After a hard fight with the 1019 TeamWork, the 969 POGO FOILER made the difference at the end of the course by leaving their opponent more than an hour behind. It all came down to the passage of the Chaussée de Sein. The beginning of the race up to the BXA seemed quite calm to Tanguy and Guillaume although they had to make up for the time lost when they passed Yeu. It was on the way upwind that things got tense: “There was a lot of suspense, we didn’t want to let go of anything“. At Basse Vieille, they broke their bowsprit. They arrived a little burnt out but happy in the warm rain after 3 days 15 hours 25′ 05s of racing.
It was yesterday at around 22:30 that the 1019 – TeamWork and the 969-POGOFOILER crossed paths, 20 nautical miles below the Occidentale de Sein. It was at this point that Tanguy Bouroullec and Guillaume L’Hostis took the lead. They then passed the western buoy of the Chaussée de Sein just before 03:00 this morning with a 45 minute lead. At 04:30, 22 nautical miles from the finish, they were doing almost 10 knots with a lead of almost 10 nautical miles. Pierre Le Roy and Cedric Faron are only doing 7.5 knots… a mechanical problem?
Behind them, the 850-Pays d’Iroise is well placed to keep its third position, followed by the 800-Irina Gracheva Racing, the 787-DECOSAIL and the 930-Cassiopee.
With 50 nautical miles to go, the 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site remains the leader of the series with a lead of less than 2 nautical miles over its pursuers, the 914-Velotrade, the 920-SIGNFORCOM and the 966-LES ALPHAS and 993-EdiliziAcrobatica one mile further down. Negotiation of the Occidentale de Sein will be crucial for this group as well.
The two leading boats have tacked after more than 30 hours on starboard tack. The 1019-TeamWork is still resisting the 969-POGO FOILER and they are now approaching the Breton coast. The 850-Pays d’Iroise is hanging on about 6 nautical miles behind. The 800-Irina Gracheva Racing and the 787 – DECOSAIL are 10 miles behind the leader.
In the Series, 886-HALTOFLAME / ilots.site is leading the Pogo 3s – 947-Race For Pure Ocean, 920-SIGNFORCOM, 914-Velotrade and 966-LES ALPHAS – by a short margin, while the Italians on 993-EdiliziAcrobatica are still a little further out in the fleet. It’s difficult to say who will be first at the penultimate mark of the course, the West Sein buoy. Whether it’s the duelling prototypes, the fratricidal Pogo’s or the Italian outsiders, the bets are on!
The end of the race is approaching, the first boats are expected to arrive in Douarnenez at around 3am and the last boats, who are currently 70 nautical miles behind, should cross the line more than 24 hours after the winners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
