1000 miles of separation

Ultimes continue to make hay in the Route du Rhum

While the racing is extraordinarily close in the Volvo Ocean Race with three miles separating Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Dongfeng Race Team with less than 90 miles left to go to Cape Town, the Ultime class in the Route du Rhum is demonstrating what state of the art yacht racing is capable of.

Dongfeng Race Team is believed to have notched up the best 24 hour run of Leg 1 so far, at 541 nautical miles, but at the front of the Ultime fleet Loick Peyron and his 31.5 by 22.5m Maxi Solo Banque Populaire VII at yesterday evening's sched had covered 621.6 (or 25.9 knots) over the previous day...and of course this was done singlehanded rather than by a crew of eight...

Peyron passed Madeira at around 2300 UTC last night and since yesterday morning has increased his lead over second placed Spindrift 2 now to more than 100 miles. Since Madeira both skippers have put a little more right into their courses, now taking a more southwesterly course. At the latest sched both have fallen into a slightly lighter part of the trades. However they will emerge from this shortly and will then be back into 20 knot NNEerlies that will gradually veer as they pass around the bottom of the high. However don't imagine that the skippers will be in a hurry to gybe their enormous boats on every shift...

Images courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

While Peyron and his big blue and white tri speed away (it will be interesting to see when Yann Guichard chooses to put his foot down on his potentially larger, faster boat), positions have been changing behind with Seb Josse on Edmond de Rothschild dropping back from third place to fifth overnight, overhauled by Lionel Lemonchois' Prince de Bretagne and Francis Joyon on IDEC Sport.

This morning Yann Guichard commented: “It is not easy. I am very tired but the rest seems to go well. I am under gennaker and full main and sliding along nicely. I have rested a little. But we have had the transition to the trade winds and the last few days have been tough. Now we have the prospect of many gybes to do. The boat is making between 13 and 21 knots right now.”

While the Ultime class skippers will be wearing T-shirts, shorts and will be 'applying' today, the race is a wholly different one for the rest of the classes. Vendee Globe winner Francois Gabart on MACIF continues to lead the IMOCA fleet and at the latet sched holds a 31 miles lead over Jeremie Beyou on MACIF's sistership Maitre Coq, who has recovered ground overnight, back from 46 miles astern yesterday evening. While the IMOCA class is not that big in this race, the racing is oddly no closer than that of the Ultime class. The good news is that Tanguy de LaMotte and Initiatives Coeur are back on the race course having departed Brest early yesterday evening, their rudder breakage hopefully solved.

While the Ultimes are taking the southerly route around the high, the rest of the fleet look set on taking the more arduous northerly route around it. Effectively they are sailing an 'upwind' Route du Rhum. This is presumably because the Azores high is generally too far south for these smaller slower boats to take the massive detour the long legged Ultimes can.

At present the GFS model has the IMOCA 60 leaders dangerously encroaching into the northeasterly segment of the high, with Beyou for some reason setting up to Gabart's southeast. The IMOCA skippers are waiting to tack when the southwesterlies fill in this afternoon ahead of a warm front, followed by a cold front tomorrow morning when the wind will veer northwest and the IMOCAs will tack south back on course again. However at this stage we can't see where the boats will go after this - come the weekend the Azores high seems to be blocking their path making this route effectively a dead end.

In the Multi50 class, one time Banque Populaire skipper Lalou Roucayrol continues to lead aboard his trimaran Arkema Region Aquitaine, making up for his sad capsize in last year's Transat Jacques Vabre. While he is north, Erwan Le Roux in Fenetrea-Cardinal is just 30 mile behind in terms of DTF but some 140 miles to Arkema's southeast on the water. Sadly one of the favourites for the Multi50, Yves le Blevec on Actual yesterday evening opted to spear off into Cascais to repair his wind instruments.

There is a similar geographical split between the lead Class40s with former Solitaire du Figaro winner and ex-Groupe Bel IMOCA skipper Kito de Pavant technically in the lead aboard Otio-Bastide Medical but this is mainly Thibault Vauchel-camus aboard his latest generation Mach 40 Solidaires En Peleton has speared off to the south, at present approaching the latitude of Lisbon.

On the rise over the last 24 hours has been Yannick Bestaven - 16th yesterday morning and 52 miles off the pace, now up to third place and 19 miles behind de Pavant. Paralympic 2.4m medallist Damien Seguin on ERDF-des pieds et des mains has similarly elevated himself from 12th place to 5th at the latest sched. Conversely dropping off the pace, has been early leader and race favourite, Sebastien Rogues on GDF Suez, initally because yesterday he was asked to divert towards Pierre Antoine, who's Multi50 had been struck by lightning and was sinking...

For British fans, the good news is that Miranda Merron on Campagne de France continues to hold a most respectible eighth place among the 37 Class40s still racing. Miranda is now 55 miles behind the leader and holding a course among the more northerly boats. Conrad Humphreys on Cat phone is lying in 19th.

Otherwise the attrition continues in the Class40 with Christophe Coatnoan on Normandie Sussex heading into La Coruna to fix electrical problems where he will find Nicolas Thomas on Guadeloupe Grand Large 1001 Piles Batteries, who is in there fixing his rudder problems. Belgian singlehanded round the world sailor Michel Kleinjans on Visit Brussels has just put into Camarinas (south of La Coruna) to fix some sails problems.

In the Rhum class, Sir Robin Knox-Johnson on Grey Power is holding a creditable seventh place and at the latest sched was just about to sail down the west side of the TSS off Cape Finisterre.