Bilou's glorious victory

Roland Jourdain and Jean le Cam match race to the Route du Rhum's Guadeloupe finish line

Saturday November 11th 2006, Author: James Boyd, Location: Transoceanic

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and ProGRIB

Positions at 0700GMT

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Dist	DTF	DTL
					Inst		4hr av		24hr
	ORMA 60 tris
1	Gitana 11	Lionel lemonchois	7j 17h 19m 6s								0
2	Banque Populaire	Pascal Bidegorry	8j 4h 25m 7s								0
3	Sodeb'O	Thomas Coville	8j 13h 39m 2s								0
4	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	8j 13h 48m 24s								0
5	Groupama 2	Franck Cammas	8j 17h 55m 17s								0
6	Brossard	Yvan Bourgnon	9j 0h 40m 15s								0
7	Foncia	Alain Gautier	9j 16h 14m 40s								0
8	Region Guadeloupe-Terres de Passions	Claude Thelier	11j 11h 56m 51s								0
9	Sopra Group	Antoine Koch	12j 0h 59m 41s								0
10	Gitana 12	Thierry Duprey du Vorsent	12j 15h 52m 0s								0
11	Madinina	Gilles Lamire	28 07.40' N	45 51.36' W	1.4	188	7	184	6.5	156.1	1178.7	0
ABD	Orange Project	Steve Ravussin
	IMOCA Open 60s
1	Sill et Veolia	Roland Jourdain	12j 11h 58m 58s								0
2	VM Matériaux	Jean Le Cam	12j 12h 26m 58s								0
3	Virbac-Paprec	Jean-Pierre Dick	16 09.80' N	61 28.24' W	1.3	311	3.6	14	9.1	218.8	3.1	0
4	Brit Air	Armel Le Cléac'h	16 18.40' N	61 50.96' W	12	178	7	222	9.7	233.6	45.1	42
5	Temenos II	Dominique Wavre	16 45.60' N	61 06.76' W	7.3	194	6.5	221	8.4	201.7	92	89
6	Artemis	Brian Thompson	17 56.46' N	59 59.28' W	4.7	176	2.9	186	9	217	185.4	182.3
7	Roxy	Anne Liardet	22 11.20' N	55 33.04' W	12	232	10.2	227	8.6	207	545.9	542.8
8	Safran	Marc Guillemot	24 22.92' N	56 33.04' W	7.1	250	7.3	251	8.6	207.5	612.8	609.7
9	Maisonneuve Basse Normandie	JB Dejeanty	26 03.08' N	50 43.64' W	9.1	220	2.7	260	5.4	130.7	896	892.9
10	Adriana Karembeu Paris	Philippe Fiston	31 03.68' N	45 35.00' W	5.9	221	4	274	6.7	159.8	1299	1295.9
ABD	Delta Dore	Jeremy Beyou
ABD	PRB	Vincent Riou
	Class 2 multis
1	Crêpes Whaou !	Franck-Yves Escoffier	11j 17h 28m 11s								0
2	Trilogic	Eric Bruneel	17 47.80' N	60 10.84' W	9.2	217	8.3	214	10.5	252.2	174.9	0
3	Laiterie de Saint-Malo	Victorien Erussard	25 11.36' N	54 46.28' W	10.4	274	7.1	268	6.1	147.5	708.4	533.5
4	Deleage & DIAZO	Loic Escofier	27 57.36' N	49 07.88' W	8	259	5.9	259	6.9	164.7	1036.9	862
5	Négocéane	Roger Langevin	28 16.36' N	47 44.11' W	2.3	232	3.9	230	6.2	148.7	1105.2	930.3
6	Gifi	Dominique Demachy	29 20.36' N	46 32.88' W	2.2	246	2.7	254	5	119.6	1194.1	1019.2
ABD	Jean Stalaven	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Le Bon Marche - Rive Gauche	Anne Caseneuve
	Class 3 multis
1	Imagine-Institut des Maladies Génétiques	Pierre Antoine	29 10.96' N	46 54.72' W	1.9	267	2.8	265	5.3	127.7	1173.5	0
ABD	Switch.fr	Charlie Capelle
ABD	Ideal Stelrad	Ross Hobson
	Class 1 monos
1	Jeunes Dirigeants	Pierre-Yves Guennec	30 36.04' N	42 38.20' W	4.9	252	5.5	247	8.2	195.6	1401.9	0
2	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	33 33.92' N	42 39.76' W	6	254	6.8	253	7.7	185.7	1503.6	101.7
3	Antilles-Sails.com	Philippe Chevallier	31 39.60' N	40 24.68' W	6.3	236	7.9	241	8.7	208.8	1532.2	130.3
4	TAT Express	Arnaud Dhallenne	33 30.12' N	40 44.04' W	6.3	240	7.6	241	7.8	186.4	1582.4	180.5
