Fresh roll of the dice

In Route du Rhum Class 40s Gildas Morvan gets nailed by light winds

Tuesday November 14th 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	7j 17h 19m 6s	06/11/2006 06:21							0.0
2	Banque Populaire	Pascal Bidegorry	8j 4h 25m 7s	06/11/2006 17:27							0.0
3	Sodeb'O	Thomas Coville	8j 13h 39m 2s	07/11/2006 02:41							0.0
4	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	8j 13h 48m 24s	07/11/2006 02:50							0.0
5	Groupama 2	Franck Cammas	8j 17h 55m 17s	07/11/2006 06:57							0.0
6	Brossard	Yvan Bourgnon	9j 0h 40m 15s	07/11/2006 13:42							0.0
7	Foncia	Alain Gautier	9j 16h 14m 40s	08/11/2006 05:16							0.0
8	Region Guadeloupe-Terres de Passions	Claude Thelier	11j 11h 56m 51s	10/11/2006 00:58							0.0
9	Sopra Group	Antoine Koch	12j 0h 59m 41s	10/11/2006 14:01							0.0
10	Gitana 12	Thierry Duprey du Vorsent	12j 14h 52m 0s	11/11/2006 03:54							0.0
11	Madinina	Gilles Lamire	21 56.04' N	50 34.60' W	14.4	162	12.2	151.0	5.4	130.0	766.7	0.0
ABD	Orange Project	Steve Ravussin
	IMOCA Open 60s
1	Sill et Veolia	Roland Jourdain	12j 11h 58m 58s	11/11/2006 01:00							0.0
2	VM Matériaux	Jean Le Cam	12j 12h 26m 58s	11/11/2006 01:28							0.0
3	Virbac-Paprec	Jean-Pierre Dick	12j 20h 27m 58s	11/11/2006 09:29							0.0
4	Brit Air	Armel Le Cléac'h	13j 3h 57m 17s	11/11/2006 16:59							0.0
5	Temenos II	Dominique Wavre	13j 9h 20m 3s	11/11/2006 22:22							0.0
6	Artemis	Brian Thompson	13j 17h 32m 20s	12/11/2006 06:34							0.0
7	Safran	Marc Guillemot	18 12.04' N	61 35.08' W	10.1	195	9.7	194.0	5.4	129.3	159.7	0.0
8	Roxy	Anne Liardet	18 08.36' N	60 46.96' W	2.0	203	4.6	207.0	4.2	101.9	170.3	10.6
9	Adriana Karembeu Paris	Philippe Fiston	29 12.48' N	56 17.88' W	7.3	264	8.0	266.0	5.7	136.7	877.0	717.4
NL	Maisonneuve Basse Normandie	JB Dejeanty
ABD	Delta Dore	Jeremy Beyou
ABD	PRB	Vincent Riou
	Class 2 multis
1	Crêpes Whaou !	Franck-Yves Escoffier	11j 17h 28m 11s	10/11/2006 06:30							0.0
2	Trilogic	Eric Bruneel	13j 14h 49m 3s	12/11/2006 03:51							0.0
3	Laiterie de Saint-Malo	Victorien Erussard	18 14.40' N	61 24.24' W	4.2	199	8.0	195.0	6.0	145.1	163.5	0.0
4	Deleage & DIAZO	Loic Escofier	21 49.36' N	59 04.96' W	6.0	189	4.7	220.0	8.3	198.9	410.7	247.2
5	Négocéane	Roger Langevin	22 22.16' N	52 47.70' W	10.8	172	5.1	195.0	6.4	153.8	672.6	509.0
6	Gifi	Dominique Demachy	25 38.80' N	50 50.52' W	6.3	216	4.0	218.0	3.8	90.7	876.6	713.1
ABD	Jean Stalaven	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Le Bon Marche - Rive Gauche	Anne Caseneuve
	Class 3 multis
1	Imagine-Institut des Maladies Génétiques	Pierre Antoine	24 36.04' N	52 37.60' W	6.2	184	3.2	201.0	5.3	126.0	762.4	0.0
ABD	Switch.fr	Charlie Capelle
ABD	Ideal Stelrad	Ross Hobson
	Class 1 monos
1	Jeunes Dirigeants	Pierre-Yves Guennec	25 59.36' N	47 15.44' W	6.9	171	4.2	208.0	3.3	79.3	1045.1	0.0
2	Antilles-Sails.com	Philippe Chevallier	29 31.52' N	48 48.48' W	6.1	334	6.7	284.0	6.4	152.9	1114.2	69.1
3	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	30 39.04' N	47 24.60' W	7.0	191	7.6	205.0	5.6	133.3	1206.8	161.7
NL	TAT Express	Arnaud Dhallenne
