In the Route du Rhum, Roland Jourdain took advantage of passing through a front to leave his rivals further behind. In the rankings published late this Friday morning, the title-holder had a lead of around thirty miles over Armel Le Cléac’h in second place. But there is still a long way to go to Guadeloupe and nothing has yet been decided in this tightly-packed category, even if victory is likely to go to one of those, who opted to round the Azores high via the north. We take a look at the situation after five days of racing.
“Late in the night, we all passed through the front. I was surprised by how fast the wind shifted by 180° in just under two minutes. There was a 25-knot southerly and suddenly there I was with a 25-knot northerly. The boat went over 90° and it took me a good half hour to get things straight again,” explained Kito de Pavant. Just like the skipper of Groupe Bel, most of the IMOCA skippers had to deal with crossing the front on Thursday night. These lively conditions have somewhat modified the situation.
Jourdain increases his lead
The big winner in this battle was Roland Jourdain, who managed to get away quickly from this tricky transition area. The skipper of Veolia Environnement, who retook the lead on Wednesday evening, managed to extend his lead over his fellow competitors. Behind, the battle is still just as close, with Armel Le Cléac’h, Vincent Riou and Jean-Pierre Dick within fifteen miles of each other this Friday lunchtime. Roland Jourdain will have to keep his eyes on this group chasing after him, as a shake-up in the rankings is still possible. The title-holder remains cautious and is now looking to what is coming up next in the race: "We’ve still got a long way to go to the finish and a lot can still happen. Today (Friday, editor’s note), we shall be sailing downwind in a strong breeze, but decisions will need to be taken after that. The situation with a lot of small tropical depressions is complicated. We need to try to sail quickly now, but also look at how we should tackle the final stretch of the course.” One thing is certain. The next few days look complicated and they are not going to get much rest during the voyage down to Guadeloupe.
Pratt and Guillemot lose ground
While the voyage through the front was carried out successfully by Roland Jourdain, that was not to be the case for Christopher Pratt. Far from it. “The night was particularly difficult as I got stuck and lost a lot of ground (80 miles, editor’s note),” declared the skipper of DCNS on Friday morning. After getting off to an excellent start in this race, on Friday at noon he was in seventh place in the rankings. Marc Guillemot had a bit of a scare on Friday morning, when his boat went over on her side after hitting an unidentified floating object. As a consequence, the skipper of Safran lost one of his gennakers and a lot of time during this incident.
"We were in the wrong place"
The northern route is not very comfortable, but it is certainly quicker. Arnaud Boissières and Michel Desjoyeaux, the two, who opted to round the Azores high via the southern face, have been left some distance behind. “Looking at the trajectory, we were clearly in the wrong place,” admitted Michel Desjoyeaux. “I lost a lot time getting around this high, more than I thought I would. We needed to be up there and I’m now certain of that.” The winner of the last Vendée Globe was some 226 miles behind the leader this Friday lunchtime.
1040 hrs GMT rankings on 5th November
1 - Roland Jourdain (Véolia Environnement)
2 - Armel Le Cléac'h (Brit Air), 32.3 miles from the leader
3 - Vincent Riou (PRB), 44.2 miles from the leader
4 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3), 47.9 miles from the leader
5 - Kito de Pavant (Groupe Bel), 73.7 miles from the leader
6 - Marc Guillemot (Safran), 85.7 miles from the leader
7 - Christopher Pratt (DCNS), 131.5 miles from the leader
8 - Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas), 223.5 miles from the leader
9 - Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), 226.4 miles from the leader
