Route du Rhum - La Banque Postale- Groupe Bel abandons

by Route du Rhum/Sail-World on 7 Nov 2010 Route du Rhum-La Banque Postale update from the fleet.

Within 1000 miles of Pointe-a-Pitre, Franck Cammas still has overall control of the Ultime class and the race, making more than 20 knots this morning on the giant green trimaran.

But ahead almost half of that last mileage looks to be plagued by some extremely light winds, a huge zone effectively barring the direct rout to the finish.

Whilst Cammas lead by 283 miles this morning, it is Francis Joyon (Idec) who is now up to second place after an electric 24 hours. The solo round the world record skipper pushed the line higher with a 534 miles 24 hours to 0400hrs this morning. In fact up to the NWW by around 435 miles Thomas Coville (Sodebo) had lost little to the leader, Joyon has simply been faster.

Roland Jourdain’s lead in the IMOCA Open 60 class is now around 40 miles.

Kito de Pavant has had to turn for the Azores, abandoning the race due to keel ram failure. In the Multi 50’s Franck-Yves Escoffier still has over 100 miles in hand over Actual and should extend as he is out of the front and Actual was stuck early this morning. And Thomas Ruyant continues his march at the head of the Class 40’s.

Multi 50's
Negotiating the front has not been easy for the Multi 50 leaders. Franck Yves Escoffier extended his lead some 50 miles this morning to 160 miles looks set to continue his gains on Yves le Blevec on Actual who had slowed this morning back to between 2 and 7 knots, stuck in light winds on the edge of the frontal transition. Lionel Lemonchois on Prince de Bregtagne continues a comeback.

Franck-Yves Escoffier (Crepes-Whaou!): 'I have been out on deck as much as possible after I slept for 45 minutes. I have be wary. I had a cargo ship and if I had not slowed it could have been an issue. The sea is not very nice just now, and I am not in such a great mood when you see your rival coming back so much.'

IMOCA
Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) has been able to continue to push very steadily ahead of Brit Air (Armel Le Cléac'h, at 40.8 miles in front of the double Figaro Solitaire winner this morning. The IMOCA leaders are now well into a solid phase of NE’lies around 20 knots which have been allowing them to push hard.

Worst news of the night will be Kito de Pavant’s abandoning due to a problem with the head of his keel (see separate story). Groupe Bel is headed for the Azores and then back to base in the South of France to replace the part ready for the Barcelona Race start. Vincent Riou (PRB) has eased consistently away from Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3) since yesterday evening. Dick appears to have had a speed deficit of the order of 5 knots during the night compared with his nearest rivals, but was making around 16 knots this morning. And meantime down on that southerly routing the losses of Michel Desjoyeaux and Arnaud Boissières have scarcely stabilised. Having passed south of the Azores they are over 310 miles behind the leading pack now.

Roland Jourdain said this morning: ' At the start of the night it was a bit tricky with changeable breeze and disorganised sea and so I was on deck for a lot of the time. The weather is good now, pleasant temperatures. There is about 20 knots of wind, but at the start of the night that was more like up and down between 21 and 29kts. When you sail downwind like this you cant push too hard because the boat slams through the troughs and there are gusts, so it is about setting high averages. And it is important to trust your mates, Albert my chum is forced to work the best part of 24/24. You can count on him even if you don’t absolutely trust him. In the future we will slow at the edge of the anticyclone. The rankings are a small source of pleasure but there will be some compression.'

Leader since the first night of the Route du Rhum-La Banque Postale in the Rhum Class Andrea Mura has been feeling some pain, dealt a dose of light winds by his position under the Azores high pressure system. His Open 50 Vento di Sardegna has been passed by the northern duo of Destination Calais (Pierre-Yves Chatelin) and Charlie Capelle (Acapella). Chatelin on his Marc Lombard designed 13.5 m monohull is paced nearly perfectly by the iconic 8.5m tri, of Capelle, a near sistership to Mike Birch’s historic Route du Rhum winner. The pair are separated only by 9 miles N-S, and the mono leads by only 1.4 miles. Unfortunately, nearly 400 miles to their SE, Mura has dropped some 70 miles on this happy couple and now lies third.

Pete Goss- Class 40:
'Good morning, good morning 'Goss Removals and Mining here'; it felt like it last night for we had a fractious wind that was up and down meaning that I had to move all the ships stores four times. If it is very light they go forward to stop DMS dragging her bum and if the wind picks up they go aft for power. It's quite a task and I say Mining for it feels like it when crawling around under the cockpit shifting big cans of fuel.

Today is the day that I have shed my Musto wet weather gear, in fact the whole night felt like a transition as the wind has gone soft, warm and smells exotic for it carry's all the best scents of Africa with it. At one point there was a break in the clouds and the stars graced us with their presence for the first time this trip. I took a break from the night toil to sit on the bow with a hot chocolate and soak up the moment. For me this trip is more than just a race and I am feeling so much better for a break from modern life. I feel a very lucky man.When I say the nights toil it does, I am afraid, have to come with a confession. I had a really nice chat with Tony Lawson on the phone yesterday evening, put the phone down and sat on my bean bag for what was to be a moment. It was dark when I woke up with a jolt to find I had been out cold for two hours.

'Fear not the good ship DMS looked after me throughout and was sailing like a dream so nothing lost and some well needed sleep gained.About two this morning we fell into a wind hole and flopped about for a bit with worries of it being sustained. It turned out to be just a hole for the sun has just come up and we seem to be in a much steadier air flow that has us making about eight knots in the right direction. I would like more but we have what we have and we need to make the most of it for the northerly boats are about to jump on the gravy train that they have been working so hard for.North or South? I still wouldn't like to put money on it for I don't think they are going to have the perfect conditions for as long as they hoped. Indeed, there may well be some lighter airs ahead of them. So far I am still happy with where we are.'

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