	Class 2 monos
1	Artforms	Kip Stone	20 49.80' N	61 14.96' W	2.0	140	4.4	186.0	6.4	154.7	318.6	0.0
2	Vedettes de Bréhat Cap Marine	Servane Escoffier	22 03.68' N	61 08.76' W	1.2	189	2.0	209.0	6.9	165.1	391.3	72.7
3	AOI Solidarité Dentaire Internationale	Denis Douillez	25 17.28' N	41 51.96' W	6.1	165	5.3	272.0	5.5	130.9	1285.9	967.4
NL	Cap Guadeloupe 971	Luc Coquelin
	Class 3 monos
1	Roaring Forty	Michel Kleinjans	29 19.80' N	50 04.52' W	6.0	264	6.9	276.0	6.0	143.7	1060.0	0.0
2	DangerousWhenWet	Aurélia Ditton	33 01.40' N	48 05.76' W	7.5	213	6.9	216.0	6.7	161.0	1293.9	233.9
3	Fantasy Forest	Alain Grinda	34 14.40' N	36 45.00' W	4.1	256	4.7	250.0	4.4	106.3	1768.1	708.1
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	20 58.08' N	60 40.96' W	3.3	192	5.2	208.0	7.1	171.6	332.3	0.0
2	Oyster Funds	Gildas Morvan	21 39.40' N	57 56.44' W	0.4	252	2.9	232.0	5.3	127.4	434.5	102.2
3	Bolands Mill	Ian Munslow	26 46.08' N	57 37.76' W	9.1	194	7.4	209.0	8.6	206.6	714.9	382.6
4	IXSEA	Olivier Rabine	27 12.28' N	56 41.32' W	9.2	206	9.2	204.0	6.3	152.1	753.6	421.3
5	Chocolats Monbana	Damien Grimont	26 41.32' N	55 25.80' W	7.1	233	7.3	243.0	6.6	159.4	759.8	427.5
6	Atao Audio System	Dominic Vittet	23 29.88' N	51 29.48' W	8.1	185	6.1	177.0	4.8	115.7	770.2	437.9
7	Le Comptoir Immobilier	Guillaume Voizard	28 25.28' N	57 00.88' W	6.2	214	7.9	202.0	8.4	202.1	819.2	486.9
8	Cotes d'Armor - Pierres et Mer	Philippe le Gros	27 34.48' N	54 04.24' W	8.4	206	8.4	206.0	7.7	185.5	846.6	514.4
9	Appart'City	Yvan Noblet	24 12.42' N	50 00.72' W	6.7	168	7.2	159.0	3.8	90.4	856.9	524.6
10	Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer	Gery Trentseaux	28 23.92' N	52 59.28' W	8.3	209	8.0	248.0	5.1	121.7	920.0	587.8
11	Lexibook	Hervé Papin	28 56.32' N	52 07.56' W	8.3	203	7.3	203.0	6.7	159.7	973.1	640.9
12	Tchuda Popka 2	Gw Catherine	26 59.72' N	49 43.20' W	2.7	169	2.0	169.0	2.5	59.9	975.2	643.0
13	Cinémas Cinéfil.com	JE Criquioche	29 07.28' N	51 43.20' W	8.3	246	7.1	258.0	4.2	100.6	992.0	659.7
14	Destination Calais	Pierre-Yves Chatelain	29 34.60' N	51 10.32' W	9.0	252	7.1	265.0	5.9	141.5	1030.8	698.5
15	Paca Entrprendre	Cecile Poujol	29 42.04' N	50 31.48' W	8.4	186	9.1	200.0	9.4	224.7	1061.2	729.0
16	FNAIM Pays de Loire	Lionel Regnier	25 48.72' N	46 43.92' W	4.4	167	6.2	174.0	3.2	76.7	1063.5	731.3
17	Nous Entreprenons	Jacques Fournier	28 03.16' N	48 15.56' W	5.1	178	3.7	191.0	4.0	97.1	1073.1	740.9
18	Cap VAD	Thibaud Derville	29 57.08' N	50 21.92' W	10.3	258	7.4	263.0	8.1	194.3	1078.1	745.8
19	Nouvelle Caledonie	Yves Ecarlat	25 30.36' N	44 54.00' W	7.0	182	7.0	177.0	5.0	120.3	1140.3	808.0
20	Jardin Bio Equitable	Benoit Parnaudeau	30 02.44' N	47 48.36' W	8.0	240	10.4	244.0	7.2	173.0	1173.1	840.8
21	KNAUF Industries	David Lefebvre	32 10.16' N	48 39.96' W	7.3	210	8.7	205.0	6.5	156.6	1236.1	903.9
22	Siegenia-Aubi	Marc Lepesqueux	33 21.88' N	47 17.80' W	13.0	240	10.6	233.0	8.8	211.9	1335.6	1003.3
23	Fermiers de Loué - Sarthe	Francois Angoulvant	35 07.28' N	43 41.12' W	8.3	276	7.6	276.0	5.8	139.5	1535.0	1202.8
ABD	TMI Technologies	Joe Seeten
ABD	Kenmore Homes	Nick Bubb

