Surfing at 20 knots

An ujpdate from the Transat AG2R as the boats cross the Bay of Biscay

Positions at 0948GMT:

Pos	Nom	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	DTF	DTL
				Inst		4hr
1	Bostik	45 25.68' N	7 41.28' W	8.9	231	9.9	235.0	3502.0	0.0
2	ATAO Audio System	45 27.00' N	7 44.34' W	8.8	234	9.6	235.0	3502.0	0.0
3	Groupe Bel	45 23.46' N	7 35.76' W	9.4	234	10.0	234.0	3502.2	0.2
4	VEOLIA	45 24.60' N	7 36.30' W	8.8	228	9.9	232.0	3502.9	0.9
5	Cercle Vert	45 23.52' N	7 34.86' W	9.1	234	10.0	233.0	3502.9	0.9
6	Les Mousquetaires	45 21.12' N	7 26.10' W	9.3	235	10.3	237.0	3503.7	1.7
7	Delta Dore	45 25.86' N	7 36.96' W	8.7	229	9.8	233.0	3503.7	1.7
8	Aquarelle.com	45 22.20' N	7 27.54' W	8.9	232	9.8	229.0	3504.1	2.1
9	Banque Populaire	45 25.92' N	7 35.58' W	8.8	230	9.8	232.0	3504.3	2.3
10	Brossard	45 24.84' N	7 32.94' W	9.2	231	10.0	232.0	3504.3	2.3
11	Suzuki Automobiles	45 23.58' N	7 29.40' W	9.1	235	9.7	231.0	3504.5	2.6
12	Siemens	45 22.50' N	7 25.02' W	9.2	242	10.0	236.0	3505.3	3.3
13	E. Leclerc / Bouygues Telecom	45 25.80' N	7 32.40' W	8.9	226	9.9	232.0	3505.3	3.3
14	Armor Lux / Salaün Holidays	45 23.82' N	7 27.66' W	9.1	239	9.9	233.0	3505.4	3.4
15	Donneurs de Vie -  All Mer	45 26.22' N	7 32.88' W	8.7	229	9.8	234.0	3505.5	3.5
16	Esprit 93	45 24.18' N	7 28.14' W	9.3	237	10.2	233.0	3505.5	3.5
17	Roxy	45 24.24' N	7 27.18' W	9.0	236	9.9	232.0	3505.9	3.9
18	Lubexcel	45 28.20' N	7 33.60' W	25.3	216	11.0	242.0	3506.1	4.1
19	Gédimat	45 27.96' N	7 33.36' W	8.5	227	9.6	232.0	3506.8	4.8
20	Virbac-Paprec	45 22.50' N	7 14.46' W	8.9	233	10.0	232.0	3509.2	7.3
21	Groupe CELEOS	45 26.94' N	7 18.48' W	8.8	225	10.0	232.0	3511.5	9.5
22	GUY HOQUET Immobilier	45 34.44' N	7 30.30' W	8.6	220	9.1	226.0	3513.5	11.5
23	Brit Air	45 42.06' N	7 33.36' W	9.2	232	9.8	231.0	3518.9	16.9
24	Entreprendre Au Pays de Lorient	45 26.52' N	6 48.48' W	8.5	216	9.4	225.0	3523.2	21.2
25	AXA Atout Coeur pour Aides	45 43.02' N	7 15.90' W	9.0	223	9.4	230.0	3526.0	24.0
26	Des Pieds et des Mains	45 43.62' N	6 56.76' W	9.3	220	9.8	222.0	3533.7	31.7
27	Port Olona	46 00.12' N	7 06.24' W	9.4	203	8.2	226.0	3544.1	42.1
28	Objectif Océans	46 00.30' N	6 39.84' W	9.5	200	7.5	189.0	3554.1	52.1

Inevitably, less than 24 hours into the Transat AG2R the fleet is all still tightly packed with just 9.5 miles between first, Charles Caudrelier and Nicolas Berenger on Bostik and 28th, last place.

This is a French race so inevitably some boats are already corner banging, Entreprendre Au Pays de Lorient one of the frontrunners leaving Concarneau yesterday, hitting the right hand side hard, while the 2004 winners of this event - Armel Le Cleac'h and Nicolas Trossel on Brit Air - clearly have had some issues and are down in an uncharacteristically low 23rd place and now hitting the right side of the course to make up ground. Others who also should be doing better are Jean-Pierre Dick and Bruno Jourdren on board Virbac and Mini Transat winner Armel Tripon and former Solitaire du Figaro winner Eric Drouglazet on aboard 19th placed Gédimat.

With the wind strong and from the north northeast, so the leaders are perhaps steering slightly west of great circle in order to get into slightly lighter breeze (20-25 knots as opposed to 25-30 knots). In these conditions they are making good progress, hitting speeds of 20 knots and averaging 10.

"The wind built as we left the coast," reported Charles Caudrelier this morning. "The sea is great and allows us to drive hard. We had up to 30-35 knots of wind and the boat came very close to 20 knots surfing. That enabled us to pulled of the others a little.

The liveliness is far from over as at their present speed the boats will round Cape Finistere in the middle of the night in 30-35 knots. Beyond Cape Finistere the race will get a little more tactical with the wind due astern the boats will have a choice of gybes and for the day following this the right side of the course looks set to pay with more pressure on this side, but as they close on the turning mark at Madeira on Thursday the wind looks set to switch off generally across the race course.