Aiming for the shift

With boats heading away from the great circle, positions in the Route du Rhum are

Image above courtesy of Expedition Naviation Systems and ProGRIB

Positions at 0800GMT

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	DTF	DTL
					Inst		4hr av
	ORMA
1	Groupama 2	Franck Cammas	49 14.32' N	7 02.96' W	9.3	256	12.7	271.0	3342.7	0.0
2	Gitana 11	Lionel lemonchoix	49 00.36' N	6 45.80' W	7.3	266	12.1	270.0	3349.5	6.8
3	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	49 31.00' N	6 52.04' W	21.0	303	14.0	283.0	3354.2	11.5
4	Brossard	Yvan Bourgnon	49 18.72' N	6 31.84' W	14.0	291	12.1	281.0	3358.0	15.3
5	Sopra Group	Antoine Koch	49 30.08' N	6 44.52' W	11.2	288	13.0	291.0	3358.7	16.0
6	Sodebo	Thomas Coville	48 56.32' N	6 24.40' W	13.1	286	11.8	276.0	3361.8	19.1
7	Gitana 12	Thierry Duprey du Vorsent	49 17.88' N	6 20.08' W	14.2	275	10.7	276.0	3370.5	27.8
8	Foncia	Alain Gautier	49 04.64' N	6 12.68' W	10.3	280	12.6	283.0	3371.5	28.8
9	Region Guadeloupe-Terres de Passions	Claude Thelier	49 08.60' N	5 42.00' W	9.1	288	8.4	274.0	3392.0	49.3
10	Orange Project	Steve Ravussin	49 40.28' N	5 42.68' W	10.2	274	9.1	285.0	3400.4	57.7
11	Madinina	Gilles Lamire	49 18.48' N	4 00.72' W	10.3	274	7.3	277.0	3458.4	115.7
NL	Banque Populaire	Pascal Bidegorry
	Open 60
1	Artemis	Brian Thompson	49 21.60' N	4 42.78' W	8.2	273	8.0	267.0	3419.5	0.0
2	Sill et Veolia	Roland Jourdain	49 19.68' N	5 02.72' W	4.1	286	7.3	278.0	3419.9	0.4
3	Virbac-Paprec	Jean-Pierre Dick	49 32.96' N	4 58.60' W	8.2	274	7.3	279.0	3425.9	6.4
4	VM Matériaux	Jean Le Cam	49 25.48' N	4 54.84' W	5.2	307	7.8	275.0	3426.4	6.8
5	PRB	Vincent Riou	49 17.24' N	4 44.88' W	6.4	282	5.8	274.0	3427.2	7.7
6	Brit Air	Armel Le Cléac'h	49 02.84' N	4 42.00' W	3.1	270	5.6	264.0	3428.7	9.2
7	Temenos II	Dominique Wavre	49 15.20' N	4 44.60' W	7.1	264	6.6	278.0	3430.2	10.6
8	Roxy	Anne Liardet	49 00.20' N	4 26.40' W	5.0	264	6.5	258.0	3437.9	18.4
9	Safran	Marc Guillemot	48 45.00' N	4 17.68' W	3.1	218	4.7	244.0	3439.8	20.3
10	Delta Dore	Jeremy Beyou	48 45.44' N	4 08.12' W	4.2	255	6.1	257.0	3446.0	26.5
11	Maisonneuve Basse Normandie	JB Dejeanty	48 53.64' N	3 45.96' W	7.7	261	5.5	259.0	3448.9	29.4
12	Adriana Karembeu Paris	Philippe Fiston	48 56.24' N	3 58.60' W	5.1	280	6.8	271.0	3454.7	35.1
	Multi Class 2
1	Crêpes Whaou !	Franck-Yves Escoffier	49 25.60' N	5 05.40' W	8.4	286	7.8	288.0	3419.8	0.0
2	Trilogic	Eric Bruneel	49 19.48' N	4 37.52' W	5.1	304	6.5	278.0	3435.7	16.0
3	Laiterie de Saint-Malo	Victorien Erussard	49 21.32' N	4 28.48' W	6.3	269	8.6	269.0	3441.9	22.1
4	Négocéane	Roger Langevin	48 55.92' N	3 49.80' W	10.1	271	6.0	270.0	3443.3	23.6
5	Deleage & DIAZO	Loic Escofier	49 22.88' N	4 25.36' W	6.0	283	8.1	279.0	3444.2	24.5
6	Le Bon Marche - Rive Gauche	Anne Caseneuve	48 45.20' N	4 07.48' W	4.4	249	5.2	251.0	3446.4	26.6
7	Gifi	Dominique Demachy	48 49.84' N	4 04.84' W	5.0	261	6.3	258.0	3449.2	29.4
8	Jean Stalaven	Pascal Quintin	49 02.56' N	3 53.76' W	10.1	268	7.3	268.0	3459.3	39.5
	Multi Class 3
1	Imagine-Institut des Maladies Génétiques	Pierre Antoine	48 45.44' N	4 10.08' W	5.1	230	5.4	246.0	3444.8	0.0
2	Ideal Stelrad	Ross Hobson	48 50.32' N	4 00.72' W	8.1	254	7.2	259.0	3451.9	7.2
3	Switch.fr	Charlie Capelle	48 50.36' N	3 59.80' W	8.0	246	6.9	260.0	3452.5	7.8
	Mono class 1
1	Jeunes Dirigeants	Pierre-Yves Guennec	49 01.92' N	3 45.12' W	7.5	273	6.0	272.0	3464.6	0.0
