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Mise à jour 09:23
Plus de Figaro50 Miles from the Finish, and the Game Wide Open
19-08-2009
The suspense continues this morning as the fleet reach the middle of the English Channel, no more than 50 miles from the finish line in Dieppe. As the wind has died down in the small hours, so the leading skippers - Frédéric Duthil, Charles Caudrelier Benac, Michel Desjoyeaux et Yann Eliès – have come under attack from all sides.
Race Director Jacques Caraës, watching the scene unfold at sea, describes the situation : “It’s incredible, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this on La Solitaire du Figaro. The wind turned and dropped, but there was still some advantage in the west. The boats that were further back were going faster and could be pulling off quite a stroke. The rankings could be thrown completely up in the air. If the leaders don’t catch on to what’s happening, and it carries on, it could go very badly for them.”
The cause of the upset is a small high pressure system, the effects of which started to be felt at around 03h00 this morning, when the wind dropped away and boat speeds tumbled correspondingly. The leading group found themselves advancing at no more than 2 knots, while further back skippers such as Laurent Pellecuer (Arnolfini.fr), Corentin Douguet (E.leclerc Mobile) and Eric Drouglazet (Luisina), among others, had tacked earlier to get into the west and were making at least an extra knot of boat speed. Additionally, this breakaway group will have the advantage of not having to tack to avoid the Traffic Separation Scheme, the merchant shipping lane which is treated as a mark of the course. “It could almost end up like a restart, 50 miles from Dieppe” says Caraës.
All eyes later this morning will be on the changing rankings, and particularly how the individual boats’ courses adjust to the changing tactical situation. The first of the fleet are still expected to finish early this afternoon, but there is still everything to play for in these final hours of the race.
The cause of the upset is a small high pressure system, the effects of which started to be felt at around 03h00 this morning, when the wind dropped away and boat speeds tumbled correspondingly. The leading group found themselves advancing at no more than 2 knots, while further back skippers such as Laurent Pellecuer (Arnolfini.fr), Corentin Douguet (E.leclerc Mobile) and Eric Drouglazet (Luisina), among others, had tacked earlier to get into the west and were making at least an extra knot of boat speed. Additionally, this breakaway group will have the advantage of not having to tack to avoid the Traffic Separation Scheme, the merchant shipping lane which is treated as a mark of the course. “It could almost end up like a restart, 50 miles from Dieppe” says Caraës.
All eyes later this morning will be on the changing rankings, and particularly how the individual boats’ courses adjust to the changing tactical situation. The first of the fleet are still expected to finish early this afternoon, but there is still everything to play for in these final hours of the race.
