The battle at the head of the Protos seems decided: Only just under 300 nautical miles separateIan Lipinski and his flat-bottomed mini "Griffon.fr" from the finish line off Martinique. With 14 knots of wind from astern and a current boat speed of around ten knots, he should cross it tomorrow, Tuesday, unless something serious happens.
An early jibe to the south has proved to beJörg Riechers He is a good 100 nautical miles behind Lipinski, but now has a lead of around 65 nautical miles over the current third-placedSimon KosterHe overtook him thanks to good speed and tactics.
At the front of the series boat field, the fact that the tracker fromClarisse Crémer was no longer transmitting. Her last position was reported at 19:00 UTC yesterday, Sunday, then nothing at all for a while, but she is now back in the tracking - albeit at a slightly slower boat speed than the boats around her.
On the leader, your training partnerErwan Le DraoulecLe Draoulec, with whom she was almost on a par for a long time, is now over 80 nautical miles behind. If Le Draoulec maintains his speed, he will probably be the first series mini to cross the finish line on Wednesday evening. He still has around 500 nautical miles to go to Martinique.
In the field of production boatsOliver Tessloff He is currently the best German in 19th place, sailing on the north side of the fleet in stronger winds, so he could even make some progress in the next few hours.
The performance ofLina Rixgens andAndreas Deubel Rixgens is holding on to 34th place in their older series minis, while Deubel has worked his way back up to 36th place after his repair stop in Mindelo and is currently focussing on speed at the southern edge of the field instead of a direct course.
Currently approaching at only about 4 knotsRomain Bolzinger After breaking his mast almost in the middle of the Atlantic, the fourth-placed sailor in the first leg decided to reach his destination under emergency rigging; turning round and sailing back upwind towards the Canary Islands was no longer an option at the time of the accident. Bolzinger did not make an emergency call, but was in radio contact with Minis in his vicinity and a support boat from the race - everything seems to be in order on board so far, giving up is not an option for the Frenchman.
