Financo doggedly clings on

Northerly group still in the chocolates in the Transat AG2R but the trade wind option is expected to come good soon

Tuesday May 6th 2008, Author: James Boyd, Location: United Kingdom

Images courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems

Positions at 1700 yesterday

Pos	Boat	Crew	Lat	Long	Spd	Crs	Spd	Crs	Spd	Dist	DTF	DTL
					Instant		4 hour aver		24 hour aver
1	FINANCO	TROUSSEL Nicolas - PRATT Christopher	27 13.05' N	41 38.72' W	7.2	268	6.4	266	5.2	124.6	1301.6	0
2	ATHEMA	TABARLY Erwan - BIARNES Vincent	27 30.43' N	41 13.77' W	7.2	269	5.4	262	5.1	123.3	1328.5	26.9
3	GROUPE CELEOS	TREUSSART Ronan - MARCHAND Anthony	26 50.67' N	40 22.12' W	7.1	279	5.2	242	5.5	131.4	1358.3	56.7
4	DEGREMONT SUEZ SOURCE DE TALENTS	MONNET Jean Charles - TOULORGE Alexandre	26 02.99' N	40 01.02' W	5.1	202	5.1	271	5.9	142	1362	60.4
5	ATLANTIK FT	KRIZEK David - SHARP Phil	27 20.51' N	40 26.81' W	6.8	292	6.4	276	4.6	111.4	1364.1	62.5
6	GEDIMAT	TRIPON Armel - VITTET Dominic	23 38.83' N	36 41.73' W	6	127	3.3	224	2.7	64.6	1508.3	206.7
7	LES MOUSQUETAIRES	DE BROC Bertrand - RIOU Gwen	23 11.74' N	36 37.71' W	3.7	238	3.7	217	3.8	91.4	1508.3	206.7
8	KPMG	RIOU Elodie - CASTELNERAC Bertrand	23 57.09' N	35 25.73' W	4.7	221	3.8	235	4.9	116.4	1578.1	276.5
9	CERCLE VERT	MORVAN Gildas - LE CAM Jean	18 33.48' N	34 31.87' W	8.1	204	7.3	219	3.3	79	1616.6	315
10	SUZUKI Automobiles	CHABAGNY Thierry - DOUGUET Corentin	19 05.80' N	34 08.25' W	7.3	213	7.6	207	2.8	67.4	1637.4	335.8
11	SOPRA GROUP	KOCH Antoine - GENDRON Grégory	18 57.87' N	33 52.27' W	7.2	217	7.9	217	3.3	79.1	1652.8	351.2
12	SNEF et Cliptol Sport	PELLECUER Laurent - MOUREN Jean Paul	17 10.73' N	33 46.38' W	9.4	256	10	250	8.5	203.4	1666.4	364.8
13	SOLAR INOX	GUERIN Ronan - POUPON Luc	16 55.46' N	33 43.08' W	8.6	249	9.7	250	8.1	195.2	1671.2	369.6
14	BANQUE POPULAIRE	GREGOIRE Jeanne - LUNVEN Nicolas	18 29.49' N	33 24.12' W	4.9	258	7.7	227	3.7	89.3	1681	379.4
15	CONCARNEAU - ST BARTH	PERON Eric - DANET Miguel	17 01.44' N	33 20.40' W	9.5	257	10.1	264	10	241.1	1692.1	390.5
16	LENZE	LE GAL Franck - LE ROUX Erwan	18 40.62' N	32 54.31' W	7.5	179	8.7	218	3.4	81.3	1708.5	406.9
17	AQUARELLE - LE FIGARO	AMEDEO Fabrice - NICOL Jean Pierre	22 16.56' N	32 18.36' W	6.9	196	6.8	209	2.7	64.6	1741.7	440.1
18	DEFI TRANSAT	LIVORY Yannig - LIVORY Erwan	21 22.52' N	32 01.69' W	6.7	215	7.6	220	4.2	101.9	1753.2	451.6
19	SABLIERES PALVADEAU	BELLOIR Aymeric - DOMBRE Pierre	17 48.62' N	31 41.61' W	7.8	264	9.1	251	7	167.6	1777.1	475.5
20	AXA Atout Coeur pour AIDES	NIGON Erik - POULIGNY Cédric	16 57.35' N	31 36.27' W	8.5	236	9.3	253	8.4	201	1791.5	489.9
21	SOJASUN	WARDLEY Liz - Black Nick	15 29.52' N	31 08.20' W	11.2	264	12.5	261	9.2	220.6	1830.2	528.6
22	TETRAKTYS	DESMARETS Pascal - SCHANDEVYL Bert	19 58.04' N	30 11.05' W	9.1	202	8.9	213	3.6	86.9	1859	557.4
NL	DEFI MOUSQUETAIRES	ROUXEL Thomas - ISRAEL Erwan
ABD	NIVEA ATHLETES DU MONDE	GALFIONE Jean - FAVENNEC Gilles
ABD	LUISINA	DROUGLAZET Eric - BOUVET Christophe
ABD	IROISE PROMOTIONS	MAHE Tangi - BERTRAC Claude

