LATEST NEWS

Softly, softly to the finish line

14/11/09

The final sprint to the finish for the race leaders, Tanguy de Lamotte and Adrien Hardy on Initiatives-Novedia turned into an inshore drift overnight. Speeds for Lamotte and Hardy began to drop after 1600 GMT on Friday and by midnight, the French duo were making between two and three knots in a barely perceptible easterly breeze as they slowly worked their way along the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula towards the finish line off Progresso. At 0800 GMT this morning, Initiatives-Novedia is making just five knots with 23 miles of racing remaining. While Giovanni Soldini and Pietro d’Ali in 2nd on Telecom Italia and Bruno Jourdren and Bernard Stamm in 3rd on Cheminées Poujoulat held the breeze slightly longer, the two chasing boats also stalled as they approached Cape Catoche at the eastern end of the peninsula. Although the Italian team have decreased the lead held by Lamotte and Hardy to 95 miles, Soldini and d’Ali are currently making just over six knots with Jourdren and Stamm directly astern by 10 miles and averaging a little under three knots. Weather models indicate that while the light airs may continue for Telecom Italia and Cheminées Poujoulat, Lamotte and Hardy may pick up pace fractionally over the next few hours.

South of Cuba, Damien Seguin and Armel Tripon in 4th on Cargill-MTTM have continued to extend their lead over Tim Wright and Nicko Brennan in 5th on Sail4Cancer and 97 miles now separates the two Class40s. Further east by 141 miles, Felipe Cubillos and Daniel Bravo Silva in 6th on Desafio Cabo de Hornos and the British team of Peter Harding and Miranda Merron on 40 Degrees in 7th are separated by 13 miles with the Chilean team averaging slightly better speed at nine knots, while Harding and Merron, taking a track slightly further north, are making just over eight knots as the pair of Class40s heads towards the Cayman Islands.

A major division in distance now divides the fleet in two with seven boats racing south of Jamaica and Cuba led by Jacques Fournier and Jean-Edouard Criquioche on Groupe Picoty in 8th place, 322 miles behind Harding and Merron on 40 Degrees. The trailing pack has split into two sub-groups: Erik Nigon and Marc Jouany on Axa Atout Coeur Pour Aides in 9th have followed Fournier and Criquioche south with a current distance deficit of 78 miles on Groupe Pictoy. While Fournier and Nigon’s Class40s are now on starboard gybe heading north-west towards Jamaica, Denis Lazat and Frédéric Nouel in 10th on PLAN, Mike West and Paul Worswick on Keysource in 13th and Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado in 14th on Crédit Maritime are currently continuing to drop down through the Caribbean on port gybe in around 11 knots of easterly breeze with 34 miles separating the trio of boats.

Meanwhile, two boats - David Consorte and Aubry Arnaud in 11th on Adriatech and Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy in 12th on ORBIS - are currently separated by 24 miles on a more northern route favoured by the majority of the fleet, closer to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.     




← Actualités précédente - Actualités suivante →