" Tomorrow is another day" the 74 solo sailors still in the race are going to find out for sure this Wednesday evening when an Atlantic depression will sweep through the fleet from the Azores to the Bay of Biscay. The only ones to be spared will be the Ultime trimarans, already off Madeira! They are benefiting from a northerly trade wind which has seriously eased to around twenty knots and are now slipping along under the high: the difficulty will be to anticipate the gybes on a route which is much less bumpy in a NE'ly breeze, which is gradually veering eastwards.
Change of regime
Loïck Peyron ( Maxi Solo Banque Populaire VII ) could take advantage of this to escape, as already this Wednesday morning, the wind was more favorable upwind: now under full mainsail and gennaker, the seven Ultime solo sailors will finally be able to breathe and regain their strength after these two and a half intense days in the breeze. This will not be the case for the IMOCA monohulls still led by François Gabart (Macif) who, on a direct route to the West Indies, will have to cross this disturbance as they approach the Azores: they will have to maneuver and sail against a wind that will turn west or even southwest in the evening and strengthen.
For the Class40s too, the change in weather will create a split in the fleet between the leaders led by Kito de Pavant (Otio-Bastide Médical) and Thibaut Vauchel-Camus (Solidaires en Peloton) already off Porto this Wednesday morning, and the latecomers who have been forced to make a stopover like Jean Galfione (Serenis Consulting) or Brieuc Maisonneuve (Groupement Flo), still in the middle of the Bay of Biscay like a number of solo sailors in the Rhum Class.
There are several technical stopovers with Christophe Coatnoan (Normandie Sussex) who is facing electrical problems and is heading for La Coruña, a Spanish port where he will meet Thomas Nicolas (Guadeloupe Grand Large 1001 Piles Batteries) who has to solve rudder transmission problems. The Belgian Michel Kleinjans (Visit Brussels) is in Camarinas for sail problems, while Louis Duc (Advanced Energies Carac) is on a technical stopover in Brest. As for Yves Le Blévec (Actual) in the multi50 class, he is heading to Lisbon to repair his electronic windvane, and Luc Coquelin (Guadeloupe Dynamique) in the Rhum Class is heading to Spain to validate the fixing of his keel.
Thus, the big multihulls are now in the downwind trade winds until the arrival in Guadeloupe: the battle will be played out in the maneuvers to avoid getting stuck in the calms of the anticyclone. For the other classes, there will be headwinds to negotiate from this Wednesday afternoon, which may upset the rankings depending on the position of each of themâeuros¦
