Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona

As the top group in the Charente-Maritime / Bahia Transat 6.50 fleet hits an area of 15 knots of breeze, the distances between the leaders and their rivals are beginning to grow. As well as the accordion expanding, we are now seeing another phenomenon of a perpendicular axis in the fleet. Up until 36 hours ago the skippers to the West were enjoying good wind, but now fortunes have shifted to those further East.

The most obvious examples of this new situation are Frenchman Bertrand Delesne, the most easterly entry in the fleet, and Portugal’s Francisco Lobato, the most westerly. Yesterday Delesne was in ninth place, 70 miles from Protos leader Thomas Ruyant and today he is fifth, less than 40 miles away. Meanwhile, Lobato, at the front of the Series Division is still holding his position, but has dropped back ten miles closer to second place Charlie Dalin.

Spain and the accordion

Within the current race panorama the Mini GAES Solidaria team mates are holding strong at the centre of the fleet. They are positioned slightly to the West of the orthodromic line (the most direct route from Funchal, Portugal and the race finish at Salvador de Bahia, Brazil) and have only been affected by the ‘spring’ or ‘accordion’ effect as their rivals in the division are sailing to their portside, a considerable distance from their sterns.

The four Spaniards in Prototypes; , Juan Carlos Sanchís (17), Anna Corbella (18), Toni Weijl (20) and Gerard Marín (21) are all sailing within a ten mile radius of one and other. While they haven’t experienced any big shifts in positions they have dropped back from the top of the fleet who are now sailing with bigger breeze.

Hugo Ramon and the East-West axis

One of the Mini GAES Solidaria team Series entries has squeezed in between the four Protos, more specifically between Juan Carlos and Anna. Hugo Ramon had reached second place on Friday in his category and he now sails in eighth position.

The loss of eight positions is intrinsically linked to the Spaniards tactical choice to go West. This same call saw the skipper scale from 20th to 2nd place from Wednesday to Friday, when those to the starboard side had more breeze in their sails. Unlike the Spaniards in the Protoypes Division, Hugo has many of his rivals to his portside, and so should sail closer to the wind and try to find and area with more breeze, so as not to waste all of the last 36 hours’ great work.

The sixth member of the Mini GAES Solidaria team is Joel Miro. Joel is in thirtieth palce in the Series Division and has climbed four places over the past few days.

Rankings 05:00 GMT.
Prototypes Division:                                                     

1.    Ruyant, Thomas / Faber France (FRA), 954.25 miles from finish.
2.    Cuinet, François / Plan Jardin (FRA) 34.24 miles from leader.  
3.    Schipman, Henri Paul / Maison de l’Avenir Urbatys (FRA), 39.29 miles from leader.
....
17.  Sanchis, Juan Carlos / Somni – Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 186.51 miles from leader.
18.  Corbella, Anna / Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 193.09 miles from leader.
….
20.  Weijl, Toni / Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 200.87 miles from leader.
21.  Marin, Gérard / Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 205.91 miles from leader.
32 entries.

Series Division:

1.    Lobato, Francisco / Roff Tmn (POR), 1078.77 miles from finish.
2.    Dalin, Charlie / Cherche Spansor- charliedalin.com (FRA), 22.87 miles from leader.
3.   Apolloni, Ricardo / MaVie pour Mapei (ITA), 27.53 miles from leader.
....
8. Ramon, Hugo / Nassau – Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 62.7 miles from leader.
…
30. Miró, Joel / Gaes Solidaria (ESP), 176.57 miles from leader.
47 entries.