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Tricky Caribbean conditions for the latest arrivals

09/11/09

Over the weekend, three Class40s in La Solidaire du Chocolat fleet passed through the mandatory race gate off St. Barts in the Leeward Islands and currently seven boats are racing through the Caribbean to Progreso on the northern tip of the Yucatán Peninsular in Mexico. At 2230 GMT on Saturday night, Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan leading the second wave of Class40s on Sail4Cancer in 5th place crossed the gate, followed by the Chilean duo of Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva on Desafio Cabo de Hornos, swooping down from the northeast on port gybe and moving up to 6th place shortly before reaching St. Barts at 0844 GMT on Sunday morning. Just two and-a-half hours behind Cubillos and Bravo Silva, the British duo of Peter Harding and Miranda Merron on 40 Degrees crossed the gate at 1114 GMT. Since entering the Caribbean, Wright and Brennan have stayed with the breeze and - currently south of Puerto Rico - Sail4Cancer is making eight knots while Desafio Cabo de Hornos and 40 Degrees just over 100 miles further east south of the Virgin Islands and separated by under ten miles have fallen into a hole with around six knots of north-easterly breeze and both boats are averaging below four knots in the latest position poll.

At the head of the fleet and leading by 113 miles at 0800 GMT this morning, Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy on Initiatives-Novedia sailed close to Cape Beata – the southernmost tip of the Dominican Republic - on Sunday. “We passed close to Haiti and the Dominican Republic and we saw a beautiful island with lots of fishing boats,” confirms Lamotte this morning. “They were clearly surprised to see us charging along under spinnaker.” Early on Sunday morning, Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat moved up to second place overtaking Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali on Telecom Italia with the two boats currently approaching Cape Beata separated by just two miles with Jourdren and Stamm making 14 knots – one knot faster than the Italian duo – while the race leaders on Initiatives-Novedia have slowed to under nine knots. In 4th place, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon on Cargill-MTTM resumed racing on Friday afternoon following a pit stop in St. Barts with and the French duo hold a 73 mile lead over the Anglo-Australian team on Sail4Cancer.

The next boat to reach St. Barts will be Tieto of the Finnish duo Jouni Romppanen and Sam Öhman who have been motoring westwards since retiring from the race having sustained keel problems, but the nearest competing boat to the race gate is Groupe Picoty with Jacques Fournier and Jean-Edouard Criquioche in 8th place currently working north to St. Barts. “We’re making up ground because our Chilean and English friends are stuck in light airs after the passage around St. Barts,” explained Criquioche earlier. “The weather situation isn’t very clear,” he admits. “The tropical storm around Yucatan is disturbing the flow of the Trade Winds through the Caribbean,” continues the French co-skipper. The storm is now heading north through the Gulf of Mexico centred approximately 1,500 miles to the north-west and weather models suggest Groupe Picoty may keep slightly stronger breeze than Desafio Cabo de Hornos and 40 Degrees – currently 170 miles ahead of Fournier and Criquioche. “Our strategy is to head towards Antigua and Barbuda. If all goes well, we should make more gains on our Chilean and English rivals, but it will mean keeping our foot hard on the pedal and risking sail damage. With luck, a new race should start on Monday afternoon!”

Trailing Groupe Picoty by 128 miles, Denis Lazat and Frédéric Nouel on PLAN in 9th and Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides in 10th are separated by under 10 miles forming a link between Fournier and Criquioche and the remaining pack of five Class40s in the North Atlantic led by Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy in 11th place on ORBIS, 154 miles east of Nigon and Jouany. In 13th place and – once again – polling the highest speed in the trailing group at just over eight knots on port gybe in around 11 knots of breeze, Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource are satisfied with conditions. “All is well on board,” reports West this morning. “Breeze is light and variable and the horizon is filled with lightning,” he explains. “The moon takes forever to rise today, so it is very dark!” Currently just 22 miles behind the Franco-Italian duo of David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud on Adriatech, West and Worswick are pushing hard. “Hand steering almost all the time in this stuff and we miss the wind instruments,” says the British skipper. “Having the pilot on wind would be golden in this stuff and it can be very frustrating!” admits West. “Nevertheless, we are pleased with progress in the last 24 hours.”



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