Leaders extend

As light winds dog the tail enders in the Vendee-St Petersburg race for the Multi50s

Light winds have caused the passage through the Straits of Dover to play a decisive role in developments in this first Vendée St-Petersburg race for the Multi50s. The boats have only been drip feeding their way through this narrowing of the English Channel and as a result the spread in the fleet has increased to 400 miles. At the front of the fleet, the two leaders are due to round the tip of Denmark tonight, while the tailenders hope to be past Dover at around the same time.

The crew of Crêpes Whaou! 2, may have been the first in the chasing group to get through the Dover Straits hold-up, but there are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand, the three sailors on board can be happy to have put a reasonable distance ahead from the rest of the fleet, but at the same time, they have lost 100 miles in one night to the leaders.

On the other hand, Pierre Hingant and the crew of La mer révèle nos sens could not hide their pleasure: With Cape Gris-Nez in their wake, they were happy about their intuitive decision-making, as in spite of routing recommending they move closer to the British side of the Channel, they decided after looking at what was happening out on the water and based on their racing experience, to take the direct route and make the most of each little puff of air they managed to find. Consequently, they have managed to pull up to fourth place despite being on one of the oldest boats in the fleet.

1400 sched

-1 Actual (Y Le Blévec) 966.2 miles from the finish
- 2 Crêpes Whaou ! 3 (FY Escoffier) 1.5 miles from the leader
- 3 Crêpes Whaou ! 2 (L Féquet) 243.6 miles from the leader
- 4 La mer révèle nos sens (P Hingant) 319.5 miles from the leader
- 5 Naviguez Anne Caseneuve (A Caseneuve) 369.2 miles from the leader
- 6 FenêtréA-Cardinal (E Le Roux) 393.7 miles from the leader
- 7 Région Aquitaine Port-Médoc (L Roucayrol) 397.9 miles from the leader
- 8 CLM (H Cléris) 402 miles from the leader
- 9 Pi R2 (E Hochédé) 443.6 miles from the leader