Neck and neck

As Route du Rhum competitors experience their first morning at sea

1200GMT update

Conrad Humphreys is pulling into Roscoff to make repairs to the hull of his Open 40. He suffered a prang on the start line yesterday when he ran into a boat that had become entangled with the starting buoy. He is estimated to arrive in Roscoff at 1300GMT.

Report

This morning the first starters in the Route du Rhum are tacking across the Channel in the relatively benign overcast conditions associated with a warm front.

After yesterday's start the lead has been swopping through the night. In this race there are position updates for boats and public alike at 0300GMT and every four hours through the day until 1900. After yesterday's blinding start by Roland Jourdain's Sill Plein Fruit, Sill and Kingfisher have been regularly trading places. At 1900 last night Kingfisher was leading, at 0300 this morning first place had reverted to Sill and at the time of writing Kingfisher was back in front, albeit by just over a mile.

Mike Golding on Ecover is neck and neck with Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac for third place and they are trailed by Swiss Whitbread veteran Dominique Wavre on Temenos. Golding commented: “its been a grizzly first night, wet but not cold. I’m surrounded by dolphins, which I can hear throughout the hull! It’s been quite straight forward so far as I’ve been heading in one direction. Just need to be patient and wait for the front to pass, so that I can make my move south.”

The biggest riser overnight, as we pop-pickers say, has been Miranda Merron sailing the immaculately prepared but rather long in the tooth UUDS, who has climbed from ninth to sixth, albeit leading the second pack some 15 miles astern of Wavre. An equally impressive showing is being made by 71 year old Canadian Mike Birch who is ninth, while the positions indicate that there may be problems with Patrick de Radigues Garnier Belgium and Loick Pochet's La Rage de Vivre, who are lagging behind the fleet.

Following his dismasting yesterday Sebastien Josse and VMI are back in port and have salvaged the rig from the bottom of the sea. Josse's support crew of Yves Le Blévec, Eric Santene and Denis Juhel are now scratching their heads to see if they can effect a repair prior to the final deadline to start of 1200 Friday.

In class two Nick Moloney is putting in a top performance aboard his newly renamed Open 50 Ashfield Healthcare. Moloney is lying in the equivalent of eighth place in the Open 60 fleet. However Moloney's chief competition - former Mini Transat winner Yannick Bestaven aboard Republique Dominicaine is the toast of the press office here in St Malo. Bestaven returned to port shortly before the start yesterday with a ripped mainsail. He left again to take the start line early yesterday evening. Overnight he has had the pedal to the metal the latest positions show him in third place only nine miles astern of Moloney - an impressive comeback.

Among the class 3 monohulls, Conrad Humphreys aboard Hellomoto is currently lying in third place some 12 miles astern of Regis Guillemot on Storagetek.

Today will see the start of one of the most incredible ocean races ever - between the eighteen 60ft trimarans. Follow the coverage on The Daily Sail.

See the latest weather reports on page 2...

Open 60s

Pos	Name	Skipper	Lat	Long	DTF	SOG	COG
1	Kingfisher	Ellen McArthur	49 04.68' N	4 46.68' W	3427.1	8.8	298
2	Sill	Roland Jourdain	48 43.12' N	4 40.88' W	3428.2	9.2	190
3	Virbac	Jean Pierre Dick	48 50.96' N	4 33.84' W	3429	8	299
4	Ecover	Mike Golding	49 52.28' N	5 09.60' W	3429	9.1	297
5	Temenos	Dominique Wavre	49 10.24' N	4 41.36' W	3432	8.9	301
6	Un Univers de Services	Miranda Merron	49 07.00' N	4 20.16' W	3447.6	6.1	293
7	Arcelor-Dunkerque	Joé Seten	48 52.60' N	4 11.72' W	3449.2	6.9	298
8	60ème Sud	Didier Munduteguy	48 49.00' N	4 04.44' W	3452.9	3.6	216
9	Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma	Mike Birch	48 57.00' N	4 07.24' W	3453.2	5.2	214
10	L'Heautontimoroumenos	Antoine Koch	49 04.80' N	4 09.76' W	3453.6	7.2	192
11	Leasecom	Elie Canivenc	49 17.64' N	4 07.68' W	3458.2	4.6	290
12	Dinan Pays d'Entreprises	Frédéric Lescot	48 51.04' N	3 54.84' W	3459.5	7.3	194
13	Millimages-Gédéon	Patrick Favre	49 02.00' N	3 55.36' W	3462	7.2	192
14	Ciments St Laurent-Ocean	Georges Leblanc	49 12.04' N	3 52.28' W	3466.5	9.4	323
15	Garnier Belgium	Patrick De Radiguès	48 51.68' N	4 03.56' W	3553.6	6.1	222
16	La Rage de Vivre	Loïck Pochet	50 06.96' N	4 31.04' W	3570.2	7.3	299

Open 50s

Pos	Name	Skipper	Lat	Long	DTF	SOG	COG
1	Ashfield Healthcare	Nick Moloney	49 23.88' N	4 21.56' W	3451	7.4	298
2	Adecco Etoile Horizon	Bob Escoffier	48 53.36' N	3 54.32' W	3461	4.8	188
3	République Dominicaine	Yannick Bestaven	49 29.08' N	4 08.52' W	3461	8.1	299
4	Mille Visages	Hervé Vachée	49 04.84' N	3 55.12' W	3461	3.2	249
5	Florys	Luc Coquelin	48 54.60' N	3 51.64' W	3463	6.3	191
6	Apic A3S	Christophe Huchet	49 05.40' N	3 30.00' W	3484	6.5	201
7	Laiterie St Malo	Clément Surtel	49 03.00' N	3 28.92' W	3487	2.4	279
8	Défi Vendéen	J. F. Durand	49 18.36' N	3 18.36' W	3508	6.2	291
9	Branec III	Roger Langevin	49 27.96' N	3 09.78' W	3539	8.4	322

Open 40s

1	Storagetek	Regis Guillemot	48 52.48' N	4 09.40' W	3451	6.2	301
2	Passion Entreprendre	Jérôme Thiriez	49 28.64' N	4 09.24' W	3460	5.9	298
3	Hellomoto	Conrad Humphreys	49 17.68' N	4 00.56' W	3463	6	296
4	Grain de Soleil	Etienne Svilarich	49 01.68' N	3 51.68' W	3464	4.8	190