South coming good in the Transat AG2R

Gaspe 7 continues to lead but southerly group are sailing 2-3 knots faster

Joseph Brault and Antoine Koch on Gaspe 7 continue to do an exemplary job having led the Figaro's doublehanded Transat AG2R La Mondiale now since yesterday morning. Over the last scheds Gaspe 7 has done well to stay in the breeze which appears to have dropped off 30-150 miles to the north causing Generali - Europ Assistance and Concarneau-St Barthelemy to drop off the pace - second and fifth respectively yesterday at the latest sched they are down to 6th and 11th. However this all looks set to change over the course of today with the southerly group now back into some good trade winds and making 8-9 knots average compared to the race leader's 6.7.

More than 700 miles still remains across the race course between Kito de Pavant and Sebastien Audagne in the north on Groupe Bel, who should be finally off the breeze, that over the last 24 hours has caused them to drop back down from 11th to 18th. Meanwhile the southernmost boats have put in a gybe back to the west (rather than southwest). Bernard Stamm and Gildas Mahe on Cheminee Poujoulat were first to go yesterday afternoon, along with Gildas Morvan and Bernard de Broc on Cercle Verte, one of the original lead four, and overnight it appears most of the southerly boats have followed suit, although many have since gybed back. In terms of the leaderboard this has seen Cercle Verte jump from eighth to fourth place overnight while she has since gybed back now to the north of the still tightly grouped trio of BritAir, Banque Populaire and Romain Attanasio and Sam Davies on Saveol. 

The question remains - will the north continue to pay for Brault and Koch who are on one of the shortest routes to the St Barts finish line or will it go light, allowing the boats in the south to pull through as they stay in the trades and are able to truck into the finish on a long starboard gybe? 320 miles to the north of the southerly group, the Gaspe 7 crew must be fairly confident, for at the moment for they are on a gybe taking them WNW. Or they are playing the shifts with the wind forecast to veer slightly into the east in 24 hours time. Fact is, it looks unlikely and by tomorrow morning the southerly boats are likely to be back in front probably with Cercle Verte moving into pole.

See a more detailed version of the top image here courtesy of Expedition Navigation Systems and PredictWind.

Positions at 1030