Transat Jacques Vabre: "La Mettraux" is captured - South boats push ahead

It had already become apparent over the past few days: The courageous breakaway attempt by Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion is over. On the night of 15 November, the fastest southern imocas "For People" and "Paprec Arkéa" overtook "Teamwork.net", which had been leading in the north until then. While the crew on "Teamwork.net", which had been in the lead for days, endeavoured to "descend" to the south in unsteady light winds at 33 degrees north, the southern boats raced towards the destination port of Fort-de-France on Martinique at speeds of over 20 knots.

Hot southern duel at the Transat Jacques Vabre: "For People" and "Arkéa Paprec" vie for the Imoca lead

Attention is now focussed on the leading group in the south for the time being. It is led by Thomas Ruyant's "For People" and Yoann Richomme's "Paprec Arkéa". The current leader "For People" was only launched in mid-March this year after being built by CDK Technologies. The Antoine Koch/Finot-Conq design is already showing its huge potential. This also applies to "Paprec Arkéa" with its atypical cockpit and slender bow from the same design office. Yoann Richomme's boat of choice for his first summit assault in the Vendée Globe 2024/2025 was christened just three weeks before "For People".

Will it now be Transat title defender Thomas Ruyant and the ambitious Yoann Richomme with their co-pilots who will decide the victory on the coffee route between themselves? Or can the pursuers still intervene in the top duel? While the crew on "Teamwork.net" struggled to keep up in the north on Wednesday morning, Ruyant's racing team mate Sam Goodchild and Antoine Koch on the Guillaume-Verdier design "For the Planet" were also piling on the pressure in fifth place behind the top boats in the south.

"For the Planet" impresses with strong position

The smart British-French duo impress with their current position on the four-year-old Imoca. Teams on "Charal" (4th), "Initiatives Cœur" (6th), "V and B - Monbana - Mayenne" (7th) and "Malizia - Seaexplorer" (8th) will have to stretch themselves on Wednesday morning. All built in 2022, they are fighting to catch up with the frontrunners once again over the last 1,600 nautical miles or so. "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was one of the fastest boats at times on day 9, but was almost 150 nautical miles behind "For People".

Boris Herrmann told YACHT online that he expects the first Imocas to cross the finish line on Sunday. Fabrice Amedeo and Andreas Baden from Kiel have now worked their way up to 28th place at the back of the Imoca field on "Nexans - Art & Fenêtres". With a gap of around 660 nautical miles to the new foilers at the front, the duo made good progress on the revised Owen Clarke non-foiler from 2007. Fabrice Amedeo and Andreas Baden are struggling with shrill keel noises.

The keel sounds as if someone is working permanently with an oscillator or an angle grinder" (Andreas Baden)

Andreas Baden reported: "I already mentioned above that we've had a noise on the keel since this morning and now permanently here, which sounds as if someone is constantly working with an oscillator or an angle grinder. That's when I unpacked my noise-cancelling headphones for the first time on the trip. I never wear them below deck so that I can hear when Fabrice needs help. And not normally on deck either. I enjoy the sounds of nature and the water and listen to see if the boat sounds happy and safe."

Transat premiere: Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink battle it out

In the Class 40, the winners of the first leg have now also regained the lead on the second transatlantic leg: Ambrogio Beccaria and Nicolas Andrieu are back in front at the start of the tenth Class 40 day at sea. Behind them, just six and 13 nautical miles behind, are the crews on "Ibsa" and "Group Sncf".

For Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink, 19th place remains like concrete for the time being. Following the heavy losses in the doldrums, the two young professionals from Hamburg are now almost 140 nautical miles behind the "Edenred" in 18th place, although they were travelling up to two knots faster on Wednesday morning. "We'll keep fighting," announced Melwin Fink. You can see that in the tracker.

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