Apologies for the 'outage' in our Transat AG2R reports. We've been having some routing software/computer issues.

The Figaro fleet is now just over halfway between the Madeira turning mark and the finish line at St Barts and impressively throughout this time Nicolas Troussel and Christopher Pratt on Financo have remained firmly in the lead. While their advantage over the second placed boat was around 10 miles up until around Thursday last week, since then the dynamic duo have managed to weedle out a few extra miles and over the last position updates over the weekend have been consistently around 25 miles ahead of Athema, sailed by Erwan Tabarly and Vincent Biarnes.

However the span of the race course continues to be enormous - more than 900 miles at present - and the competition is far from over. The leaders throughout the race have taken a northerly track since passing Madeira and for the last few days have been hovering around the great circle (as indicated by the black line). All the leaders are in this northerly group and one of the most impressive displays, considering they are new to the Figaro class is that of David Krisek and Phil Sharp, who are currently holding fifth place on Atlantik FT.

With this situation for the leaders looks peachie on paper, with the added of advantage of being on the great circle and therefore having to sail the least number of miles to the finish, the downside is that they are on the wind at the moment. Most were on port yesterday and have since tacked southwest. A depression is currently to their north and they are waiting for the wind to veer west or ideally northwest. However worse is to come as beyond this lies a ridge (ie no wind) which they must cross before they can finally break into the trades that will take them the final miles to the finish. Fortunately the depression to their north is moving away and this is allowing the trade wind belt to shift north so the wind will fill in for them sooner than it otherwise might. But in short conditions are not looking idea for the leaders in the medium term.

The majority of the fleet are now hovering in the middle of the race course on the northern cusp of the trade wind belt. This group is split in two - the northerly posse being led by the ubiquitous Cercle Vert sailed by Gildas Morvan and Jean le Cam. Despite being some 650 miles south of the great circle they are still holding ninth place. Also in this group are Sopra Group sailed by Antoine Koch and Gregory Gedron and Jeanne Gregoire and Nicolas Lunven on board Banque Populaire. The group to the south is being led by Laurent Pellecuer and Jean Paul Mouren on SNEF et Cliptol Sport with Ronan Guerin and Luc Poupon's Solar Inox close behind.

However the real southies, taking the most extreme left of the course, are Liz Wardley and Nick Black on board Sojasun, some 170 miles to the southeast of SNEF et Cliptol Sport late yesterday afternoon.

With these latter groups all now flying downwind in the northeasterly trades, the varation in their north-south position will dictate the strength of the trade winds they'll be experiencing. For example the forecast charts indicate that Sojasun should be in 20-25 knots of favourable northeasterly while those to the north are in 15-20 knots. The question is how much difference does this make in a Figaro? Yesterday Sojasun had made only the second fastest 24 hour run in the fleet. However they can be thankful in the knowledge that while they are blasting downwind the leaders are having to slog upwind.

Expect the leaderboard to be shaken up over the next 3-4 days.