Yves le Blévec leads Transat 6,50

by Event media on 12 Oct 2007
Last night, Yves le Blévec (Actual) was close to the obligatory passage imposed by the Transat 6,50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia organization. The competitors have to cross a zone between Santo Antao island (North West of Cape Verde) and Maio small island (South East of the archipelago).

At this passage, Le Blévec will have spent a little bit more than five days to sail over 1,000 nautical miles, between Madeira and Cape Verde. A considerable performance, when we remember that during the first 24 hours, there was almost no wind blowing on the sailing zone.

Behind Actual’s boat, it is almost the 'survivors' race. One after the other, the first leg favourites suffer - most of the time because of rigging problems.

Isabelle Joschke (Degrémont-Synergie), will stop at Cap Verde, maybe for good.

Apparently, Samuel Manuard (Sitting Bull) also has a serious problem with his rig in view of his slow speed since yesterday. The (ex?) favourite is now 135 nautical miles behind the leader.

Nicolas Brennan (Rafiki) takes third position fromof Fabien Desprées (Soitec). But he is still 52 nautical miles behind Yves. Adrien Hardy (Brossard), returned to the direct route after his Mauritanian escape, and is now running like a hare after Yves.

The unfortunate first leg skippers, Peter Laureyssens (Ecover) and Alex Pella (Generalitat Valenciana) catching the leading squad. They have reached the 5th and 10th position.

Of course, the wide move in the direction of Cape Verde funnel also concerns the sailors that picked the East option… The first is the astonishing Stéphane le Diraison. First series boat in Madeira, the Cultisol-Institut Curie’s skipper wants a piece of the leaders action.

Let’s continue to observe the interesting path chosen by Kristian 'I don’t ask myself any question' Hajnsek (Adria Mobil); the sailor should arrive serenly to Santo Antao Island without having (or rarely) gybed. By leaving Mindelo to port, he choose exactly the same path as Corentin Douguet in 2005. There is now more than 600 nautical miles between the head of the fleet and those that are stuck in Canaries (Seb Gladu – Clichy sous bois Clichy sur l’eau).

The 20+ knots wind, with gusts, has caused much damage: broken spinnaker poles, torn out rudder heads or folded masts. The last victim is the Italian Andrea Carraci (Speedy Bonsai) who dismasted and from whom we expect more news thanks to the support vessel that has rerouted to meet him.

Transat 6.50 - Leading Positions, speed, DTF, DTL at 18:00hrs 11 Oct 2007

1 624 le Blevec Yves Actual 9.7 2042.42 0
2 198 Hardy Adrien Brossard 7 2047.45 5.03
3 419 Brennan Nicholas Rafiki 9.7 2070.74 28.32
4 617 Despres Fabien Soitec 7 2092.48 50.06
5 348 Sineau David Bretagne lapins 7 2096.58 54.16
6 618 Laureyssens Peter Ecover 7.5 2113.47 71.05
7 509 Hajnsek Kristian Adria mobil 8 2115.94 73.52
8 260 Cusin Olivier Energies autour du monde 8.6 2117.22 74.8
9 424 Deshayes Ronan Pco technologies 10.2 2119.98 77.56
10 347 Riou Yann Cameleon 10.7 2130.83 88.41
11 539 le Diraison Stéphane Cultisol - institut curie 8 2135.27 92.85
12 321 Vadeleau Yoann Lune de miel pour bahia 7 2141.4 98.98
13 429 Pella Alex Generalitat valenciana 5.9 2145.03 102.61
14 417 Duguet François Credit agricole skipper challenge 8 2156.74 114.32
15 518 Piveteau Hervé Jules - imprimerie cartoffset 9.1 2160.6 118.18
16 630 Cassanas Matthieu Ville de balaruc les bains 9.1 2161.87 119.45
17 454 Salabert François Areas assurances 8.6 2163.04 120.62
18 628 Monegier Quentin Tabon 9.7 2167.76 125.34
19 575 Burkhalter Clayton Acadia 9.1 2178.86 136.44
20 510 Mihelin Andraz Adria mobil too 10.7 2192.23 149.81