Minis set sail from Portsmouth

Singlehanded action in the Solent today

The second leg of the singlehanded Mini Pavois got underway from Portsmouth today. In the half hour either side of the start conditions went from brillant summer sunshine, to torrential rain and then light winds as a squall coinciding with the midday start gun. Prior to the start this had the crews guessing as to what headsail they should have on.

Since Wednesday morning the Minis have been based at the marina at Portsmouth's Gunwharf Quay shopping centre beneath the 100m stub of what will be the impressive new Spinnaker Tower - it will be 165m tall and will have an observation tower at the top.

26 boats tooks the start line, a fleet depleted by the 11 retirements following the strong upwind conditions of the first leg.

As the gun went for the reaching start with the boats heading towards Bembridge, the bulk of the fleet were bunched down by the committee boat, while leg one winner, American double medallist Jonathan McKee was nearer the pin, virtually on his own. McKee's Team McLube edged ahead in clean air and as the wind dropped McKee changed first to his fractional Code Zero and then up to his masthead kite.

The boats are currently heading back along the south coast of the UK and must round the Eddystone Light off Plymouth, retracing the steps of leg one, before they head south down the Chenal du Fort towards the finish line at Douarnanez.

Positions at 1700 GMT

Pos	Boat no	Skipper	Boat	Lat	Long	DTF
			Protos
1	247	McKee Jonathan	Team Mc Lube	N503450	W0011956	261
2	312	Doin Pascal	ASNQ	N503358	W0011700	262
3	276	Huusela Ari	Eunet Finland	N503390	W0011693	263
3	385	Mumbru Jaume	Port de Barcelona	N503376	W0011693	263
5	426	Tymen Erwan	POGO 2	N503396	W0011541	263
5	440	Raison David	Rayon Liquide	N503448	W0011565	263
7	227	Wright Donald	Russe Noire	N503086	W0011311	264
8	176	Currier Adam	Sabita	N503288	W0011305	265
9	100	Blin Raoul	Ozone	N503431	W0011331	265
10	393	MacCarthy Cian	The Tom Crean	N503353	W0011183	266
10	93	Sudrie Erwann	Gwen Ha Du	N502375	W0010925	266
12	421	Mirabel Michel	Gwalarn IV	N503518	W0011166	266
13	260	Mérigeaux Richard	Bon Pied bon œil	N501876	W0010465	268
14	198	Cornic Antoine	Groupe Affiches Parisiennes	N502293	W0005153	277
			Series
1	269	Rubio de Teran Lionel	Semelle de Vent	N503421	W0011431	264
2	209	Lecharpentier Bertrand	Wake Up	N503401	W0011401	264
2	340	Beauvais Rémi	Taquet Max	N503360	W0011396	264
4	168	Guillerm Fabrice	Rault le Service Alimentaire	N503251	W0011338	264
5	374	Bourbonnais Benoit	Marine Equipement	N502043	W0011029	265
6	250	Maisonneuve Brieuc	Groupe SIM Travail Temporaire	N503483	W0011373	265
7	282	Abalain Erwan	Marion Noêl Conseil	N502146	W0010975	265
8	273	Volk-Leonovitch Vincent	Goudurix 2	N503498	W0011223	266
9	328	M. Vrignault Tiphaine	Mitsubishi pour Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque	N501719	W0010801	266
10	251	Rafflegeau Flore	Aleph III	N503333	W0010953	267
11	130	Lavagna Eric	Barracuda Blues	N502256	W0010486	268
12	345	Poujol Cécile	Fifrelin	N503922	W0010252	273