Vendée Globe: "Banque Populaire" back in the lead

The many ice gates of this Vendée Globe, which are designed to protect the participants from collisions with icebergs, have changed the character of the race. Instead of fast-paced sprints with the low-pressure areas in the south, small-scale tactics with many course changes and manoeuvres dominate the action, with the lead changing hands several times over the past three days and a high-pressure area with extremely little wind demanding difficult decisions. After initial heavy losses, the path taken by Frenchman Armel Le Cléac'h proved to be the best. He decided in favour of an early passage of the Porte Crozet ice gate and thus got into the doldrums early on, losing many nautical miles.

However, he was also the first to sail south again, got more wind there and overtook four competitors in a wide arc. In the end, he was 14 nautical miles ahead and close to François Gabart with "Macif", a little further north and behind, and with less wind were "Virbac Paprec" (87 nm), "Cheminées Poujoulat" (115 nm) and "Hugo Boss" (132 nm). All sailing almost due east, heading for the next ice gate, Porte Amsterdam.