Rocket ships

The Open 60s are two days away from the finish line

At the front of the Open 60 fleet Ellen MacArthur and Mike Golding are flying. Over the last 24 hours Ellen has put in a 349 mile run, while Golding on Ecover squeezed out 355 miles. These kind of runs would be respectible on a fully crewed Volvo 60, singlehanded they are phenomenal.

At present both boats are broad reaching on port under full main and heavy spinnaker in around 20 knots of Trade Wind.

Ellen and Mike's pace has been such that the leading trimaran, Michel Desjoyeaux's Geant has been unable to make inroads into their lead and is still 500 miles behind Ellen. This means that barring disaster Ellen is at present in line to be the Route du Rhum's first ever overall elapsed time winner in a monohull.

However part of the reason for Desjoyeaux's apparent lack of pace is that the Vendee Globe winner spent much of yesterday on a long unfavourable gybe. Back on track it is likely that Desjoyeaux will be pedal to the metal today and will start to reel in the monohulls.

Positions 21/11/02 07:00:00 GMT
Pos	Boat name	Skipper	Lat	Long	Dist	SOG	COG
60ft tris
1	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	25 59.20' N	46 55.04' W	1056.6	17.7	236
2	Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm	Marc Guillemot	23 54.66' N	41 29.88' W	1247.1	18.3	236
3	Banque Populaire	Lalou Roucayrol	27 02.52' N	42 34.60' W	1288.4	12.5	225
ABD	Fujifilm	Loick Peyron
ABD	Banque Covefi	Bertrand de Broc
ABD	Sergio Tacchini	Karine Fauconnier
ABD	Sopra Group	Philippe Monnet
ABD	Bayer CropSciences	Frederic Le Peutrec
ABD	Belgacom	Jean-Luc Nélias
ABD	Foncia	Alain Gautier
ABD	Groupama	Franck Cammas
ABD	Rexona Men	Yvan Bourgnon
ABD	Sodebo	Thomas Coville
ABD	TIM	Giovanni Soldini
ABD	TechnoMarine	Steve Ravussin
ABD	Gitana X	Lionel Lemonchois
ABD	Eure&Loir-Lorénove	Francis Joyon
ABD	Bonduelle	Jean Le Cam
Open 60s
1	Kingfisher	Ellen McArthur	21 31.52' N	54 41.48' W	555.1	16.7	245
2	Ecover	Mike Golding	21 11.52' N	53 07.16' W	613.2	15.9	242
3	Arcelor-Dunkerque	Joé Seten	23 51.76' N	44 10.92' W	1126.3	12.3	244
4	Sill	Roland Jourdain	24 55.80' N	42 47.00' W	1222	9.7	281
5	Garnier Belgium	Patrick De Radiguès	22 03.76' N	36 22.48' W	1510.4	12.6	283
6	60ème Sud	Didier Munduteguy	26 11.08' N	35 34.72' W	1613.1	3.6	244
7	Un Univers de Services	Miranda Merron	23 30.66' N	31 36.96' W	1774.9	9.8	259
8	Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma	Mike Birch	25 46.64' N	30 35.60' W	1865.9	8.8	211
9	Dinan Pays d'Entreprises	Frédéric Lescot	27 55.96' N	29 10.84' W	1970.6	7.9	279
10	Ciments St Laurent-Ocean	Georges Leblanc	28 07.12' N	27 22.84' W	2065.7	3.1	203
ABD	Virbac	Jean Pierre Dick
ABD	VMI	Sébastien Josse
ABD	La Rage de Vivre	Loïck Pochet
NL	L'Heautontimoroumenos	Antoine Koch
NL	Leasecom	Elie Canivenc
ABD	Temenos	Dominique Wavre
NL	Millimages-Gédéon	Patrick Favre
Class 1 monos
1	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	33 45.04' N	27 41.16' W	2156.1	7.9	225
ABD	Un Autre Regard Ensemble pour l'UNHCR	Nicolas  Peitrequin
Class 2 monos
1	Ashfield Healthcare	Nick Moloney	26 34.92' N	36 04.96' W	1595.1	9.3	271
2	Florys	Luc Coquelin	27 21.36' N	33 43.32' W	1729.5	5.5	255
3	Branec III	Roger Langevin	28 43.72' N	34 10.52' W	1734.9	6.4	249
4	Mille Visages	Hervé Vachée	27 46.04' N	32 05.56' W	1819.6	5.4	191
5	Laiterie St Malo	Clément Surtel	28 29.82' N	30 57.06' W	1883.6	6.8	257
6	Adecco Etoile Horizon	Bob Escoffier	28 48.60' N	22 08.80' W	2344.1	8.4	235
ABD	Apic A3S	Christophe Huchet
ABD	République Dominicaine	Yannick Bestaven
ABD	Défi Vendéen	J. F. Durand
Class 3 monos
1	Storagetek	Regis Guillemot	29 29.88' N	34 11.22' W	1748.9	2.8	233
2	Passion Entreprendre	Jérôme Thiriez	30 27.64' N	28 24.84' W	2052.9	3.6	216
3	Grain de Soleil	Etienne Svilarich	34 05.48' N	26 26.20' W	2221.5	7.1	187
4	Fantasy-Forest	Alain Grinda	46 08.84' N	1 09.68' W	3533	0.9	75
ABD	Hellomoto	Conrad Humphreys
Class 2 multis
1	Crepes Whaou!	F. Y. Escofier	23 50.88' N	45 04.36' W	1081.2	13.4	263
2	Yachting-casino.com	Anne Cazeneuve	25 14.52' N	39 18.42' W	1400.1	8.8	225
3	Archipel Guadeloupe	Claude Thelier	26 47.58' N	34 26.10' W	1679.5	6.6	242
4	Vaincre la mucoviscidose	Hervé Cleris	25 43.74' N	33 57.72' W	1685.4	7.3	231
5	Lehning-Lapeyre-Blanchet-Gourbeyre	P.Y. Guennec	29 14.20' N	28 11.72' W	2044.8	6.1	239
ABD	E-Sat Tri Sélectif	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Groupe France Epargne	Patrick Morvan
ABD	Chaleur Fioul Elan	Didier Levillain