Sharp picks up speed

Lunchtime arrival tomorrow for talented British Class 40 skipper in the Route du Rhum

Wednesday November 15th 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	19 38.68' N	51 32.20' W	5.2	242	5.5	234.0	4.2	100.0	666.1	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	Safran	Marc Guillemot	16d 17h 57m 26s	15/11/2006 06:59							0.0
8	Roxy	Anne Liardet	17d 0h 52m 44s	15/11/2006 13:54							0.0
9	Maisonneuve Basse Normandie	JB Dejeanty	18 34.24' N	59 12.96' W	2.3	214	7.9	216.0	4.4	106.1	243.2	0.0
10	Adriana Karembeu Paris	Philippe Fiston	24 00.68' N	57 42.40' W	6.3	201	7.3	211.0	9.4	226.6	562.2	319.0
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	16d 18h 29m 54s	15/11/2006 07:31							0.0
4	Deleage & DIAZO	Loic Escofier	19 30.56' N	60 43.92' W	8.0	204	7.3	205.0	5.3	127.8	247.0	0.0
5	Négocéane	Roger Langevin	19 53.32' N	53 57.91' W	4.0	172	2.8	225.0	3.2	76.5	542.7	295.7
6	Gifi	Dominique Demachy	24 01.36' N	52 11.24' W	1.1	203	1.7	204.0	3.0	72.7	758.2	511.2
ABD	Jean Stalaven	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Le Bon Marche - Rive Gauche	Anne Caseneuve
	Class 3 multis
1	Imagine-Institut des Maladies Génétiques	Pierre Antoine	23 10.40' N	53 40.16' W	3.1	267	2.8	246.0	2.7	64.4	663.0	0.0
ABD	Switch.fr	Charlie Capelle
ABD	Ideal Stelrad	Ross Hobson
	Class 1 monos
1	Antilles-Sails.com	Philippe Chevallier	27 43.64' N	52 11.80' W	9.0	198	6.0	197.0	6.5	155.1	914.0	0.0
2	Jeunes Dirigeants	Pierre-Yves Guennec	22 46.96' N	47 13.36' W	5.7	185	6.4	169.0	2.4	58.5	957.4	43.4
3	TAT Express	Arnaud Dhallenne	29 19.56' N	52 17.16' W	8.1	206	8.0	200.0	6.8	162.1	986.7	72.7
4	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	28 15.12' N	50 17.24' W	3.0	215	4.6	214.0	6.3	150.8	1003.0	89.0
	Class 2 monos
1	Artforms	Kip Stone	17 41.04' N	61 31.68' W	7.4	189	10.5	186.0	6.3	151.8	129.5	0.0
2	Vedettes de Bréhat Cap Marine	Servane Escoffier	20 32.48' N	61 29.16' W	4.4	156	3.6	193.0	3.3	79.3	300.0	170.5
3	Cap Guadeloupe 971	Luc Coquelin	23 45.24' N	58 21.06' W	3.7	227	4.4	222.0	6.8	162.4	528.7	399.2
4	AOI Solidarité Dentaire Internationale	Denis Douillez	23 18.00' N	42 09.96' W	6.3	245	6.7	247.0	2.6	62.1	1230.7	1101.2
	Class 3 monos
1	Roaring Forty	Michel Kleinjans	27 12.76' N	52 51.16' W	6.0	216	6.3	225.0	6.1	145.8	868.0	0.0
2	DangerousWhenWet	Aurélia Ditton	29 26.16' N	50 51.88' W	8.4	215	8.0	224.0	8.1	193.8	1037.7	169.7
3	Fantasy Forest	Alain Grinda	31 24.30' N	38 54.24' W	7.6	189	7.7	191.0	5.7	137.8	1583.6	715.6
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	18 28.88' N	61 22.40' W	9.3	185	8.5	187.0	5.1	122.0	178.2	0.0
2	Oyster Funds	Gildas Morvan	20 10.80' N	58 54.72' W	2.3	231	3.4	217.0	3.1	73.7	330.7	152.6
3	Bolands Mill	Ian Munslow	23 27.04' N	59 43.16' W	5.2	212	5.6	217.0	7.2	172.3	489.9	311.7
4	Chocolats Monbana	Damien Grimont	23 50.92' N	57 52.16' W	1.9	223	4.3	208.0	6.6	158.6	548.6	370.4
5	IXSEA	Olivier Rabine	23 48.88' N	57 27.80' W	2.3	182	6.0	189.0	5.8	139.5	558.2	380.0
6	Le Comptoir Immobilier	Guillaume Voizard	24 57.44' N	59 10.80' W	8.1	198	8.3	199.0	7.4	177.5	584.9	406.8
7	Cotes d'Armor - Pierres et Mer	Philippe le Gros	24 29.16' N	56 08.60' W	1.4	199	4.2	206.0	6.0	144.5	630.5	452.4
8	Atao Audio System	Dominic Vittet	20 53.96' N	52 02.24' W	4.2	164	2.5	226.0	2.8	68.4	666.5	488.3
9	Guyader L'Esprit de la Mer	Gery Trentseaux	25 21.72' N	54 59.12' W	5.4	201	6.1	195.0	6.4	152.5	709.9	531.7
10	Appart'City	Yvan Noblet	20 54.76' N	50 29.32' W	3.4	210	2.4	221.0	3.1	73.6	746.8	568.6
11	Lexibook	Hervé Papin	26 37.16' N	54 55.84' W	6.1	250	5.6	249.0	5.6	134.9	773.5	595.3
12	Cinémas Cinéfil.com	JE Criquioche	27 15.44' N	55 08.20' W	6.4	270	6.3	261.0	5.7	135.9	800.1	621.9
13	Paca Entrprendre	Cecile Poujol	27 38.16' N	54 20.32' W	5.2	170	6.8	198.0	7.0	167.0	841.8	663.6
14	Destination Calais	Pierre-Yves Chatelain	26 35.22' N	52 18.72' W	5.5	198	4.3	176.0	5.2	124.0	852.5	674.3
15	Cap VAD	Thibaud Derville	27 32.28' N	53 38.76' W	6.3	166	7.0	178.0	6.9	164.8	855.3	677.1
16	Tchuda Popka 2	Gw Catherine	24 22.20' N	49 57.24' W	5.2	185	5.4	182.0	2.9	68.8	869.3	691.2
17	Jardin Bio Equitable	Benoit Parnaudeau	27 22.64' N	51 05.64' W	8.2	191	7.5	189.0	7.0	169.1	937.7	759.6
18	Nous Entreprenons	Jacques Fournier	24 40.84' N	48 33.32' W	6.2	178	6.1	177.0	4.4	104.4	943.7	765.6
19	FNAIM Pays de Loire	Lionel Regnier	22 40.56' N	46 43.68' W	6.2	180	4.3	205.0	2.6	63.1	977.1	799.0
20	Siegenia-Aubi	Marc Lepesqueux	28 57.40' N	51 02.52' W	8.0	246	9.1	229.0	10.1	243.1	1006.0	827.8
21	KNAUF Industries	David Lefebvre	29 05.52' N	50 56.48' W	5.4	236	7.4	262.0	6.3	152.2	1019.3	841.1
22	Nouvelle Caledonie	Yves Ecarlat	22 29.88' N	44 23.44' W	7.0	246	5.1	172.0	0.6	13.9	1099.0	920.8
23	Fermiers de Loué - Sarthe	Francois Angoulvant	32 11.68' N	46 33.40' W	5.2	238	7.3	224.0	6.9	164.4	1309.5	1131.3
ABD	TMI Technologies	Joe Seeten
ABD	Kenmore Homes	Nick Bubb

