He's getting closer...

Gildas Morvan gains ground on Class 40 leader Phil Sharp in Route du Rhum

Monday November 13th 2006, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and ProGRIB

Positions at 0700GMT

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Lat/time	Long/arrived	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Dist	DTF	DTL
					Inst		4hr av		24hr
	ORMA 60 tris
1	Gitana 11	Lionel Lemonchois	7d 17h 19m 6s	06/11/2006 06:21							0.0
2	Banque Populaire	Pascal Bidegorry	8d 4h 25m 7s	06/11/2006 17:27							0.0
3	Sodeb'O	Thomas Coville	8d 13h 39m 2s	07/11/2006 02:41							0.0
4	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	8d 13h 48m 24s	07/11/2006 02:50							0.0
5	Groupama 2	Franck Cammas	8d 17h 55m 17s	07/11/2006 06:57							0.0
6	Brossard	Yvan Bourgnon	9d 0h 40m 15s	07/11/2006 13:42							0.0
7	Foncia	Alain Gautier	9d 16h 14m 40s	08/11/2006 05:16							0.0
8	Region Guadeloupe-Terres de Passions	Claude Thelier	11d 11h 56m 51s	10/11/2006 00:58							0.0
9	Sopra Group	Antoine Koch	12d 0h 59m 41s	10/11/2006 14:01							0.0
10	Gitana 12	Thierry Duprey du Vorsent	12d 14h 52m 0s	11/11/2006 03:54							0.0
11	Madinina	Gilles Lamire	25 14.08' N	13/11/2006 07:44	7.2	174	7.0	172.0	4.9	117.7	896.7	0.0
ABD	Orange Project	Steve Ravussin
	IMOCA Open 60s
1	Sill et Veolia	Roland Jourdain	12d 11h 58m 58s	11/11/2006 01:00							0.0
2	VM Matériaux	Jean Le Cam	12d 12h 26m 58s	11/11/2006 01:28							0.0
3	Virbac-Paprec	Jean-Pierre Dick	12d 20h 27m 58s	11/11/2006 09:29							0.0
4	Brit Air	Armel Le Cléac'h	13d 3h 57m 17s	11/11/2006 16:59							0.0
5	Temenos II	Dominique Wavre	13d 9h 20m 3s	11/11/2006 22:22							0.0
6	Artemis	Brian Thompson	13d 17h 32m 20s	12/11/2006 06:34							0.0
7	Roxy	Anne Liardet	19 09.20' N	59 12.28' W	4.0	225	3.3	236.0	5.3	127.9	272.4	0.0
8	Safran	Marc Guillemot	20 19.64' N	60 56.16' W	3.2	178	3.1	192.0	6.7	160.9	291.0	18.6
9	Adriana Karembeu Paris	Philippe Fiston	29 54.56' N	52 14.80' W	6.0	301	7.8	276.0	5.3	127.1	1016.4	744.1
NL	Maisonneuve Basse Normandie	JB Dejeanty
ABD	Delta Dore	Jeremy Beyou
ABD	PRB	Vincent Riou
	Class 2 multis
1	Crêpes Whaou !	Franck-Yves Escoffier	11d 17h 28m 11s	10/11/2006 06:30							0.0
2	Trilogic	Eric Bruneel	13d 14h 49m 3s	12/11/2006 03:51							0.0
3	Laiterie de Saint-Malo	Victorien Erussard	20 35.84' N	60 49.96' W	8.1	174	7.0	151.0	8.0	191.8	308.7	0.0
4	Deleage & DIAZO	Loic Escofier	24 02.84' N	56 07.36' W	8.0	246	10.6	227.0	10.7	257.4	609.6	300.9
5	Gifi	Dominique Demachy	26 50.76' N	49 36.54' W	4.4	197	3.9	200.0	4.4	106.0	967.6	658.9
NL	Négocéane	Roger Langevin
ABD	Jean Stalaven	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Le Bon Marche - Rive Gauche	Anne Caseneuve
	Class 3 multis
1	Imagine-Institut des Maladies Génétiques	Pierre Antoine	26 10.68' N	51 10.56' W	7.2	220	6.8	215.0	5.6	133.6	884.3	0.0
ABD	Switch.fr	Charlie Capelle
ABD	Ideal Stelrad	Ross Hobson
	Class 1 monos
1	Jeunes Dirigeants	Pierre-Yves Guennec	27 44.92' N	46 48.84' W	6.1	208	7.0	225.0	7.5	179.5	1124.4	0.0
2	Antilles-Sails.com	Philippe Chevallier	30 21.80' N	45 42.44' W	6.3	266	6.8	246.0	4.8	115.3	1267.1	142.7
3	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	32 37.76' N	46 00.48' W	5.0	147	2.5	187.0	3.1	74.3	1347.6	223.2
4	TAT Express	Arnaud Dhallenne	32 52.60' N	46 02.12' W	4.3	264	3.5	232.0	3.8	90.2	1357.2	232.8
