This morning the 969-POGO FOILER  caught up with  1019-TeamWork. At 10:00 am the two boats are sailing side by side and have opened up a gap of about 8 nautical miles with  the other prototypes: the 850-Pays d’Iroise, the 800-Irina Gracheva Racing, the 787-DECOSAIL and the 930-Cassiopee are all challenging for  third place. Five miles further on, Vector 993-EdiliziAcrobatica has drifted a little south of the Pogo 3 pack led by 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site.

As for the rear of the fleet, they’re looking for some  wind. The thunderstorms rumbling over the Bay of Biscay are undoubtedly the first signs of the forthcoming weather change.

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9 hours after Pierre Le Roy and Cedric Faron, skippers of the  1019 – TeamWork, Nicolas Schmid and Christophe Benoit on the 978 have rounded the  BXA. By  18:00, the whole fleet have set their course  for the tip of Brittany. In  front, Tanguy Bouroullec and Guillaume L’Hostis on the 969-Pogo Foiler are less than 3 miles from the leader. Victor Turpin and Antoine Perrin are in third place, their boat, 850-Pays d’Iroise is just under 2 hours behind the leader. In the Series, it’s still very close. 7 boats make up the leading pack led by the Italians Alberto Riva and Tommaso Stella on the Vector 993-EdiliziAcrobatica: the 920-SIGNFORCOM, the 966-LES ALPHAS, the 947-Race For Pure Ocean, the 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site, the 914-Velotrade and the 893-Groupe Adre.

The weather remains stable, it’s fine, the wind is to the north and our sailors have  a night of upwind sailing ahead of them.

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The 1019 – TeamWork took the lead  last night, passing  Yeu island at around 10pm. This morning Pierre Le Roy and Cedric Faron were still ahead  and rounded the BXA at around 9am. They’re now starting the climb back up towards the Chaussée de Sein, leaving the Rochebonne plateau on their starboard side. Behind them, there are no less than 11 Prototypes before we find  the first Series  boat 993-EdiliziAcrobatica 12 nautical miles from 1019 – TeamWork.

Following behind are  886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site and the 914-Velotrade, respectively 2nd and 3rd in Series.

By 11am, the following boats had rounded  the BXA: 969-POGO FOILER, 850-Pays d’Iroise, 800-Irina Gracheva Racing, 787-DECOSAIL, 624-NOVAM and 865-Guenifey.

The first boats are expected to arrive overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

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It’s not very exciting looking at the map today. The Minis are slowly moving forward at about 140 degrees to the wind in a subtle game of gybes to keep the best compromise between course and speed (a straight line not being the case here). Irina Gracheva on the 800 is back in the game after a not so great start. All the Prototypes are within 20 nautical miles  of each other this evening, still led by Nolwen PEBELIER and Frederic MOREAU on the 787 DECOSAIL. In the Series, we notice the coastal option of Loïc and Aymeric Blin on the 871, probably in search of wind. No, Belle Ile is not one of the marks on the course. In the lead, offshore, 4 boats are one nautical mile away from the pack: 914-Velotrade, 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site, 947-Race For Pure Ocean and 893-Groupe Adre. They should pass Yeu in the middle of the night.

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After the first night, two prototypes, both pointy ones, are in the lead: the 787 – DECOSAIL, Nolwen PEBELIER/Co-Skipper: Frederic MOREAU and the 712 – RAS INTERIM Paul GAUCHET/Co-Skipper:Pierre MOIZAN. To the south of Penmarc’h, they headed south-west towards  Yeu island, they’re sailing at 8 knots with the 969-POGO FOILER, 850-Pays d’Iroise and 1019-TeamWork on their starboard side.

In the Series, the 1007-Association MJ pour l’Enfance skippered by Chloe LE BARS and Lina RIXGENS has been leading since yesterday evening. The two skippers are followed by Jean-Marie Jézéquel and Paul Cloarec on the 951- Branchet/KPL, who are themselves followed by the main fleet 3-4 nautical miles behind.

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Yesterday evening on Téa :

At 20:30 the first ones passed through  the Raz de Sein.

In the Series  class, the 993-EdiliziAcrobatica, the 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site, the 1007-Association MJ pour l’Enfance were in the lead. Amongst the prototypes, the “pointy” ones seemed to be in command: the 491-Port of Galway (the Irishman of the race) side by side with the 551-Bahia express and  the 709-RAS INTERIM sailed ahead of the fleet.

They had to go and pick up some wind near the  Cap de la Chèvre coast  at the mouth of the  Bay to avoid slowing up  before crossing  the Raz. A quarter of the competitors passed through without incident  at 21:00. The wind was only 2 knots north of the Pointe du Raz.

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The second start was the good one. After a general recall, the skippers set off westwards at 15:18 at a slow pace. Many of them chose to skim the southern coast of the Bay of Douarnenez by tacking. The fleet is dense with 82 boats and unfortunately there was  a collision which led to abandonment by  the 944 Guyot Environnement and the 976 Icarus. At the mouth of Douarnenez  Bay, after 2 hours of racing, the 966 – Les ALPHAS, led by Léo Debiesse and Thomas de Dinechin were  at the head of a  very compact pack.

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This Sunday, a large anticyclone is stretching from the Azores to the North Sea, and all of France is enjoying fabulous sunny weather. The start of the 35th Mini-Fastnet at 15:00 this afternoon will be under a light wind, 5 to 8 knots from the North West. From Wednesday onwards, thunderstorms and a West-North-West swell should make the race a little tougher.

All the weather information is available here : Briefing météo

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The weather pattern for the Mini-Fastnet over  the southern course seems to be in place: a relative  low pressure over the Iberian Peninsula and a high pressure axis from the Azores to the North Sea which will subside on Tuesday evening with the arrival of a high altitude trough, giving a good gust of wind and heavy seas south of Ireland. A thundery axis will rise from the bottom of the Bay of Biscay on Wednesday before the Atlantic high pressure system pushes back in from the west with north-northwest winds.

The prevailing east-north-easterly flow at the start of the race will disappear on Wednesday, giving way to north-north-westerly winds at the end of the race until Friday evening.

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