Finish line in sight

But 4 knots of foul tide has slowed the Figaro boats on the home straight

Arrrggghhh. It's still not over. This morning at 0500 GMT the front runners in the Solitaire du Figaro had just 20 miles left to reach the finish line in Cherbourg-Octeville. Again this, the fourth leg of the singlehanded offshore racing world championship, is a close run thing with just a mile separating the six first boats and two miles between the first 15. On the chart the leaders are aligned neck and neck as if they were on a starting grid. Current leader Yann Elies is to the south east on the right hand side of the track and leg one winner Antoine Koch to the north west.

The reason they are still out there is that overnight the wind has gone light and as they head across to the top of the Cherbourg peninsula through the Channel Islands they have been at the mercy of strong tides. Currently they are punching into 4 knots of tide in a 10 knot of northwesterly wind. At 0800GMT the tide will begin to turn in their favour again and this should slingshot the boats through the Alderney Race later this morning.

While the racing is tense it should also be remembered that the Figaro sailors are singlehanded and have been racing since Sunday lunchtime. The usual practice on this race is to get less than one hour's sleep per day and one can only imagine how exhausted the skippers must be at this stage and how frustrated they must be making such slow progress in these final stages.

The overall outcome of this tight race is still far from decided. On accumulated elapsed time, the current leader is Kito de Pavant on Malice who is 13 minutes 7 seconds ahead of leg three winner Charles Caudrelier on Bostik Findley and 16 minutes 1 second ahead of Gilles Chiorri. According to the latest positions Kito de Pavant is lying fourth and looking well set up to take the overall win with Caudrelier in ninth just over a mile astern and Chiorri seventh half a mile behind the overall leader.

But this is the Figaro and anything could happen with 20 miles to go...

Positions at 0500GMT

Pos	Skipper	Boat	DTF/L	Course	Speed
1	ELIES Yann	Groupe Générali Assurances	19.90nm	94	3.1
2	GUERIN Ronan	Saint-Nazaire / Escal'Atlantic	+ 0.30nm	90	2.3
3	ATTANASIO Romain	Port Trebeurden	+ 0.50nm	88	2.2
4	DE PAVANT Christophe	Malice	+ 0.60nm	90	2.3
5	DROUGLAZET Eric	David Olivier	+ 0.70nm	78	2.7
6	RIOU Vincent	PRB Produits de Revêtement du Bâtiment	+ 1.00nm	71	1.4
7	CHIORRI Gilles	32 01 de Météo Consult	+ 1.10nm	77	1.9
8	LE CLEAC'H Armel	Créaline	+ 1.50nm	64	1.5
9	CAUDRELIER Charles	Bostik Filey	+ 1.70nm	53	1.9
9	VICARIOT Philippe	Thales	+ 1.70nm	44	3.2
9	TOULORGE Alexare	Cherbourg - Crédit Mutuel	+ 1.70nm	59	2.4
9	PELLECUER Laurent	Languedoc Mutualité Hippocratus.com	+ 1.70nm	60	4.1
9	CHABAGNY Thierry	Petit Navire Le Bon Goût du Large	+ 1.70nm	45	3
9	JOSSE Sébastien	Créaline	+ 1.70nm	51	3
15	TABARLY Erwan	Thales - Armor Lux	+ 1.80nm	50	2.9
15	PETIT Benoit	Top'Océan	+ 1.80nm	37	1.7
17	MOUREN Jean-Paul	M@rseille Entreprises	+ 2.30nm	74	5.8
18	KOCH Antoine	Saunier Duval	+ 4.50nm	56	1.6
19	BOISSIERES Arnaud	Delta Dore & Partenaires	+ 5.90nm	62	5.1
20	RIOU Gwénaël	Espoir Crédit Agricole	+ 6.50nm	95	5.8
21	MORVAN Gildas	Cercle Vert	+ 6.80nm	50	5.2
22	AUDIGANE Sébastien	Sport Sans Frontières	+ 7.10nm	70	4.9
23	TINCELIN Dominique	Dragonfly	+ 7.90nm	69	5.4
24	GREGOIRE Jeanne	Département de l'Aisne	+ 9.80nm	67	5.7
25	TROUSSEL Nicolas	Galinette	+ 12.10nm	56	5.1
26	COATNOAN Christophe	Groupe Partouche	+ 13.40nm	63	5.7
27	MARSSET Bertra	Passion	+ 13.70nm	62	5.2
28	FEREC Alain	Hotel Vauban - Camaret sur Mer	+ 14.50nm	70	5.5
29	NABART Laurent	Ajaccio Corse du sud	+ 20.60nm	64	4.7
30	GREGOIRE Yann	Sailfast.Biz Gestion Projet Voile	+ 29.30nm	70	6
31	BALOGH François	Générale d'Emballage - FIGA	+ 58.50nm	58	6.4
32	GRAVELEAU Vincent	Bati 85 Qualeader	+ 62.80nm	61	5.2
33	BULOT Jean-François	Crédit Mutuel	+ 66.70nm	58	5.8
34	PEYRET Jean-Marie	Dubus SA. la Bourse Universelle	+ 68.40nm	43	5.4
35	ROBEIN Louis	Le Souffle de la mer	+ 113.80nm	101	2.9
NC	BEYOU Jérémie	Delta Dore	NC	59	3.1
NC	ALFARO Amaiur	Le Journal du Pays Basque
NC	MARTINAGE Yvan	Société Générale - CAB - Boulogne/mer