BritAir pulls ahead

As Transat AG2R La Mondiale fleet bask in strong Trade Winds running conditions

The Transat AG2R boats continues to surge out into the Atlantic with a tightly knit group of three boats pulling ahead now that Jeanne Gregoire and Gerard Veniard on Banque Populaire have peeled off on a more southerly option. Little separates the lead trio although Armel le Cleac'h and Fabien Delahaye on BritAir have eeked out four miles over second placed Roman Attanasio and Sam Davies on Saveol.

For 32ft long boats, the fleet are racking up some impressive mileages with Adrien Hardy and Stanislas Maslard on AGIR Recouvrement top boat at the latest sched having sailed 271 miles in the last 24 hours (11.3 knots average), up from the 200-210 boats had managed in the previous 24 hours.

While the met situation remains unchanged with the centre of the area of high pressure now to their NNW, the boats powering downwind in 20+ knots, almost 200 miles separate the boats laterally across the race course. The lead group are in the middle with Banque Populaire now some 30 miles off to port. Numbers are growing in the south, Nicolas Troussel and Thomas Rouxel on Credit Mutuel de Bretagne joined in the last 24 hours by early race leader Armel Tripon and on Franck Le Gal on Gedimat followed by Bernard Stamm and Gildas Mahe on Cheminees Poujoulat who are now on the most extreme southerly route.

Meanwhile, on their own, on a track  almost 100 miles to the north of the leader's and nearest the high pressure, but also closest to the great circle to St Barts are Adrien Hardy and Stanislas Maslard on AGIR Recouvrement.

The crews are enjoying the conditions as Bertrand de Broc on Cercle Verte described: "We have 25-28 knots with a sharp sea. It is more pleasant to helm under spinnaker at night under full moon than in the day, because you can see the waves easily. It 20°C and the boat of occasionally hits 18 nodes  - it is really very pleasant. We don't get to see that often. Before the Canaries, our longest surfing was at 20 knots for a few seconds. Here they are of 17-18 knots but for several minutes! They are very lively and pleasant boats.

For the hours ahead we don't plan to change course - we will go towards the south as long as the conditions remain favorable. you have to keep on top of everything: navigation, weather, the position of the other boats, to see the changes in order to be able to react quickly. We swap over as often as possible, especially during the night when we are fixed on two hour watches as opposed to three hour during the day. As conditions are good, we are benefitting from some good rest to remain effective. When we are both up at the same time, we look at the last position report and the course of the other boats, the differences between them and the weather. Brit Air is a serious competitor and goes quickly."

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

Positions at 1048