With around 120 miles to go in the Solitaire du Figaro – Eric Bompard Cachemire, Gildas Morvan has maintained his lead over the 36 Figaros as they last night negotiated the infamous Raz de Sein and La Plate, and now stream south-east along the French coast to Saint Gilles Croix de Vie.
Since departing the Spanish coast at Gijon, Morvan on Cercle Vert has jostled for pole position with Nicolas Lunven (Generali), regaining first place yesterday evening from Lunven, who remains his nearest rival around 1 mile behind. Behind these two front-runners, however, there is still a battle royale for third. Stage one winner Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner/Journal des Enterprises) has pulled ahead of a tightly packed group, with 10 Figaros covered by just 1.5 miles.
After a straight speed dash across the Bay of Biscay, last night the skippers negotiated three mark roundings in darkness as they gybed around the Grand Prix GMF Assistance buoy, before sailing upwind to La Plate. Amidst the manœuvres some sailors made significant gains, with Alexis Loison (Groupe Fiva) rising from 12th position to 5th in this morning's rankings.
The two British skippers are also having their own duel, with Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23) the first of the international sailors in 24th, just a few hundred yards from fellow Brit and first ‘Bizuth' Nick Cherry (Artemis 37) in 25th. Henry Bomby (Artemis 37) has reduced his deficit on the leaders slightly after instrument repairs yesterday but remains in 36th place.
The fleet is now reaching a 12-knot south-westerly, with their arrival in Saint Gilles Croix de Vie anticipated around 0100 tomorrow morning.
Quote from the leader:
Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) :
“I am approaching Tévennec, a lighthouse on a rock not far from the Raz de Sein and so I just tacked to reach the backing current at the Raz de Sein, here I should be passing it within the next half an hour. We've just passed the Basse du Lis, sailing upwind until reaching La Plate. We will try to work out whether we should tack or go offshore to reach the maximum downstream tide. Everything's fine. We were sailing with ‘Lulu', Nico Lunven. We had a great fight under spinnaker but I got a plastic bag in the keel so he overtook me. I managed to come back last night and pass him again just prior to crossing Sein. And then I managed to increase the lead so it's not bad.”
Ranking
1 CERCLE VERT Gildas Morvan
2 GENERALI Nicolas Lunven 0.9
3 Groupe Queguiner / Journal des entreprises Yann Elies 2.8
4 NACARAT Erwan Tabarly 3.2
5 BERNARD CONTROLS Jean-Pierre Nicol 3.6
From : La Solitaire
Credit : A.Courcoux
Since departing the Spanish coast at Gijon, Morvan on Cercle Vert has jostled for pole position with Nicolas Lunven (Generali), regaining first place yesterday evening from Lunven, who remains his nearest rival around 1 mile behind. Behind these two front-runners, however, there is still a battle royale for third. Stage one winner Yann Eliès (Groupe Queguiner/Journal des Enterprises) has pulled ahead of a tightly packed group, with 10 Figaros covered by just 1.5 miles.
After a straight speed dash across the Bay of Biscay, last night the skippers negotiated three mark roundings in darkness as they gybed around the Grand Prix GMF Assistance buoy, before sailing upwind to La Plate. Amidst the manœuvres some sailors made significant gains, with Alexis Loison (Groupe Fiva) rising from 12th position to 5th in this morning's rankings.
The two British skippers are also having their own duel, with Sam Goodchild (Artemis 23) the first of the international sailors in 24th, just a few hundred yards from fellow Brit and first ‘Bizuth' Nick Cherry (Artemis 37) in 25th. Henry Bomby (Artemis 37) has reduced his deficit on the leaders slightly after instrument repairs yesterday but remains in 36th place.
The fleet is now reaching a 12-knot south-westerly, with their arrival in Saint Gilles Croix de Vie anticipated around 0100 tomorrow morning.
Quote from the leader:
Gildas Morvan (Cercle Vert) :
“I am approaching Tévennec, a lighthouse on a rock not far from the Raz de Sein and so I just tacked to reach the backing current at the Raz de Sein, here I should be passing it within the next half an hour. We've just passed the Basse du Lis, sailing upwind until reaching La Plate. We will try to work out whether we should tack or go offshore to reach the maximum downstream tide. Everything's fine. We were sailing with ‘Lulu', Nico Lunven. We had a great fight under spinnaker but I got a plastic bag in the keel so he overtook me. I managed to come back last night and pass him again just prior to crossing Sein. And then I managed to increase the lead so it's not bad.”
Ranking
1 CERCLE VERT Gildas Morvan
2 GENERALI Nicolas Lunven 0.9
3 Groupe Queguiner / Journal des entreprises Yann Elies 2.8
4 NACARAT Erwan Tabarly 3.2
5 BERNARD CONTROLS Jean-Pierre Nicol 3.6
From : La Solitaire
