Brits in front

Ellen takes lead but more strong weather looming

The last 24 hours has seen the front five leaders in the Open 60 diminished to three with the retirement of Dominique Wavre with torn sails and the dismasting of Jean Pierre Dick's Virbac. After Sill's domination of the race to date, his southerly course hasn't paid off and today has seen the lead change first this morning to Mike Golding on Ecover and this afternoon to Ellen on Kingfisher.

Although the positions show Sill to be 81 miles astern of Ellen this figure isn't really depictive of how the race is staking up as although Ecover and Kingfisher are closer to the rhum line the Azores high is reforming and it will be necessary to dive south to avoid or risk getting becalmed.

The weather tonight remains something of a lottery. At lunchtime various forecasts were predicting that a low pressure cell was forming between the boats to the north and Sill to the south, which would be disastrous for Sill, putting her upwind again. However the latest charts do not show this which would be good for all concerned, although it would still leave the boats having to contend with 40-50 knot northerly conditions.

"We're going to have to see how long the others are going to let me hold on to it," Mike Golding commented this morning, prior to Ellen taking the lead. "I know everyone it trying to take a turn..." He went to explain about taking the northerly route: "When we left St Malo we took a fairly different route to the others. That positioned us to the right of the fleet and as a result we were able to take advantage of the arrival of a frontal system and that just pushed us forward. It's been something that's been in our minds for a long time rather than something just at that moment."

Compared to the relaxed man we saw yesterday, today Golding seemed tired following the beating he and his boat have taken. "It's been absolutely horrible. It's been very very difficult conditions particularly with the passing of this last front because rather unforecast was a little low centre which was forming on the frontal line and that's brought quite significant changes to the weather we were expecting. I've seen 55 over the deck but nothing more than 45 true."

Nick Moloney on Ashfield Healthcare is still leading the class 2 monohulls. "I'm caught in a variable wind situation and I have been for a long time with strong squalls and very light winds either side so I 'vel been changing sails a lot and I haven't slept for a long, long time and I've been tacking on bad shifts and making a lot of mistakes," commented Moloney from on board.

"At the moment I'm trying to get through this trough which is 50 miles ahead of me and hopefully the [new] breeze will fill in from the northwest on the other side. If it doesn't, I'm in deep trouble with the guys to the South of me because I'm a long way North. I'm quite worried at the moment.

"I'm very fatigued and I need to get some sleep soon. Hopefully the breeze will be steady on the other side of the trough. It will be quite strong through the trough, 40 knots, and I need to be awake for that but hopefully in 4-5 hours time I might have some relief and get some rest and start heading in the right direction.

"It's difficult because the wind is light for sometime and the boat just bounces around and it's hard to get some power to go through the waves so I'm hand steering and it's very tiring."

Conrad Humphreys brings us up to date with his progress on page 2...

On board UUDS sixth placed Miranda Merron is well reports her shore crew Alex Sizer, despite having 40-50 knot winds across the deck. However the wind direction has freed up. Today Miranda was having to sort out a problem with one of her pilots and at present has no wind instruments, since the masthead wand flew off in the big seas.


There is now more news about the plight of the trimaran Sopra Group. At midnight skipper Philippe Monnet reported wind shifts from 20 to 70 knots. Sopra Group had only the storm jib up and was sailing in survival mode. The extremely strong wind hit the trimaran too hard, the staysail got caught up in the furler forming a huge pocket. This catapulted the trimaran right over sideways some time after midnight. At 08.46 GMT Philippe Monnet set off the alarm of the distress beacon. He was not reached until 15.00 GMT, but earlier in the day a British boat in La Coruña changed route bound for the trimaran Sopra Group and made contact via VHF with the skipper. Monnet has been safely airlifted. He had to abandon the boat in the dangerous conditions. “I was not far from the shipping lane. In the rough sea with 10 metre waves I did not want to risk being rammed into and cut in two,” said Monnet who is unhurt on land in Spain.

16 retirements from 58 starters:

8 60ft trimarans: Franck Cammas/Groupama, Bertrand De Broc/Banque Covefi, Lionel Lemonchois/Gitana X, Francis Joyon/Eure et Loire-Lorenove, Giovanni Soldini/TIM, Yvan Bourgnon/Rexona Men, Loick Peyron/Fujifilm, Philippe Monnet/Sopra Group
Open 60s: Loick Pochet/La Rage de Vivre, Sebastien Josse/VMI, Jean-Pierre Dick/Virbac, Dominique Wavre/Temenos
1 Class 2 50ft monohulls: Christophe Huchet/APIC A3S
0 Class 3 40ft monohulls: Yannick Bestaven/République Dominicaine
2 Class 2 50ft multihulls: Didier Le Villain/Chaleur Fioul Elan, Pascal Quentin/E-Sat Tri Séléctif, Patrick Morvan/Groupe France Epargne

6 competitors are in port for repair work or waiting for better conditions
36 are on the race course