	Class 2 monos
1	Artforms	Kip Stone	22 58.24' N	59 06.92' W	6.3	200	7.8	219.0	8.6	207.0	473.2	0.0
2	Vedettes de Bréhat Cap Marine	Servane Escoffier	24 20.24' N	58 57.88' W	9.4	222	9.9	212.0	10.7	257.2	553.1	79.8
3	Cap Guadeloupe 971	Luc Coquelin	30 18.42' N	55 27.72' W	10.4	201	10.1	205.0	7.6	181.3	937.1	463.8
4	AOI Solidarité Dentaire Internationale	Denis Douillez	25 59.00' N	39 34.20' W	3.2	30	4.8	250.0	3.8	91.4	1416.8	943.6
	Class 3 monos
1	Roaring Forty	Michel Kleinjans	30 13.80' N	47 12.12' W	9.0	251	7.9	247.0	6.2	149.6	1203.7	0.0
2	DangerousWhenWet	Aurélia Ditton	34 58.76' N	45 52.52' W	6.4	216	6.7	217.0	6.1	146.4	1454.9	251.2
3	Fantasy Forest	Alain Grinda	35 09.30' N	34 47.88' W	4.4	219	5.0	226.0	6.3	150.7	1874.5	670.8
ABD	A Fond Contre la Spondylarthrite	Didier Le Villain
ABD	La Promesse	Jankees Lampe
ABD	Charter Regis Guillemot Martinique	Regis Guillemot
	Class 40s
1	philsharpracing.com	Phil Sharp	23 17.68' N	58 31.52' W	9.4	205	2.4	175.0	7.0	168.4	503.8	0.0
2	Oyster Funds	Gildas Morvan	23 21.16' N	56 33.40' W	8.2	215	8.4	211.0	8.8	211.9	561.7	58.0
3	Atao Audio System	Dominic Vittet	25 28.84' N	50 28.36' W	7.4	177	7.0	220.0	5.9	141.6	885.8	382.0
4	IXSEA	Olivier Rabine	29 31.16' N	55 40.40' W	7.4	150	7.2	192.0	5.5	133.2	907.1	403.4
5	Chocolats Monbana	Damien Grimont	28 25.32' N	52 57.44' W	7.2	269	5.0	240.0	5.0	120.1	919.1	415.4
6	Bolands Mill	Ian Munslow	29 50.56' N	55 50.40' W	8.1	210	9.6	203.0	7.0	167.8	921.3	417.5
7	Appart'City	Yvan Noblet	26 16.44' N	49 37.02' W	2.5	287	3.9	268.0	5.0	119.9	949.3	445.5
8	Le Comptoir Immobilier	Guillaume Voizard	31 16.52' N	54 49.52' W	8.3	214	9.5	213.0	9.4	225.3	1021.1	517.4
9	Cotes d'Armor - Pierres et Mer	Philippe le Gros	29 25.72' N	51 01.20' W	9.1	279	6.2	232.0	7.6	182.0	1032.1	528.3
10	Tchuda Popka 2	Gw Catherine	28 19.12' N	49 33.72' W	3.5	221	2.6	222.0	5.2	124.1	1035.1	531.3
11	Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer	Gery Trentseaux	28 58.06' N	50 7.298' W	4.1	203	3.8	226.0	4.9	118.0	1042.3	538.6
12	Cinémas Cinéfil.com	JE Criquioche	29 09.88' N	48 51.80' W	2.4	154	4.0	291.0	6.7	161.4	1096.9	593.1
13	Lexibook	Hervé Papin	30 01.12' N	48 52.68' W	8.4	273	9.3	265.0	7.5	179.8	1132.7	629.0
14	FNAIM Pays de Loire	Lionel Regnier	27 39.12' N	46 22.04' W	1.1	178	3.9	262.0	6.8	163.9	1140.2	636.5
15	Nous Entreprenons	Jacques Fournier	29 35.92' N	47 27.56' W	9.2	244	9.3	255.0	7.3	175.9	1168.1	664.3
16	Destination Calais	Pierre-Yves Chatelain	29 50.84' N	47 38.08' W	8.1	248	7.2	247.0	7.5	179.4	1171.5	667.7
17	Nouvelle Caledonie	Yves Ecarlat	26 51.32' N	43 11.72' W	5.4	238	6.6	246.0	4.9	117.9	1260.0	756.2
18	Cap VAD	Thibaud Derville	32 06.04' N	47 29.88' W	7.1	212	8.5	216.0	5.5	132.8	1272.2	768.5
19	Paca Entrprendre	Cecile Poujol	32 58.56' N	48 16.48' W	7.3	230	7.1	248.0	4.9	118.7	1285.8	782.1
20	Jardin Bio Equitable	Benoit Parnaudeau	30 58.60' N	44 18.80' W	6.0	237	3.3	241.0	4.8	114.3	1346.0	842.2
21	KNAUF Industries	David Lefebvre	33 43.52' N	46 04.20' W	3.1	265	4.0	261.0	3.3	79.2	1392.7	888.9
22	Siegenia-Aubi	Marc Lepesqueux	34 46.72' N	42 56.16' W	8.2	284	6.7	249.0	8.5	203.2	1547.4	1043.7
23	Fermiers de Loué - Sarthe	Francois Angoulvant	36 00.08' N	40 47.48' W	7.3	254	7.6	271.0	6.3	152.1	1674.5	1170.7
ABD	TMI Technologies	Joe Seeten
ABD	Kenmore Homes	Nick Bubb

