A strong depression is currently developing around 900 nautical miles south of Recife and will soon be moving south-eastwards. Strong north to north-westerly winds are blowing on its northern edge, which would be ideal for a fast ride to the Cape of Good Hope. All skippers are now hoping to sail into this low and catch an ideal, fast transition into the Southern Ocean with it. If this is successful, the weather gurus of the race organisation are predicting an extremely fast passage to the Cape, which would probably be reached on Saturday - a good two days under the existing record for the fastest passage.
On the way there, a highly exciting separation is emerging: Alex Thomson, almost 50 miles in the lead, is sailing a more westerly arc, presumably to sail ideal wind angles for high boat speed. Armel Le Cléac'h is sailing a similar variant, while Sébastien Josse ("Edmond de Rothschild") and Vincent Riou ("PRB") are heading further east and have turned their bow directly south. However, as Thomson and Le Cléac'h sail almost 12 to 15 degrees lower, their VMG is similar or even slightly lower in places than the two western boats. If Josse and Riou's eastern variant works, they could make up a few dozen miles on "Hugo Boss" and "Banque Populaire VIII". Perhaps the two chasing boats will interpret the path of the low differently, but it may well be that they will have to take the chance of a "shortcut", as neither of them can obviously keep up with the speed of "Banque Populaire VIII" and "Hugo Boss".
Josse's more easterly course is also the reason why he officially took over second place today, as the ranking is simply measured by the shortest distance to the next waypoint, the Cape of Good Hope. The crucial question, however, is who can jump on the low where. Alex Thomson still has to sail almost 750 nautical miles to catch the low, the chasers correspondingly more. At speeds of around 17 to 20 knots, this should be achievable. If they reach it, the one who catches the best wind angle for the course to the south-east will benefit the most.
What is also remarkable at this stage of the race is how Vincent Riou is sailing. He has not made a single tactical mistake so far and is keeping up extremely well with his non-foiling "PRB". Only in an area with more wind and rough courses can the foilers take miles off him. As soon as the wind becomes weaker or the angle of incidence is not ideal for the foils, he can always make up miles. If he manages to keep up with the leaders, he may be able to fight back later on the way back in the Atlantic in light winds.
Video summary of the Equator Passage by Vendée TV
Less than 30 nautical miles behind him, Paul Meilhat is doing a similarly good job on his "SMA", the last winning boat of François Gabart ("Macif"). He is being looked after by Michel Desjoyeaux's team - and they have obviously found a few tricks to make the second non-foiler in the leading group significantly faster. He even manages to keep Morgan Lagravière's brand new foiler ("Safran") at bay time and again.
This is soon followed by a gap of over 100 miles before the penultimate generation of non-foilers follows, led by Yann Eliès, who has now placed his "Queguiner Leucémie", the ex "Safran", almost 150 nautical miles ahead of Jean Le Cam's "Finistere mer vent". In any case, the field is extremely spread out at such an early stage of the race. It is almost 1500 nautical miles to the last-placed boat and around 700 to the midfield. There has probably never been such a big split.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
