Commanding lead for Virbac Paprec 3 and Hugo Boss

Conditions coming good for the Transat Jacques Vabre frontrunners

Wednesday November 9th 2011, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

IMOCA 60 positions at 1030 GMT

Class40 positions at 1030 GMT (click on image to enlarge)

Charts above courtesy of Expedition/Tasman Bay Navigation Systems and PredictWind. Latest scheds below

The IMOCA 60 race is getting interesting in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill on Hugo Boss remain stuck to Jean-Pierre Dick and Jeremie Beyou on Virbac Paprec 3 in reasonably strong westerlies while the rest of the front runners are tightly clustered together some 350 miles away to the southeast, with MACIF continuing to lead Groupe Bel and Safran with Armel le Cleac'h and Christopher Pratt on Banque Populaire now further west.

While Hugo Boss and Virbac Paprec 3 have remained in the breeze, albeit upwind, and in fact have just tacked northwest on to the unfavourable tack, the southeasterly group has been all but becalmed in the eastern extremity of the ridge extending out from the east coast of the USA. While Hugo Boss and Virbac Paprec 3 have averaged over 8 knots between the last scheds, so the group led by MACIF have been making 2-3 knots. As a result the two northwesterly boats have managed to build up a commanding lead, 190 miles ahead of MACIF (compared to 40 miles 24 hours ago) which has dropped to sixth place.

What is interesting is that the forecast has changed in the last 24 hours with the main area of high pressure forecast to recede to the northwest later today, leaving the remnants of the ridge behind it and later today this will effectively open the door for Hugo Boss and Virbac Paprec 3, allowing them to turn their bows towards St Barts in favourable northerly or northeasterly breeze, while the MACIF group will still have to sail some miles before they see the wind filling in from the northeast.

However while we can expect to see the boats picking up speed over the next 24 hours they are not out of the woods yet with two bubbles of high pressure remaining to their south through until the weekend. So it is possible that if the MACIF group stick to their guns and hit the left hand side of the course hard they could come good in the long term, with 1600 miles still to sail to the mark at St Barts.

With the sad departure from the race course yesterday of Ned Collier Wakefield and Sam Goodchild on Tony Lawson's Concise 2, so Yannick Bestaven and Eric Drouglazet on Aquarelle.com have pulled out a commanding lead in the Class40s, now 91 miles ahead of second placed Damien Seguin and Yoann Richomme on ERDF Des pieds et des mains. The two front runners passed through or past the Azores last night, while the bulk of the Class 40 fleet are still negotiating their way through.

The Class 40s, particularly those still in the north, have some big conditions coming their way today with a depression rolling across to their north bringing with it 40 knot winds. However conditions will turn favourable for them tomorrow morning with the wind veering into the northwest or north and abating. 


 

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Positions at 1030 UTC

Pos Boat Crew Lat Long Spd Crs Spd Dist DTF DTL
          4hr aver   24 hour      
  IMOCA60                  
1 Virbac-Paprec 3 Jean-Pierre DICK- Jérémie BEYOU 36 14.95' N 40 16.34' W 8.5 284 9.8 225.9 2821.3 0
2 Hugo Boss Alex THOMSON - Guillermo ALTADILL 36 19.13' N 40 09.44' W 8.3 282 10.2 241.9 2828.2 6.9
3 Banque Populaire Armel LECLEACH-Christopher PRATT 31 51.16' N 35 37.14' W 4 224 6.8 116.9 2933.6 112.3
4 GAMESA Mike GOLDING - Bruno DUBOIS 34 09.71' N 35 47.57' W 4.6 235 10.3 240.4 2969.6 148.3
5 BUREAU VALLEE Louis BURTON-Nelson BURTON 35 50.79' N 35 53.03' W 9.5 224 10.4 242.5 3002.8 181.5
6 Macif François Gabart-Sébastien COL 31 24.32' N 33 52.81' W 3.3 189 5.8 77.3 3011.8 190.5
7 Safran Marc GUILLEMOT - Yann ELIES 31 51.01' N 33 59.96' W 2.5 203 6.3 96.8 3012.8 191.5
8 Groupe Bel Kito DE PAVANT -Yann REGNIAU 31 47.01' N 33 57.17' W 2.1 207 5.8 95.9 3014 192.7
9 Mirabaud Dominique WAVRE -Michèle PARET 34 19.30' N 34 32.67' W 8.6 244 10.8 254.9 3031.1 209.8
ABD Akena Verandas Arnaud BOISSIERES - Gérald VENIARD 46 28.51' N 1 46.96' W            
ABD PRB Vincent RIOU -Hugues DESTREMAU 38 31.80' N 28 37.53' W            
ABD DCNS 1000 Marc THIERCELIN-Luc ALPHAND 47 45.02' N 3 21.10' W            
ABD Cheminées Poujoulat Bernard STAMM -Jean-François CUZON                
                     
