Getting the hang of it, a definition in pictures. According to the latest Route du Rhum scores given at 9 a.m., Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) and François Gabart (SVR Lazartigue) were almost side by side, with a tiny advantage for Gabart, within the Ultims, these maxi- trimarans 32 m long and 23 m wide, some of which can fly.
They even increased their lead over the rest of the peloton, while all the competitors were trapped this Saturday morning in a long windless ridge between two fronts. In all categories, the skippers will have to manage this passage as well as possible, which tends to reduce the gaps, before the arrival of a new front which should bring gusts of wind of more than 40 knots and chaotic seas.
“I sleep less since François Gabart is next to me”
“For the moment, there is no wind at all,” Caudrelier told the morning session. “If we had managed to descend fast enough, we could have slipped under the high pressure but that was not the case (…) The trade winds are for tomorrow. In front of us, there is a hell of a file. In the fronts, the maneuvers are hard in Ultim”. “I sleep less since François Gabart is next to me (…). It’s immediately more exciting to have a boat side by side, it fills up the days well, it gets the action going,” he added.
Remaining in their wake on Friday, Thomas Coville (Sodebo) chose a more northerly route to try to catch the storm faster but was finally deprived of wind for longer and was now more than sixty miles behind.
The Cléac’h is back
Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire), returned to Lorient on Thursday to repair damage, left shortly before 1 p.m. with the aim of finishing the race, even if his hopes of a podium were gone, announced his team. “We want to go to the end of the story”, explained the skipper on Friday evening. Winner of the 2016/2017 Vendée Globe, he capsized after two days of racing during the 2018 Route du Rhum.
Since Thursday evening, his team has been working hard to replace the boat’s daggerboard and above all to seal the impacts that the broken daggerboard had caused on the hull.
In the Imoca, 18m monohulls and stars of the legendary solo round the world race, the Vendée Globe, Charles Dalin (Apivia) was still in the lead, also in the windless ridge. “It is not simple, this transatlantic race. You have to make the right choices and it’s not easy (…) Now, the challenge is to manage to pass through the trade winds as quickly as possible”, he testified.