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A final sprint for the race leaders

12/11/09

Overnight, the three leading boats in La Solidaire du Chocolat paced each other westwards running south of Cuba with Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy on Initiatives-Novedia maintaining a lead of just over 100 miles. At 0400 GMT this morning, Lamotte and Hardy sailed close to Cuba's offshore island, Isla de la Juventad, slowing to below six knots while Telecom Italia in 2nd and Cheminées Poujoulat in 3rd made better pace. However, the 0800 GMT position poll reveals that Initiatives-Novedia have picked-up speed to just under nine knots while the Italian duo of Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d'Ali trail the leaders by 119 miles and Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm are currently 14 miles off the starboard quarter of Telecom Italia on Cheminées Poujoulat with both the chasing Class40s averaging slightly under eight knots. Lamotte and Hardy are first to enter the NNW band of 15-16 knot breeze flowing through the Gulf of Mexico and these conditions may remain stable for the race leaders for the remaining 354 miles to the finish line in Progreso. North of Jamaica, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon in 4th on Cargill-MTTM and Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan in 5th on Sail4Cancer are separated by 63 miles making sub-six knots averages in an area of light headwinds although the pair of boats may escape its grip later this morning. Trailing Wright and Brennan by 151 miles, Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva on Desafio Cabo de Hornos in 6th and Peter Harding and Miranda Merron in 7th on 40 Degrees continue close racing separated by under 10 miles as the boats climb north-west towards the western tip of Haiti and the entrance to the Jamaica Channel. Over the past 24 hours, sailing further offshore Haiti has been favourable for Harding and Merron with the British duo winning 21 miles from the Chilean team.

Trailing 40 Degrees by 189 miles this morning in 8th, Jacques Fournier and Jean-Edouard Criquioche on Groupe Picoty report further damage to their mainsail and have opted for the most southern route through the Caribbean of the entire fleet, dropping south-west away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic into the open water, while Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides in 9th have followed the more popular route further north with Nigon and Jouany currently trailing Groupe Picoty by just under 200 miles.

Meanwhile, just west of St. Barts, the Caribbean is becoming crowded with five boats separated by just 38 miles. Leading the pack, Denis Lazat and Frédéric Nouel on PLAN, made a pit stop in Port Gustavia on St. Barts yesterday. “It had been a horrible few days with the boat taking a beating and her crew covered in bruises,” recalled Lazat last night. “We also had two spinnakers destroyed, a gennaker in a real mess and - to avoid navigating with a sextant and cutting out all communications – we needed some fuel.” After much debate on board, the call to pull into St. Barts was finally made. “Our decision was made easier by an email from a friend with a catamaran in Gustavia offering help and - more importantly – dinner!” explains the French skipper. “The result: two spinnakers and a genoa mended and a full tank of fuel,” he confirms. “And dinner? It turned into breakfast on the catamaran with scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, beans and very cold orange juice followed by a quick shower before Groupe Picoty got too far away from us. A November 11th to remember!” Loaded with fresh vegetables, PLAN was towed out of the harbour and restarted sailing at 1401 GMT yesterday, just over an hour before David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud on Adriatech crossed the St. Barts gate in 12th place, quickly followed by Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado on Crédit Maritime and Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource in 13th and 14th place.

Currently the group of five boats are south of St. Croix in around 12 knots of south-easterly breeze with speed averages of between six to eight knots, while the two closest boats, PLAN in 10th place and Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy on ORBIS in 11th are separated by only four miles. The one remaining boat in the Atlantic, Vale Inco Nouvelle Calédonie of Yves Eclaret and Lionel Regnier, has scheduled a stop in St. Barts for repairs to her tattered and torn sails.




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