Vendée Globe

These are the days of a crucial Doldrums regatta, a fascinating tussle with nine boats within 100 miles of the lead, in two main groups, fighting to see who will win the big advantage of emerging into the SE’ly trade winds first.

The intensity at the front is reminiscent of a Figaro solo race, small gains and losses, each pushing each other harder, and so it is not surprise to see such a strong cross section of Figarists up in the top group.

It is the wily master Loïck Peyron on Gitana Eighty who is setting the plays and the pace, holding on to a lead of over 30 miles on Seb Josse (BT). As the leader slows progressively so Josse has managed to squeeze back eight miles back in the last four hours, partly gained as he slanted slightly west to east to cross Peyron’s wake.
So, too, Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) has gained a couple of miles in third,  while Vincent Riou (PRB) – who was not polled at 0400hrs GMT – is installed in fifth, 13.5 miles from fourth placed Armel Le Cléac’h.

Jean Le Cam, (VM Materiaux) has just told the radio vacs that he had a problem with his pilots which required him to stop for 4-5 hours yesterday, a 'character building moment'....while he lost miles to the leaders.

Mike Golding in eighth, on the British boat Ecover 3, has pulled back miles as well in the last sched, 14 miles on the standings, and along with his ninth placed rival Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore) have been consistently quickest over the schedules period, making 11.5 and 11.1 knots respectively.
 

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