With 400 miles ahead of Armel Le Cléac'h and Kevin Escoffier (
Banque Populaire XI
), Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier (
Edmond de Rothschild)
can calmly contemplate victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre in the Ultim maxi trimarans.
3rd, François Gabart and Tom Laperche (
SVR Lazartigue
) are 490 miles behind.
“
We are sliding along the forbidden zone with Banque Populaire XI in our sights. We're giving it our all, we've done a lot of gybes since yesterday afternoon. And it's particularly physical on this big boat, but it's going pretty well,
Laperche confided on Sunday morning. According to the latest estimates,
Edmond de Rothschild
is expected at the finish line on Tuesday morning in Martinique (mid-day in mainland France). Same timing for the first Ocean Fifty, whose course was shorter (5,800 miles versus 7,500). The suspense is more lively in the 15-meter trimarans since Sébastien Rogues and Matthieu Souben (
Primonial
) are only 42 miles ahead of Erwan Le Roux and Xavier Macaire.
But the
Koesio
duo
are plagued by big energy worries.
“
That is to say no desalination, no communication, no weather files, etc.
It's quite an organization to go until the finish while keeping all our chances and our resources,
plague Le Roux
.
We still have a second passage of the Doldrums, and a few small blows to play on our comrades.
Primonial is very fast and it really annoys us on board.
It pushes us to our limits to find a way to go even faster.
Sam Goodchild and Aymeric Chappellier (
Leyton
) follow at 61 miles.
LinkedOut widens the gap
In Imoca monohulls, Thomas Rettant and Morgan Lagravière (
LinkedOut
) increased their lead over Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat (
Apivia
), who were 74 miles this Sunday morning off Brazil. Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt (
Charal
) are a hundred miles behind. In Class40, it is still close between Antoine Carpentier and Pablo Santurde Del Arco on
Redman
and Jonas Gerckens, Benoit Hantzperg on
Volvo
, separated by only twelve miles. In the middle of the Atlantic, the leaders have to do with the Sargassum. "
Since this morning it's quite often, maybe two or three times an hour, that we remove algae that gets stuck in the rudders.
There it is quite simple because we have a tool, an algae cane that we just slide along the saffron to remove the algae.
Our algae cane is top-notch! Says
Antoine Carpentier.
For the algae that gets stuck in the keel, it's a whole different story… Either we pass a piece called a knotted rope, or we make the boat heel hard so that the top of the keel comes out of the water. …
”