2	Antilles-Sails.com	Philippe Chevallier	49 02.24' N	3 34.16' W	3.3	272	4.5	273.0	3471.7	7.1
3	TAT Express	Arnaud Dhallenne	49 01.92' N	3 14.60' W	3.1	290	3.9	293.0	3480.9	16.3
4	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	48 57.08' N	3 07.16' W	4.0	285	4.5	288.0	3487.7	23.1
	Mono class 2
1	Vedettes de Bréhat Cap Marine	Servane Escoffier	48 54.92' N	3 57.88' W	7.3	254	6.8	266.0	3454.8	0.0
2	Top 50 Guadeloupe	Luc Coquelin	49 00.20' N	3 51.00' W	8.0	276	6.5	270.0	3460.5	5.6
3	Artforms	Kip Stone	49 11.04' N	3 47.92' W	5.3	284	6.2	268.0	3461.9	7.1
4	AOI Solidarité Dentaire Internationale	Denis Douillez	49 01.40' N	3 27.56' W	5.3	247	3.1	277.0	3475.7	20.9
	Class 3 mono
1	Roaring Forty	Michel Kleinjans	48 54.56' N	3 59.16' W	4.0	266	4.5	264.0	3453.9	0.0
2	Charter Regis Guillemot Martinique	Regis Guillemot	49 08.58' N	3 29.22' W	4.5	276	3.5	282.0	3468.9	15.0
3	DangerousWhenWet	Aurélia Ditton	48 59.00' N	3 23.96' W	3.0	279	4.0	260.0	3477.4	23.5
4	La Promesse	Jankees Lampe	49 17.32' N	3 16.04' W	3.2	272	3.1	285.0	3488.5	34.6
5	A Fond Contre la Spondylarthrite	Didier Le Villain	48 58.24' N	2 58.44' W	5.4	282	2.9	295.0	3491.2	37.3
6	Fantasy Forest	Alain Grinda	48 59.08' N	2 42.60' W	1.4	289	1.3	317.0	3501.5	47.6
	Class 40
1	TMI Technologies	Joe Seeten	48 46.96' N	4 04.12' W	6.6	238	7.2	248.0	3448.9	0.0
2	Tchuda Popka 2	Gw Catherine	48 47.40' N	4 03.56' W	6.9	252	7.0	250.0	3449.4	0.5
3	Oyster Funds	Gildas Morvan	48 52.76' N	3 58.96' W	6.0	270	5.5	254.0	3451.5	2.6
4	Siegenia-Aubi	Marc Lepesqueux	48 47.60' N	3 54.32' W	6.1	258	6.0	256.0	3452.8	3.9
5	Atao Audio System	Dominique Vittet	48 55.84' N	3 57.96' W	6.2	269	6.2	272.0	3455.0	6.1
6	Bolands Mill	Ian Munslow	49 02.96' N	3 55.96' W	7.2	267	6.9	258.0	3458.0	9.0
7	Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer	Gerry Trentseaux	48 50.68' N	3 40.00' W	6.2	252	5.2	257.0	3458.9	10.0
8	Chocolats Monbana	Damien Grimont	48 54.44' N	3 45.88' W	6.3	257	6.1	260.0	3459.3	10.4
9	Cap VAD	Thibaud Derville	48 48.92' N	3 48.60' W	4.3	256	5.4	254.0	3459.3	10.4
10	Paca Entrprendre	Cecile Poujol	48 53.24' N	3 49.56' W	5.0	248	6.1	259.0	3459.7	10.8
11	Jardin Bio Equitable	Benoit Parnaudeau	48 49.56' N	3 45.80' W	5.0	246	4.7	256.0	3461.3	12.3
12	Kenmore Homes	Nick Bubb	48 58.04' N	3 48.84' W	8.0	252	6.7	257.0	3461.3	12.4
13	FNAIM Pays de Loire	Lionel Regnier	48 58.00' N	3 47.68' W	7.0	264	6.0	265.0	3462.1	13.1
14	Destination Calais	Pierre-Yves Chatelain	48 53.52' N	3 45.48' W	5.1	258	5.0	263.0	3462.4	13.5
15	Nouvelle Caledonie	Yves Ecarlat	48 53.48' N	3 42.52' W	4.1	254	5.1	256.0	3464.3	15.4
16	philsharpracing.com	Phil Shark	49 02.76' N	3 44.20' W	7.1	274	5.7	266.0	3465.4	16.5
17	Le Comptoir Immobilier	Guillaume Voizard	48 56.12' N	3 37.56' W	2.1	288	4.6	264.0	3466.2	17.2
18	Appart'City	Yvan Noblet	49 04.40' N	3 37.84' W	7.1	264	5.5	254.0	3466.3	17.3
19	Nous Entreprenons	Jacques Fournier	48 59.72' N	3 40.76' W	4.2	280	5.3	258.0	3466.9	17.9
20	Lexibook	Hervé Papin	49 07.68' N	3 27.90' W	5.3	275	3.6	281.0	3468.3	19.3
21	IXSEA	Olivier Rabine	49 08.44' N	3 35.92' W	6.0	286	4.6	277.0	3469.4	20.5
22	Cotes d'Armor - Pierres et Mer	Philippe le Gros	49 09.36' N	3 31.68' W	7.1	280	3.8	285.0	3474.9	26.0
23	Cinémas Cinéfil.com	JE Criquioche	49 18.36' N	3 22.56' W	6.2	260	4.7	269.0	3488.6	39.6
24	Fermiers de Loué - Sarthe	Francois Angoulvant	49 22.68' N	3 25.92' W	7.2	268	4.0	300.0	3489.7	40.8
NL	KNAUF Industries	David Lefebvre

