Headwinds round Britain

The latest from the Calais Round Britain race

Pos	Boat	Lat	Long	SOG	COG	DTF	DTL
1	Bobst Group Armor Lux	52 12.24' N	10 46.96' W	10.2	11	1270.5	0
2	Sill	52 08.28' N	10 43.84' W	10.6	12	1271.7	1.2
3	PRB	52 05.28' N	10 42.04' W	9.7	6	1272.2	1.7
4	VMI	52 10.20' N	10 43.00' W	9.8	14	1272.2	1.7
5	Ecover	52 00.00' N	10 42.24' W	7.1	345	1280.7	10.2
6	Team 888	51 39.32' N	10 49.04' W	6.6	300	1309.3	38.8
7	Arcelor Dunkerque	51 09.28' N	11 02.60' W	9.2	5	1348.2	77.7
8	Garnier	50 50.68' N	9 37.84' W	7.7	357	1360.8	90.3

It has been a night of dramatic place changes for the fleet in the Calais Round Britain Race as they claw their way to weather up the east coast of Ireland. The position updates through the last 12 hours show PRB back in the lead from VMI by less than a mile at 1800 and then Ecover leading from Bernard Stamm's Around Alone winner Bobst Group Armor Lux at 0200. Then at 0600 Stamm was ahead of race favourite Sill with Ecover down to fifth some 10 miles behind.

Golding seems to have been sailing a slightly different approach to this part of the course and has been hugging the coast of southwest Ireland more. However at the time of the 0600 position report it appears he was losing ground on the unfavourable tack heading out into the Atlantic.

"We have just tacked to get back with the fleet," commented Golding earlier. "We originally headed inshore to find a less built-up sea and benefit from the current a bit more”. The long port tack saw Golding close at one point to witihin one mile of the island of Scariff.

Franco-Swiss skipper Stamm has been showing some of his Around Alone form. He, like a majority of the fleet, tacked out into the Atlantic early on and is now back on port heading for Bantry Bay. "It’s a great surprise," Stamm commented this morning. We headed inland and it really paid off. After rounding Bull Rock we got lifted on two tacks.”

On PRB, skipper Vincent Riou says that have not been having much luck. "We had problems with our staysail stay at around 2300 hours yesterday evening and we found ourselves with the sail inflated upside down in the shrouds. We had to stop for 30-45 minutes to sort everything out. We had 22 to 23 knots of wind last night and we’re currently sailing close-hauled in 18 to 20 knots.

Meanwhile Roland Jourdain on Sill was complaining about the November conditions they're currently experiencing: "It’s slamming a bit and we’ve just had a good night of upwind sailing. We’ve got 20/25 knots of wind and it’s proving quite choppy with the current. The helmsman is soaked. We were rather greedy with our streak out to the west to round the tip of Ireland but it’s not easy to decide when to tack with the shifts. The game is fairly open. The wind should ease and then fill out a little... but it is obvious that we should have set off in the other direction around Britain to make a record this year..." This is certainly true. Had they sailed anti-clockwise they would have experience brisk reaching conditions all the way to Shetland.

The boat looks they will continue to be sailing into northerlies for the rest of the day before the wind back slightly to the northwest tomorrow making port tack favoured as they head for Scotland.