Vittet home and dry

Former Solitaire du Figaro winner victorious in Class 40's 1000 Milles Brittany Ferries

Positions at 0800

Pos	Skipper	Boat	Lat	Long	Crs	Spd	DTF
1	Dominic VITTET	ATAO AUDIO SYSTEM	48 38.96 N	2 01.28 W	90 º	0	0 nm
2	Benoit PARNAUDEAU	JARDIN BIO - PREVOIR	48 49.88 N	2 38.52 W	106 º	10.4	49 nm
3	Jean-Edouard CRIQUIOCHE	CHOICE HOTELS	48 42.96 N	4 37.36 W	58 º	4.6	108 nm
4	Peter HARDING	40 DEGREES	48 36.52 N	4 57.48 W	49 º	4.5	123 nm
5	Eric GALMARD	DIMENSION ONE SPA	48 32.84 N	5 03.88 W	37 º	8.6	128 nm
6	Yvan NOBLET	Appart City	47 43.40 N	3 22.00 W	12 º	1.3	218 nm
ABD	Tanguy de LAMOTTE	NOVEDIA GROUP-SET ENVIRONNEMENT	46 08.68 N	1 10.92 W	67 º	4.1	347 nm
ABD	Damien GRIMONT	CHOCOLATS MONBANA	47 43.36 N	3 21.96 W	338 º	6.2	698 nm
ABD	Cécile POUJOL	MERCI LES AMIS	47 43.68 N	3 22.32 W	354 º	3.6	698 nm

At around 2100 local time last night Dominic Vittet and Thierry Chabigny aboard ATAO Audio Systems took line honours in the inaugural 1000 Milles Brittany Ferries race for the Class 40s. At the time Vittet and Chabigny were around 100 miles ahead of second placed Benoit Parnaudeay on Jardin Bio-Prevoir.

The last section of the race around the Brittany coast was an awkward one for navigation with tides running at 5 knots in places. Prior to rounding Ushant Vittet said if they rounded with the tide then "they would have hit the jackpot". Clearly they did while those astern didn't. To make progress in the foul tide the boats will have been darting inshore on this treacherous rock-infested coast.

From on board 40 Degrees Peter Harding yesterday reported: "The long upwind slog to Ushant continues with the next four hours or so with foul tide. We currently have 10 knots of breeze from 024 degrees and Ushant is on a bearing of 025 !!! Last night we had between 10 and 22 knots with a fair amount of water coming over the deck."

After pulling into Arcachon to fix their D2 (which in fact had just come undone - however the sea state was too bad to go aloft to fix it) Tanguy de LaMotte and Nick Bubb on Novedia Group-Set Environnement set sail again. However soon after one of their rudders broke and they have since retired into La Rochelle.

Nick Bubb writes:

Well it has been an eventful few days since I last had a minute to write. We ended up second into Santander about 50 minutes behind ATAO Audio and just a few minutes ahead of Appart City. It was fairly apparent who had pushed themselves and their boats hardest, as there was a big gap back to Jardin Bio in 4th and we had left before the next boat even arrived.

We left Santander at around 0900 on Wednesday morning in a 15 knot northerly. Our objective was clear, to initially use Appart City to get used to the boat in these conditions and to test out what worked and what didn't, then hopefully we could pull ahead and start catching Atao Audio. This part of the plan worked perfectly and after initially struggling to hold Appart City, we got things sorted and soon disappeared over the horizon. At the 1200 positions update, we were only 3 miles behind ATAO and had already put 2 miles on Appart City.

In the late afternoon the wind started to back to the NE an as we prepared to tack. I went to leeward to sort the runners and check all the lines were clear. Just as we were about to tack, I glanced up and saw the D2 had become detached. With no opportunity to tack, the wind increasing in strength to 25 knots and the sea building, we decided to drop the mainsail and head for the nearest port, which was Arcachon, about 100 miles south of La Rochelle. We arrived there early Thursday morning and found a mooring buoy. Without assistance, we managed to reattach the D2, effect various other repairs and restart at 1100. With only 50 odd miles to the back of the fleet, we were hopeful our searing pace would help us catch up. Once again we pushed as hard as possible and really wound things up. Just as we were starting to get into the groove and relax with the boat, Tanguy noticed a slightly strange feel to the helm and at 2130 looked over the back and saw that the starboard lower rudder pintle had broken off. With some structural damage to the top of the rudder already, we removed it as quickly as possible.

We tried sailing with just the one rudder through the night but it was extremely slow and as we did not know why the starboard one had broken, we decided it was not sensible to continue with what had become an epic race! We finally hit the dock for the last time in La Rochelle at 1000 this morning (Friday). Although we are both extremely disappointed, we can't help but be cheered by the fact that we sailed well, the boat is obviously outrageously quick and that as new team, we got on very well.