Following Brian Thompson and Artemis' arrival in Guadeloupe to take sixth place in the Open 60 class yesterday morning, so proceedings have gone a little quiet in Pointe a Pitre with a further floray of boats expected tonight in the form of the Open 60 stragglers such as Anne Liardet's Roxy and Marc Guillemot on Safran.

Meanwhile battle continues to rage in the Class 40s where this morning finds second placed Gildas Morvan on Oyster Funds having taken 47 miles out of Phil Sharp's lead over the last 24 hours. Morvan is now just 58 miles from the British sailor. The two boats continue to converge on the race track, now with 115 miles west to east separation between them and still because of this they are sailing in different conditions, Sharp sailing in 5-10 knot northerlies, Morvan in 10-15 northwesterlies. As a result Sharp has averaged just 2.4 knots over the last four hours while Morvan has been making 8.4.

While the ORMA and IMOCA 60s had a relatively straightforward run home from here to the finish, this is unlikely to be the case for the Class 40 leaders. At present they remain under the influence of a relatively static depression centred some 500 miles off to their northeast, and according to the forecast the undulations of this system are likely to cause the wind to back to the west before veering northwest over the course of today.

But this is not all... 250-300 miles to their south the northeasterly trades are blowing but before the Class 40 leaders will reach these they will have to tackle an area of very light winds and the outcome of who reaches Guadeloupe in first place is likely to be decided by who tackles this best.

Yesterday Sharp reported to Race HQ: "I am a lot less tired than yesterday. Probably because I have a little problem with my alarm. The one I use currently, which is a car alarm, is broken so I have real problems waking myself up. Last night I was supposed to wake up at 3am and I woke up at 8:30 ! But I just go as fast when I sleep and do nothing! The wind was veering quite a lot yesterday so I started under the jib and I was doing as well as I could with the jib because I don't have my genaker and the wind changed quite drastically so I put the spinaker up. That was an easy day really hot rain showers. Ideal conditions.I sailed pretty hard yesterday and we managed to get out of the front and got some good winds to the West so that helps a lot. Now I am pretty happy because we increased the gap. I neet to keep it like this and make sure that we can cover Morvan to the finish. We plan to the finish, and make sure we're not going to be in a different weather system than Morvan because when there are winds so light you just want to make sure no one is going to be lucky on Tuesday or Wednesday.I feel quite tired because I had too much sleep. I feel drowsy. I got up and I am cooking myself a meal. I was already hungry last night but decided to get to sleep first and now I am unbelievibly hungry and I ‘ll pull over if I don't shoot something quickly in my stomach."

Up to the north Olivier Rabine on IXSEA and Ian Munslow on Bolands Mill are making better progress a the moment as they round the northwest side of the depression in 15-20 knot northwesterlies as down to the south poor old Dominique Vittet on ATAO Audio Systems finds himelf once again upwind....