Yesterday Ruyant launched his attack, "Linked Out" was the fastest boat for hours, today he reaped the rewards and took the lead in the Imocas - but only by a wafer-thin margin. He was able to put just 4.8 miles between himself and the previously clearly dominant Charlie Dalin and his "Apivia". But the latter should be alarmed, as the Norman had already snatched victory from under his nose in the last transatlantic race, the Transat Jacques Vabre.
In the tracker, "Apivia" is currently sailing four knots faster than the leader again, so it will be interesting to see whether Ruyant was perhaps just able to capitalise on a brief weakness on Dalin's part last night. Perhaps he also had a small technical problem, but experience shows that both sailors keep such things secret in order to keep the competition in the dark.
The chasing pack has also picked up speed, in which the four new boats "Charal" (Jérémie Beyou), "V and B Monbana Mayenne" (Maxime Sorel), "Biotherm" (Paul Meilhat) and "Holcim" (Kevin Escoffier) can now really let their boats fly in space-sheet-foil conditions.
Boris Herrmann is now finally out of the doldrums in 24th place, is travelling at around 17 knots and is currently shifting to the north-west in order to have a good wind angle in the trade wind for the approach to Guadeloupe. However, the boats in the top ten, such as Isabelle Joschke with her "MACSF" or Nicolas Troussel with his "Corum", are almost 180 miles ahead of him, so it will be difficult to catch up. There are still around 1,400 miles to the finish for the field, around four days, perhaps a little faster.
Boris Herrmann will be giving a live press conference from on board today at midday, and YACHT will be reporting this afternoon on YACHT online on how the German has experienced and assessed his Route du Rhum so far.
Yesterday, Francis Joyon and his "Idec Sport" and then Yves Le Blevec with "Actual Ultim" finished fourth and fifth in the Ultims. The 66-year-old Joyon made a relaxed and surprisingly fit impression at the finish line, considering that he had just sailed a 105-foot tri across the Atlantic at an average speed of 22.3 knots. But that's how the fans know him: the Breton is real sailing granite, it was his 8th Route du Rhum!
"It was a difficult transatlantic race, not because of the bad weather, but because we had to do so many more manoeuvres. And 'Idec Sport' is a boat on which they are really difficult. For me it would almost have been better if we had started on Sunday, I would have sailed to Ireland and then south, better than all these tacks and gybes."
"I did things in this race that I didn't think I could do anymore, for example I had to climb a third of the way up the mast to clear a snagged halyard, all in huge swells, so I was thrown around hard. You have to overcome yourself to finish a transat with these boats!"
"I'm very exhausted, that's the result of the close race I had with Yves (Le Blevec). I was able to get ahead of him, but then I couldn't let up. These two boats have really raced a lot. In the end, I think Yves' boat has a memory and wanted revenge. But it was close all the way to the finish and my boat prevented the same thing from happening to him as it did four years ago." Back then, Joyon overtook François Gabart shortly before the finish, whose "Macif" is now "Actual"
He was impressed by the new Ultims, which are ten knots faster in 20 knots of wind than his "Idec Sport", which is already 16 years old.
