Jacques Delcroix crossed the finish line of the first leg at half past one tonight in second place. The skipper of "Actual" took 9 days, 12 hours, 11 minutes and 35 seconds. The French trio Anne-Gaël Gourdin, Arnaud Rambaud and Laure Galley are currently battling it out for third place on the podium.
Earlier on Thursday at 5.01 am, Pierre Le Roy had already completed the 1,270 miles of the first leg of the 9th edition of Les Sables-Azores-Les Sables after 8 days and 15 hours at sea. The reigning winner of the Mini-Transat in the Proto class was unsurprisingly able to win the leg with a lead of more than 70 miles.
He had sailed the race from start to finish in the lead and also broke the record for the distance travelled in one day on board a Mini 6.50. "I'm clearly very happy with the overall result. I will now definitely want to win the second leg," said the Frenchman after his arrival, highly motivated: "I won't be sailing with the handbrake on!"
While four days ago he was able to break this record, which had stood for twelve years, with 308 miles sailed within 24 hours, it is currently more records for slowness that are being set by one or two others.
In the front third in particular, things are particularly tight in both fields, but above all extremely sluggish - some are currently travelling at less than a knot.
Christian Dumard, the race meteorologist, was already worried about this yesterday: "The leading group should have wind until the finish despite the downwinds from the islands. Those who are still at sea tomorrow at midday (today), on the other hand, will experience a difficult end to the race."
He assumes that there will again be relatively little wind due to an area of high pressure and therefore does not expect the last participants to arrive in Horta until the night from Saturday to Sunday.
The field has therefore moved closer together, and the Swiss Felix Oberle has worked his way up to 13th place in the 60 minis in the series ranking. Lisa Berger from Austria is currently in 39th place with her maxi "Mojo". The 32-year-old recently sailed to fifth place in this year's Mini Fastnet together with the German miniist Axel Solbach in a strong field of participants.
While two competitors have already been eliminated, an exciting battle is developing in the leading group of series boats. Here it is Jean Marre who has regained the lead ahead of Hugues De Premare and Léo Bothorel.
It remains unclear when the participants will actually reach the finish in the Azores. The starting signal for the second leg was actually supposed to be given next Wednesday, but even that seems to be in jeopardy at the moment due to the necessary recovery time for the sailors.
The race and the imminent arrival at the finish line can be followed here via the tracking link (please click!)
