Drag race to the Canaries

Sam Davies and Romain Attanasio continue to lead the Transat AG2R and are due at the Canary Islands waypoint gate tonight

See the image above full size here courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

Having taken the lead of the Transat AG2R La Mondiale yesterday morning, so (as Sam Davies reports in her latest blog), so Romain Attanasio and Sam Davies on Saveol have had a good night, extending their advantage to 16.2 miles at the first sched this morning.

At present Saveol has 137 miles to go to reach the waypoint gate to the northwest of the Canaries and at their present speed they should reach this this evening. Interestingly up to second at the latest sched is Banque Populaire sailed by Jeanne Gregoire and Gerard Veniard (Gregoire and Davies sailed together to 5th place in the 2004 Transat AG2R) - so at present mixed crews hold the top two positions.

After eight days of Figaro racing, a 15.7 mile lead (as it is at the latest sched) for Saveol is a useful advantage, given that boats two to five are separated by just one mile. A third wave of tightly compacted boats has developed a further 40 miles astern including Gedimat, the leader late last week and Nicolas Lunven and Jean le Cam on Generali, who continue to rise up the fleet having taken their easterly route to their present position and over the last 24 hours have elevated themselves from 12th to 10th.

However the boat to watch over the course of today is Credit Mutuel de Bretagne, sailed by double Solitaire winner Nicolas Troussel and Thomas Rouxel, which is 13 miles to the east of Gedimat and benefitting from slightly more breeze. Credit Mutuel de Bretagne has consistently been the fastest boat in the fleet over the last scheds. They are the biggest risers of the last 24 hours - up from 20th yesterday morning to 9th at the latest sched with more to come. 

With the high pressure having departed north, so the boats are into Trade Wind conditions, blasting along in 20+ knot northeastleries. It looks the boats are all lined up to lay the waypoint gate on starboard gybe however could be some compression towards the gate as the wind is forecast to drop slightly on the approach.

At present the competitors will be looking ahead at the conditions after the waypoint gate and while there is the remains of a ridge off to the northwest, making conditions lighter on the right side of the course, by tomorrow night an area of high pressure will be dominating the weather in the middle of the Atlantic and the boats look set to enjoy some 'conventional' trade winds for the rest of the week. This is good for the leaders as this limits the tactical options, so at leaast the first part of the Atlantic cross will be a drag race.

Positions at 0748 GMT