A game of catch up

As front runners stall once again in Challenge Mondial Assistance

POSITIONS 18/05/03 16:00:00 GMT
Pos	Boat	Lat	Long	SOG	COG	Time of fix	DTF	DTL
1	Groupama	37 01.56' N	15 54.72' E	4.9	85	18/05/2003 16:02	581.2	0
2	Géant	36 54.04' N	15 17.88' E	7.2	61	18/05/2003 16:02	605	23.8
3	Bayer CropScience	36 37.56' N	15 16.20' E	6.7	93	18/05/2003 16:02	618.7	37.5
4	Banque Populaire	36 39.00' N	15 11.72' E	3.2	86	18/05/2003 16:02	619.7	38.5
5	Bonduelle	36 39.00' N	14 04.12' E	16.2	85	18/05/2003 16:02	676.4	95.2
6	Sergio Tacchini	36 18.64' N	13 17.36' E	25.1	90	18/05/2003 15:30	702.6	121.4
7	Sodebo	36 23.20' N	13 26.36' E	24.1	96	18/05/2003 16:02	707.8	126.6
8	Banque Covefi	36 28.32' N	12 07.92' E	19.2	115	18/05/2003 14:01	735.3	154.1
9	Sopra Group	36 56.84' N	4 28.00' E	8.4	87	18/05/2003 16:02	1141.1	559.9

The latest positions show the front runners rounding the east of Sicily and heading across to the 'heel' of Italy before they round the corner and sail up the Adriatic to the finish in Rimini. Groupama last week's leader has once again moved into top spot while yesterday's leader Banque Populaire is now down to fourth. Franck Cammas' green and white trimaran seems to have benefitted from having taken a more southerly route across to Sicily than her rivals.

As the above table indicates, the front runners are not having an easy time of it as those astern are enjoying much more facvourable conditions. While leaders Groupama and Geant are having to contend with another high pressure system barring their progress down the course, the boats astern making the crossing from north Africa to the bottom of Sicily such as Bonduelle, Sergio Tacchini, Sodebo and Banque Covefi, have been basking in 20 knot northerlies. While they were all more than 300 miles away from the front runners on Friday, they have now closed to within 100-150 miles.
"It’s really great," commented Karine Fauconnier, skipper of Sergio Tacchini. "We’re skimming the headlands, entering into the creeks, the sea is flat. There’s an easterly to north-easterly wind and we’re sailing along at 20 and 25 knots under gennaker and teasing every bit of speed we can out of the boat."

Tomorrow a high pressure system centred to the west of Sardinia looks set to become the dominant weather condition in the area and will be providing all the boats with northerlies and a port tack fetch to get into the Adriatic.