Multi50s round south Sweden

Actual regains the lead in the Vendee-St Petersburg race

This morning finds the leading two Multi 50s in the Vendee-St Petersburg race to the south of Sweden, a country mile (or 234 nautical miles) ahead of third placed Crepes Whaou! 2.

The leaders Yves le Blevec's Actual and Franck-Yves Escoffier's Crepes Whaou! 3 rounded the top of Denmark yesterday morning and since then have been edging around the coast of Sweden. Overnight as the boats passed down through the Oresund, the channel between Denmark and Sweden, so the Verdier-designed Actual regained the lead and at the latest sched Actual is just 0.5 miles ahead of her red VPLP-designed rival and with 590 miles to go to reach the finish line of the outbound leg of this race to St Petersburg.

‘We’re having a great battle with Actual," commented Escoffier yesterday while he was leading. "They passed us as we went by the Four Lighthouse. We overtook them again off Cape Gris-Nez (in the Dover Straits) by sailing close to the rocks and they sailed by us again off Belgium. But now it’s our turn to be in the lead, although they’re not far back. We’re keeping a close eye on them… We had a nice North Sea crossing achieving some good speeds in the sunshine on deep blue seas. If the temperature hadn’t been so much like winter, we could have well have been in the Caribbean…”

From Actual, Yves Le Blévec added: “Everything is fine out here… We’ve got Crêpes Whaou ! 3 four miles ahead of us as our target. Sorry I didn’t reply earlier, but we’ve been a bit busy for a while! As for the crew, it’s fantastic: Ronan and I know each other well and sailing with Eric (Loizeau) is a real joy. He’s always got a little story to tell us, some clever remark… It’s nice being so close in this fight; that’s why we entered the race.”

Meanwhile

Crepes Whaou! 2

has still to round the northern tip of Denmark.

While the leaders charged up the North Sea, conditions have been lighter for those still trying to extricate themselves from here. Among tThis group led by Anne Caseneuve’s pink trimaran, Croisières Anne Caseneuve, only Pierre Hingant’s La mer révèle nos sens has shown some independence of thought. After a successful tactical option in the English Channel, that brought them up to fourth place, they opted for a route taking them to the north in the Thames Estuary in order to be first to the new breeze which was supposed to be arriving from the northwest. 

10:05 GMT sched

See the cartography here