Transat AG2R: Third beating

Five miles separate top seven as the Figaros have to deal with another cold front

Wednesday April 25th 2012, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Chart courtesy of Expedition/Tasman Bay Navigation Systems and GRIB (European model) from PredictWind

Positions at 0830 UTC:

Pos Boat Crew Lat Long Spd Crs Spd2 Dist DTF DTL
          4 hr aver   24 hours      
1 NACARAT Erwan Tabarly - Eric Peron 37 41.78' N 12 53.38' W 7.6 191 7.1 170.6 3129.3 0
2 SEPALUMIC Fréderic Duthil - Francois Lebourdais 37 34.67' N 12 36.27' W 7.2 194 7 172.7 3129.3 0
3 CERCLE VERT Gildas Morvan - Charlie Dalin 37 42.48' N 12 54.49' W 7.5 193 7.1 170.2 3129.5 0.2
4 GEDIMAT Thierry Chabagny - Christopher Pratt 37 46.07' N 12 55.34' W 7.3 194 7.1 169.4 3132.4 3.1
5 MACIF Paul Meilhat - Fabien Delahaye 37 46.21' N 12 53.74' W 7.5 193 7 169.1 3133.1 3.8
6 BRETAGNE CRÉDIT MUTUEL PERFORMANCE Anthony Marchand - Romain Attanasio 37 47.39' N 12 53.26' W 7.4 194 7 167.9 3134.3 5
7 BANQUE POPULAIRE Jeanne Gregoire - Gérald Veniard 37 47.23' N 12 52.20' W 7.6 193 7.1 170.6 3134.6 5.3
8 ARTEMIS Sam Goodchild - Nick Cherry 37 55.63' N 12 49.77' W 7.5 191 7 168.4 3142.9 13.6
9 LA SOLIDARITÉ MUTUALISTE Damien Guillou - Ronan Treussard 37 56.15' N 12 24.68' W 7 193 6.9 166.2 3149.2 19.9
10 GAES Anna Corbella - Gérard Marin 37 53.59' N 12 25.39' W 7 193 6.9 170.1 3150 20.8
11 CORNOUAILLE PORT DE PECHE Jean-Charles Monnet - Alexandre Toulorge 38 02.37' N 12 40.09' W 6.8 197 6.8 163.6 3152.4 23.1
12 EDM / PAYS BASQUE ENTREPRISES Amaiur Alfaro - Christophe Lebas 38 03.75' N 12 25.00' W 7.3 188 6.8 167.3 3159.1 29.8
13 ONE NETWORK ENERGIES Yannig Livory - Guillaume Farsy 37 53.50' N 12 00.76' W 7 192 7 172.2 3159.5 30.3
14 LES RECYCLEURS BRETONS Michel Bothuon - Simon Troel 38 11.50' N 12 42.26' W 6.5 197 6.6 159.4 3159.8 30.5
15 ARMOR-LUX / PERE LOUSTIC / CLOWN A L'HOPITAL Germain Kerleveo - Jean-Sébastien Henry 38 14.00' N 11 35.08' W 7 187 6.7 159.9 3187.5 58.2
16 HOTEL EMERAUDE PLAGE SAINT-BARTHELEMY Louis-Maurice Tannyeres - Joanna Tannyeres 38 13.20' N 10 37.18' W 7.3 177 6.2 152.5 3211.8 82.6

After four days at sea still just over five miles separate the top seven boats in the Figaro's doublehanded Transat AG2R. Overnight the crews have been receiving their third caning as yet another depression rolls east to their north. The cold front associated with this weather system is on a NE-SW axis and has been passing over the boats over the course of this morning, although with a reported 25-30 knots ahead of it, it has not been nearly as severe as the gale force winds the boats endured on Sunday night as they approached Cape Finistere. Nonetheless the seastate is currently rough due to the swift change of wind direction, making for something of a boneshaken ride aboard the 32 footers.

At present the leaderboard has changed little from yesterday morning with nothing to separate Fréd Duthil and Francois Lebourdais aboard Sepalumic from Erwan Tabarly and Eric Peron on Nacarat in terms of distance to the mark they must round to the north of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, still around 580 miles to their south, although they are 15 miles apart on the water with Sepalumic further south.

Conditions are set to show a marked improvement over the course of today as the depression reaches the UK this afternoon (great...) causing the wind to veer into the northwest again, allowing the competitors to set their kites once again. However from tomorrow conditions are set to go soft with the 'Azores' high closer to Newfoundland than the Azores and with an area of high pressure developing over North Africa, causing the wind to drop below 10 knots and shift between west and north.

For the Artemis Offshore Racing duo Sam Goodchild and Nick Cherry, they have unfortunately dropped out of the leading pack, although they lead the second wave, now in eighth place.

“Long, hard night. Very dark and struggling to find speed so, lost some distance. 600miles to Las Palmas," reported Goodchild this morning.

 

 

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