  MULTI50                  
1 ACTUAL Yves LE BLEVEC-Samuel MANUARD 27 47.41' N 36 43.80' W 15.4 230 14.1 308.7 3313 0
2 Maitre Jacques Loic FEQUET- Loic ESCOFFIER 31 43.42' N 33 23.61' W 2.8 217 7.7 145.6 3553.1 240.1
ABD Crêpes Whaou ! Franck Yves ESCOFFIER- Antoine KOCH 47 43.43' N 3 21.97' W            
ABD Monopticien.com Julien MABIT-Etienne MABIT 47 16.51' N 2 25.48' W            
ABD Prince de Bretagne Lionel LEMONCHOIS- Matthieu SOUBEN 43 22.15' N 8 23.23' W            
ABD FenetreA - Cardinal Erwan LE ROUX-Didier LE VOURCH 47 35.77' N 3 02.63' W            
                     
  CLASS40                  
1 Aquarelle.com Yannick BESTAVEN-Eric DROUGLAZET 36 18.40' N 28 49.97' W 8.6 212 9.3 184.7 3333.8 0
2 ERDF Des pieds et des mains Damien SEGUIN-Yoann RICHOMME 36 07.86' N 26 47.88' W 8.1 221 8.1 166.5 3425.8 91.9
3 Phoenix Europe Express Stéphanie ALRAN-Jean-Edouard CRIQUIOCHE 38 01.08' N 26 36.21' W 9.1 200 8.8 146.2 3465.5 131.6
4 Groupe PICOTY Jacques FOURNIER-Jean Christophe CASO 37 32.91' N 26 25.07' W 9.1 202 8.9 147.5 3466 132.1
5 Avis Immobilier Eric GALMARD-François SCHEECK 37 52.75' N 25 53.24' W 6.8 199 7.6 137.1 3495.6 161.8
6 40 degrees Hannah JENNER-Jesse NAIWARK 40 16.66' N 26 22.40' W 6.6 191 7.5 107.3 3517.1 183.2
7 11th Hour Racing Nick HALMOS-Hugh PIGGIN 37 15.16' N 25 09.07' W 7.7 224 8.6 114.2 3519.5 185.7
8 Solo Aasberg Rune-Smen LOVGREN 39 26.83' N 25 36.59' W 7.6 214 7.5 153.3 3535 201.2
9 HIP ECO BLUE Andrea FANTINI-Stella TOMMASO 37 39.05' N 20 54.51' W 8.6 211 6.6 136.4 3718.7 384.8
10 Gust buster Anna Maria RENKEN-Jakica JESIH 38 54.88' N 20 09.56' W 7.3 218 6.9 70.9 3772 438.1
11 Partouche Christophe COATNOAN-Etienne LAFORGUE 37 09.95' N 16 34.87' W 5.5 275 4.6 107.7 3919.9 586.1
ABD Bureau Veritas - Dunkerque Plaisance Stéphane LE DIRAISON- Thomas RUYANT 47 43.68' N 3 22.31' W            
ABD Comiris Pole Santé Elior Thierry BOUCHARD-Gilles BERENGER 49 38.86' N 1 37.21' W            
ABD Concise 2 Ned COLLIER WAKEFIELD-Sam GOODCHILD 38 31.81' N 28 37.53' W            
ABD Lecoq Cuisine Eric LECOQ-Eric DEFERT 48 22.69' N 4 29.33' W            
ABD Initiatives - Alex Olivier Tanguy DE LAMOTTE-Eric PERON 47 58.66' N 11 44.73' W            
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