Approaching the Caribbean finally, so Phil Sharp has been sailing in 10 knot easterlies while to his northeast second placed Gildas Morvan on Oyster Funds has been having a tougher time in winds of bearly 5 knots. As a result while Sharp has averaged 8.5 knots over the last four hours, so Morvan has managed only 3.4. With just 152 miles to go and the conditions looking relatively stable, Sharp's victory is looking good, but the Britsh skipper knows better than to count his chickens just yet. He is due into Pointe a Pitre at lunchtime tomorrow.

The pressure is also getting light for the group to the north, where third placed Ian Munslow on Bollands Mill is now almost 60 miles ahead of Damien Grimont on Chocolats Montana despite the breeze dropping to the 5-10 knot range on he outskirts of the high pressure system to their northwest.

After three odd days without any arrivals, so this morning two of the final four Open 60s arrived in Pointe a Pitre. Marc Guillemot on Safran, formerly Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher, crossed the finish line at 0700 after 16d 17h 57m 26 s at sea to take seventh place after a long battle with Anne Liardet on Roxy in the light tricky winds approaching the finish.

Anne Liardet on Roxy was welcomed a few hours later after 17 d 00h 52m 44s at sea, exhausted after 36 hours without sleep and upset about her position. This is Liardet's last race with Roxy. Sam Davies now takes over the helm of this Open 60 and will be delivering the boat back to Europe.