Depictive of the relative speeds of the boats - the Route du Rhum fleet has now split into waves of boats heading west out of the English Channel. According ot the forecast there is a small localised, weak depression centred over Brest to the south of the Open 60s and southeast of the ORMA tris, so the boats should have been seeing the wind slowly back to the southwest, however the wind radar image indicates the centre of this local may have drifted north over the Channel in which case there could end up being a divide in the fleet between those to the west and east of this small system.

The boats furthest west certainly seem to have picked up speed with the trimarans now all sailing in the 12-13 knot range, the Open 60s up to around 8 knots, indicating sub-10 knot winds still. Tactically all the boats are currently heading northwest in order to be first to a favourable northerly shift the front runners should experience tonight.

With the boats sailing at around 45deg to the right of the great circle, the results table above is not telling the full story. The reality is that in terms of the direction they are heading, Franck Cammas' Groupama II and Michel Desjoyeaux' Geant are pretty much neck and neck for the lead, while Lionel Lemonchois on Gitana II, allegedly second due to being much further south. Desjoyeaux is currently heading the more extreme northerly route with the young Antoine Koch, skipper of Sopra Group hanging on to his coat tails. Lemonchois along with Alain Gautier on Foncia and Thomas Coville on Sodebo at present are taking the most southerly route, but it appears they will arrive later to the new breeze.

“The wind did not cease turning from the northeast to the north then the south and I had work constantly," commented Cammas this morning at the time experiencing 13.2 knots from the west. "Fortunately, the wind will become more stable over the course of today. I didn't do too badly, but I knew that that was going to be like that”. In these conditions sleep has proved extremely hard.

The leaderboard in the Open 60s is even more screwed up. While we would love Brian Thompson on Artemis to be in the lead, the reality is that Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac-Paprec seems to have really got the bit between his teeth and is ahead of Roland Jourdain's Sill et Veolia some 14 miles to his south (and for some reason very down speed over the last few hours) with Jean le Cam on VM Materiaux holding third on a course between the two. Thompson sadly appears to be one of three boats in the second tier group but in good company alongside the two new Open 60s - Vincent Riou's PRB and Dominque Wavre's Temenos.

Among the Class 40s the situation is even less clear with a massive divide across the Channel. According to the positions former Vendee Globe skipper Joe Seeten is leading by nature of the fact that he appears to be hugging the coast of France. In fact it seems that Ian 'mad dog' Munslow is leading the charge on board his Owen Clarke designed Bolands Mill alongside former Solitaire du Figaro winner Dominique Vittet on ATAO with another top Figaro sailor Gildas Morvan further south. Phil Sharp and Nick Bubb are in the next wave of boats but well positioned to the north.