Positions at 1900GMT

Positions 13/11/02 19:00:00 GMT
Pos	Boat name	Skipper	Lat	Long	Dist	SOG	COG
60ft tris
1	Sodebo	Thomas Coville	42 13.12' N	16 43.60' W	2825.7	9	183
2	Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm	Marc Guillemot	43 50.68' N	15 48.88' W	2898.3	10	227
3	Foncia	Alain Gautier	40 54.64' N	14 06.92' W	2910.5	14.3	202
4	Banque Populaire	Lalou Roucayrol	46 10.24' N	16 32.84' W	2924	13.7	238
5	TechnoMarine	Steve Ravussin	45 21.30' N	15 11.94' W	2936.5	16.3	229
6	Sergio Tacchini	Karine Fauconnier	43 08.00' N	14 23.96' W	2941	7	216
7	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	43 00.00' N	14 17.64' W	2942.7	9	191
8	Bonduelle	Jean Le Cam	48 16.68' N	4 35.28' W	3424.9	0	0
9	Belgacom	Jean-Luc Nélias	47 53.88' N	3 58.62' W	3442.9	0.1	270
10	Bayer CropSciences	Frederic Le Peutrec	47 35.34' N	3 01.50' W	3476	3.6	347
ABD	Groupama	Franck Cammas
ABD	Rexona Men	Yvan Bourgnon
ABD	TIM	Giovanni Soldini
ABD	Gitana X	Lionel Lemonchois
ABD	Sopra Group	Philippe Monnet
ABD	Eure&Loir-Lorénove	Francis Joyon
ABD	Banque Covefi	Bertrand deBroc
ABD	Fujifilm	Loick Peyron
Open 60s
1	Kingfisher	Ellen McArthur	43 06.44' N	18 14.60' W	2773.9	12.3	210
2	Ecover	Mike Golding	42 24.32' N	17 55.36' W	2776.8	8.8	213
3	Sill	Roland Jourdain	41 05.72' N	15 29.12' W	2855	8.9	188
4	Arcelor-Dunkerque	Joé Seten	45 13.68' N	16 21.96' W	2908.2	10.4	222
5	60ème Sud	Didier Munduteguy	44 05.56' N	15 05.00' W	2933.1	10.1	206
6	Un Univers de Services	Miranda Merron	45 19.62' N	14 40.86' W	2968.6	8.8	217
7	L'Heautontimoroumenos	Antoine Koch	43 45.64' N	13 45.84' W	2971.7	10.1	213
8	Garnier Belgium	Patrick De Radiguès	42 06.84' N	11 40.20' W	3036.7	9.3	222
9	Millimages-Gédéon	Patrick Favre	45 44.00' N	12 52.00' W	3046	7.7	239
10	Dinan Pays d'Entreprises	Frédéric Lescot	43 13.40' N	11 27.36' W	3064.9	10.3	202
11	Virbac	Jean Pierre Dick	43 43.80' N	11 16.32' W	3081.5	4.4	95
12	Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma	Mike Birch	43 06.78' N	10 40.92' W	3092.7	6.6	188
13	Ciments St Laurent-Ocean	Georges Leblanc	44 12.84' N	9 11.84' W	3175.7	4.7	206
14	Temenos	Dominique Wavre	45 45.60' N	9 36.28' W	3185.8	10.5	72
ABD	VMI	Sébastien Josse
ABD	La Rage de Vivre	Loïck Pochet
NL	Leasecom	Elie Canivenc
Class 1 monos
1	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	46 43.48' N	10 28.48' W	3169.6	6.4	240
ABD	Un Autre Regard Ensemble pour l'UNHCR	Nicolas  Peitrequin
Class 2 monos
1	Ashfield Healthcare	Nick Moloney	46 17.64' N	14 49.24' W	2992.7	8.8	225
2	Florys	Luc Coquelin	45 17.80' N	13 10.84' W	3034.6	7	230
3	Mille Visages	Hervé Vachée	44 03.16' N	12 08.24' W	3055.3	8.5	216
4	Branec III	Roger Langevin	47 51.88' N	13 33.28' W	3080.9	8.5	235
5	Adecco Etoile Horizon	Bob Escoffier	45 00.60' N	11 07.60' W	3113.8	8.9	202
6	Laiterie St Malo	Clément Surtel	48 03.66' N	11 40.92' W	3147.2	8.4	221
7	Défi Vendéen	J. F. Durand	46 30.18' N	1 47.52' W	3511.4	0	0
ABD	Apic A3S	Christophe Huchet
ABD	République Dominicaine	Yannick Bestaven
Class 3 monos
1	Storagetek	Regis Guillemot	45 52.14' N	14 18.48' W	3002.8	8.7	222
2	Grain de Soleil	Etienne Svilarich	48 56.84' N	12 56.96' W	3131.1	7	239
3	Passion Entreprendre	Jérôme Thiriez	46 41.44' N	11 37.12' W	3131.1	6.9	232
4	Hellomoto	Conrad Humphreys	47 48.00' N	9 00.72' W	3238	9	243
5	Fantasy-Forest	Alain Grinda	48 43.14' N	3 57.90' W	3455.8	0.1	90
Class 2 multis
1	Crepes Whaou!	F. Y. Escofier	42 40.04' N	16 36.88' W	2840	7.8	206
2	Yachting-casino.com	Anne Cazeneuve	43 52.56' N	14 37.38' W	2940.2	7.9	221
3	Vaincre la mucoviscidose	Hervé Cleris	42 49.56' N	12 26.16' W	3007.6	11.7	193
4	Archipel Guadeloupe	Claude Thelier	40 45.84' N	10 25.28' W	3069.4	11.3	222
5	Lehning-Lapeyre-Blanchet-Gourbeyre	P.Y. Guennec	44 37.88' N	8 35.16' W	3207.7	4.5	207
6	Groupe France Epargne	Patrick Morvan	48 44.34' N	4 00.54' W	3454.3	0.1	90
ABD	E-Sat Tri Sélectif	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Chaleur Fioul Elan	Didier Levillain