The final run into Guadeloupe is proving to be a struggle for the Class 40s closing on the Pointe a Pitre finish line of the Route du Rhum, thanks to a transitional phase in the weather. Still some 150 miles to the west of his opponent Phil Sharp has been heading on a more westerly track in light northeasterly winds generated by a high pressure system way out to the northwest. Sharp will shortly follow the example of Kip Stone on the Open 50 Artforms just ahead of him in gybing south soon. Meanwhile still 150 miles further east of Sharp second placed Gildas Morvan has been struggling horribly overnight from a lack of wind. Morvan had been making good progress in the northwesterly winds at the extremity of the depression some 500 miles away to the northeast has overnight sailed into the transition zone of no wind between the northwesterlies and the northeasterlies some 100 miles further down the course.

As a result overnight Sharp has been able to recover his lead, going from 63.8 miles at 1600GMT night last night to 102.2 miles at the latest sched. If the forecast is correct Morvan looks set to endure a complete glass out for the rest of today allowing Sharp to gain even more miles.

Looking ahead the wind for Sharp looks set to remain light and will shift to the east and should build slightly the further south he sails.

This morning he reported: “It’s been quite a stressful night as the wind has dropped right down and this morning I’m currently achieving about 2-3 knots. All you can do is sit and wait for everyone else to catch you up which is extremely frustrating. It looks like Gildas has had the same problems as me which is good news, my only hope is that I can get out this hole before everyone else and get a good run to the finish. The positive thing for me at the moment is that the boat is performing well and handled the storms really well. I was up the mast yesterday trying to sort out the spinnaker as I’ve been using it quite a bit recently as I can’t use the gennaker.

“I’m just really looking forward to getting to Guadeloupe now and having a couple of weeks in the Caribbean. At this rate I think realistically we’re looking at a Thursday morning finish but I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed until then in the hope I can get out of this hole before everyone else.”

Meanwhile to the north of the lead duo, the chasing pack have been making great progress. Of these Britain's Ian Munslow on Bollands Mill has finally had his break and has moved up from fifth place to third with a 40 mile cushion now between him and fourth placed Olivier Rabin on IXSEA. Relative to the leaders Munslow has picked up from 415 miles behind Sharp yesterday afternoon to 382 today.

The next boats to finish within the next 24 hours are the Open 60 - Marc Guillemot's Safran (formerly Ellen MacArthur's 2002 winner) and Anne Liardet on the former PRB Vendee Globe winner Roxy. Sharp is set to arrive in the early hours of Thursday morning.