4h12’38s Thursday June 20: Ambrogio Beccaria and Alberto Riva win the Mini-Fastnet in the series category.

“When we saw the Maxi coming in the English Channel, we said to ourselves, alright, for sure they’ll be in front of us” But Ambrogio and Alberto never saw them again (and for good reasons!). They did their own race, often competing with the prototypes. “A perfect race, but very wet” says Ambrogio ” zero problem, and at the Fastnet it was amazingly beautiful! ».

For Alberto, it was a race for the Maxi, and he is delighted to take his first win on the Mini-Fastnet, after winning the prologue three times.

Ambrogio, for his part, wins the Marie-Agnès Péron Trophy twice in a row and the Mini-Fastnet twice in a row!

At 10:00 pm:

Chaffoil, the 969, with Tanguy Bouroullec and Rémi Aubrun, seems to have escaped from the small group of 13. Less than 30 miles from Douarnenez, south of Molène, they are in a good situation to maintain their third place until the finish line.

On the series side, the 943, Ambrogio Beccaria and Alberto Riva, are still in the lead and 37 miles away from the finish, with a speed of 6.3 knots. 6 miles behind, the 905, Nicolas D’Estais and Sam Goodchild, have made a good comeback to the second place. He is now fighting with the 944, Amélie Grassi and Davy Beaudart to keep this place.

The arrival of all these teams is scheduled between 1:00 and 4:00am next morning, if the wind remains the same.

Behind, the fleet of the second group is very spread out due to the lack of wind over the last 24 hours. The fleet is still more than 80 miles from the finish.

At 11:00 pm

The last one, the 917, skippered by Marie Pousset and Yan-Yvon Le Dantec, is about to round the Fastnet.

160 miles further south, François Jambou and Pascal Fievet have taken the lead and are now sailing at nearly 11 knots towards Douarnenez.

The first arrival are finally expected at noon tomorrow, according to the last routing.

Between 3am and 4am this morning, as announced, the wind dropped. The wind is changing to the northerly direction. After the amazing speeds recorded in the first 36 hours of the race, the fleet was literally stuck. This is one of the most terrible moments for the sailors’ minds.

The fleet now seems to be slowly restarting.

Axel Tréhin and Thomas Coville are now 200 miles from the finish, followed on their port side by François Jambou and Pascal Fievet. Then 23 miles to the north, Ian Lipinski and Benoit Hantzperg are about ten miles ahead of the group of 4 prototypes (679, 950, 888, 900). The latter are caught up by the first series, in order: 947, 943, 944. This top trio is within 4 miles of each other, followed by the 905 and the 956.

At 9:00 am, 37 boats rounded the Fastnet Lighthouse.

Around 3:30 am this morning:

• The 979 arrived at the port of Tréboul.
• The 935 rounded the Fastnet.
• The 470 had gone past Stags, closely followed to the 757 and the 857.

At 10pm, the first competitors in the Series category are now rounding the mythical Fastnet.

Matthieu Vincent and Alessandro Torresani’s 947 opens the way, still side by side with the 956 proto-series skippered by Kéni Piperol and Sébastien Audigane.

Then come the inseparable Beccaria-Riva (943) and Grassi-Beaudart (944). A little further, follow in order, Estais-Goodchild on the 905, Ferré-Bloch on the 902, and Jacquelot-Sainson on the 909, themselve followed by the two Maxi, the 980 and the 973. Chaffoil is between these last three boats, 10th of the prototypes.

At the head of the race, in prototypes, Tartine (945) is still ahead of the 865, and 30 miles ahead from the 800. Then, 15 miles away from the 800, in 3rd place, a small group of four are sailing along the DST of the Fastnet, the 679, 888, 950 and 900. The 900 has lost three places between Stags and Fastnet.

After the first night, Axel Tréhin and Thomas Coville still lead, and progress at a sustained pace. A distance of 4 miles now separates them from the nearest competitors, François Jambou and Pascal Fievet on the 865. About fifteen miles later, there is a group of 4 prototypes, the 800, 900, 679 and 888.

On 946, the proto of Kéni Piperol and Sébastien Audigane is moving alongside the leader in the series category, the 947 of Matthieu Vincent and Alessandro Torresani.
The battle is intense, the one who is stalled will have little chance of catching up again.

News from the Japanese whose YB beacon is down: Masa Suzuki and Akiyoshi Ichimura were not far from the 880 this morning at around 4am, in the middle of the fleet.

The 431, skippered by Pep and Josep Costa, dismasted last night. Towed by the accompanying boat Rev in the night, they arrived safely in Penzance this morning at around 8:30 am.