Groupe Picoty hangs in there

However the north is likely to come good in the Class 40's Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race

Image above courtesy of Expedition and PredictWind

Positions at 1730 GMT

Jean-Edouard Criquioche and Jacques Fournier aboard their Pogo 40 S2 Groupe Picoty continue to cling on to the lead in the Class 40's doublehanded Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables race. At present the fleet is heading due west due north of Cape Finistere although there is already a considerable north-south split in the fleet between Jörg Riechers and Etienne David on mare.de to the north and another race favourite Stéphane Le Diraison and Vincent Barnaud on Bureau Veritas to the south (some 85 miles NNW of La Coruna). However Groupe Picoty is out on her own in the middle of the course, just to the north of the great circle to Horta.

The all-important weather scenario is looking pretty classic with a depression to the northwest and the boats to the north will be hoping to key into the fronts associated with this in order to be first into the more favourable northwesterly winds beyond them. However this comes at the cost of erring further from the great circle. However looking ahead as the depression moves east, so the high Azores high takes up station and the boats to the north seem set to be in better pressure than those to the south.

The high seems set to receed by Thursday creating westerlies across the race course with the high taking hold again over the weekend and if this holds true then it is likely to make for a slow finish in particular for the slower boats.

So we reckon that the northerly boats in particular mare.de and Gonzalo Botin and Alvaro Lopez-Doriga on Tales will move into the lead possibly as soon as the next sched tomorrow morning.