Challenge from the south

Remi Fermin on his self designed and built boat on a charge in the Mini Transat

The Mini Transat now has two races within a race: Those who still hope to achieve victory, still fighting for every metre and those who have dropped down the leaderboard due to technical problems or other adversity, for whom this race across the Atlantic in their 21ft racing yacht, has now become more of an adventure.

The tussle continues at the head of Proto fleet between Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian) and Benoît Marie (benoitmarie.com), with the Italian skipper just 4.7 miles ahead. However there is a strong challenge from the south where Remi Fermin (Boreal) is in better pressure, sailing some two knots faster than Marie, in turn faster than Pedote. Over the last 24 hours Fermin, who designed and built his Proto himself, has closed from 125 miles down to 70 miles behind Prysmian.

Among the Series class, the leader Aymeric Belloir (Tout le Monde Chante contre le Cancer) on his Nacira design is following a similar route to Fermin. He holds a lead of 90 miles over second placed Swiss sailor Justine Mettraux (TeamWork), but unlike the Protos, Belloir's margin over Mettraux hasn't changed over the last 24 hours. Mettraux and third placed Simon Koster (Go 4 It) remain to the north, separated by 10 miles.

Across the fleet the boats continue to gybe downwind with the wind in the ENE and there remains a wide range of routes form Jerome D'aboville on Bel, holding eighth place in the Series class, while Julien Pulve on Mext-ICA in the Protos is furthest north.

Sole British competitor, Pip Hare on The Potting Shed remains in 21st place, a rather scary sounding 547 miles behind Belloir, but close compared to backmarker Pilar Pasanau on Peter punk, who is 974 miles astern of the leader.

0600 sched here