	Class 2 monos
1	Artforms	Kip Stone	28 00.16' N	53 06.88' W	8	241	10.2	223	9.5	228.9	896.9	0
2	Vedettes de Bréhat Cap Marine	Servane Escoffier	31 36.80' N	54 41.76' W	5.2	189	4.6	236	6.5	157	1042.5	145.6
3	Cap Guadeloupe 971	Luc Coquelin	33 06.48' N	51 10.26' W	7	243	7.5	241	7.6	182.5	1199.4	302.5
4	AOI Solidarité Dentaire Internationale	Denis Douillez	28 31.96' N	36 28.20' W	9.2	224	8.8	226	7.3	174.2	1626.6	729.7
	Class 3 monos
1	Roaring Forty	Michel Kleinjans	31 09.12' N	43 20.72' W	3	262	3.7	271	5	119.4	1391.8	0
2	DangerousWhenWet	Aurélia Ditton	37 49.56' N	41 57.32' W	4.6	170	3.2	186	4.3	103.4	1708.9	317.1
3	Fantasy Forest	Alain Grinda	38 37.08' N	29 35.28' W	6.9	237	6	240	4.5	107.9	2193.7	801.9
ABD	A Fond Contre la Spondylarthrite	Didier Le Villain
ABD	La Promesse	Jankees Lampe
ABD	Charter Regis Guillemot Martinique	Regis Guillemot
	Class 40
1	philsharpracing.com	Phil Sharp	28 48.56' N	55 19.12' W	5.4	255	7.6	241	7.6	181.4	876.9	0
2	Oyster Funds	Gildas Morvan	28 18.56' N	51 45.36' W	4.4	197	6.6	238	7.8	187.6	955.8	78.9
3	IXSEA	Olivier Rabine	31 55.04' N	50 51.68' W	7.1	294	8.6	254	7.2	173.4	1156	279.1
4	Atao Audio System	Dominic Vittet	28 30.52' N	46 42.36' W	1.4	218	2.5	216	5.6	134	1156.5	279.6
5	Chocolats Monbana	Damien Grimont	30 41.08' N	48 49.56' W	7.1	238	8.1	233	7.2	172.8	1159.9	283
6	Appart'City	Yvan Noblet	28 58.56' N	46 21.78' W	2.8	252	6	274	8	191.3	1184.8	307.9
7	Bolands Mill	Ian Munslow	32 59.12' N	51 05.68' W	11.3	251	8.9	258	7.3	176.3	1202.6	325.7
8	Tchuda Popka 2	Gw Catherine	30 50.72' N	45 12.52' W	3.6	244	4.2	263	7.1	170.4	1305.4	428.5
9	Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer	Gery Trentseaux	31 38.08' N	45 31.44' W	6.1	235	4.7	235	5.9	140.6	1324.3	447.4
10	Le Comptoir Immobilier	Guillaume Voizard	34 43.64' N	49 21.60' W	10.4	264	9.7	277	5.1	122.8	1337.5	460.5
11	Cinémas Cinéfil.com	JE Criquioche	31 19.76' N	44 27.80' W	1.4	282	4.6	263	7.8	187.3	1353.4	476.5
12	Cotes d'Armor - Pierres et Mer	Philippe le Gros	32 00.48' N	45 02.04' W	4.1	199	4.2	220	6.8	162.1	1357.8	480.9
13	Lexibook	Hervé Papin	31 41.60' N	43 55.68' W	4	281	5.2	269	6.9	164.9	1388.4	511.5
14	Nous Entreprenons	Jacques Fournier	32 34.36' N	44 29.44' W	5.4	196	3.6	284	5.9	141.5	1401	524.1
15	FNAIM Pays de Loire	Lionel Regnier	30 08.96' N	42 15.88' W	6.1	257	7.4	232	8.8	211.5	1402.7	525.8
16	Destination Calais	Pierre-Yves Chatelain	31 28.00' N	43 04.12' W	4.4	256	7.3	265	8.6	207.1	1414.5	537.6
17	Cap VAD	Thibaud Derville	33 32.48' N	44 02.40' W	4.2	298	2.9	268	6.1	146.8	1456.9	579.9
18	Paca Entrprendre	Cecile Poujol	33 39.40' N	43 48.48' W	5.1	274	4.5	251	6.9	164.4	1470.1	593.2
19	Nouvelle Caledonie	Yves Ecarlat	29 38.20' N	39 09.08' W	6.1	230	7.7	221	8	190.8	1526.8	649.9
20	KNAUF Industries	David Lefebvre	34 02.76' N	41 11.76' W	7	238	6.2	240	7.8	188.3	1584.2	707.3
21	Jardin Bio Equitable	Benoit Parnaudeau	33 18.92' N	38 48.28' W	8	253	9.1	242	10.4	248.6	1654.8	777.9
22	Siegenia-Aubi	Marc Lepesqueux	37 09.12' N	34 26.48' W	9	246	10.6	255	8.9	214.4	1960.2	1083.3
23	Fermiers de Loué - Sarthe	Francois Angoulvant	36 20.20' N	33 09.04' W	7.1	252	8.2	249	7.6	182.8	1986.9	1110
24	Kenmore Homes	Nick Bubb	38 29.56' N	31 02.16' W	7	60	4.5	79	-2.8	-67.1	2139.7	1262.7
ABD	TMI Technologies	Joe Seeten

At 00:58GMT this morning (20:58 Friday night, local time) Roland Jourdain and his red Sill et Veolia completed their turn around Guadeloupe, crossing the Pointe a Pitre finish line to take line honours in the Open 60 class of the Route du Rhum.

A very light finish to the race saw Jourdain's friend, old skipper and sparring partner Jean le Cam sailing Sill's sistership VM Materiaux close him right down. From a comfortable 100 mile lead, sailing into less breeze Jourdain could do little but watch yesterday as his lead was halved overnight (Thursday-Friday), to 47 miles at 0800, 40 miles at 1200 and just 19 miles by 1600 yesterday. On the approach to Guadeloupe the two boats were in sight of each other and they ended up match racing to the finish, le Cam finally finishing just 27 minutes and 55 seconds behind his old rival.

Despite being expected in initially yesterday morning, then yesterday afternoon, finally Jourdain completed the Route du Rhum last night in 12 days 11 hours 58 minutes and 58 seconds, covering the 3542 miles at an average speed of 11.81 knots. In the process Jourdain broke Ellen MacArthur's record, set in the 2002 race by 1 day 1 hour and 32 minutes.

The key moment in Jourdain's Route du Rhum happened on 2 November when he chose to break from the rest of the pack and head south through the gap in the Azores, whereas his rivals chose to continue west, leaving the mid-Atlantic archipelago to port. Here Jourdain pulled ahead and while it looked like he might fall into the lee of the islands, he in fact was able to extend his lead. He was then smart in his choice of where to cross the warm front that dominated the weather to the west of the Azores for most of last week. He then fell in, in front of the boats such as VM Materiaux and Virbac Paprec which had chosen to cross the front earlier and was able to cover them to the finish.

All this Jourdain's achieved despite having a boom that had broken as he was passing the Azores. Jourdain had lashed up a repair using pretty much any available materials on board including a bunk and his chart table seat...

The next arrival, ready to take the final spot on the Open 60 podium imminently, is Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac Paprec.

In the Class 40s Phil Sharp is maintaining first place, however second placed Gildas Morvan on Oyster Funds has been slowly eating into his lead, now down from 90 to 78 miles over the last 24 hours. The two boats are still separated by almost 200 miles across the race track and thus are sailing in different weather conditions - Morvan getting the weather Sharp is experencing some 18 hours later. This morning finds a depression passing eastwards to the north of Sharp and overnight he has seen the wind veer to the west causing him to tack on to starboard with the wind forecast to free up to the northwest over the course of the day.

Meanwhile Morvan is still in upwind southerly breeze, the favourable shift not reaching him until this evening. Thus today should provide an opportunity for Sharp to increase his advantage over the Frenchman. The two boats have a comfortable cushion over third place which is being swapped between Dominique Vittet on ATAO Audio System still way out to the east, at present sailing in light downwind conditions, losing out to Olivier Rabine on IXSEA who is upwind in 25-30 knots due north of Morvan. Rabine is in a similar part of the ocean to Ian Munslow on Bollands Mill, who in the last 24 hours has dropped one spot to seventh. Both Munslow and Rabine look in good shape to get the shift to the northwest at much the same time as Morvan and this should propel them up the leaderboard over the course of the weekend .