Vendee: Four weeks at sea and the second Ice Gate

9:25 AM Sun 7 Dec 2008 GMT

'Mike Golding on Ecover 3, Vendee Globe' Mark Lloyd/ DDPI/Vendee Globe &copy

After four weeks of racing there is still just 60 miles between the top five boats in this thrilling Vend?e Globe solo round the world race, with Seb Josse (BT) holding a slender 12,8 miles lead early this morning. Second placed Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) has gained 21 miles on leader Josse overnight.

Mileage and place gains have been made since the last ice gate by those skippers who dived south in search of stronger winds. Dick is back up to second place but, since passing the ice gate, has already made 45 miles of a start to dive south again seeking to enhance his position.

Mike Golding, eighth when he made his move south on Ecover 3, has risen to fourth this morning- the British skipper's best placing yet on this his third Vend?? Globe race. Golding was seventh last night.

Ironically at this point in the last edition Golding was more than 750 miles behind the leaders but went on to finish third. He is now 58 miles behind Josse and 4.4 miles behind fourth placed Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement). When Jourdain made his move to the south he was in fourth place. Golding was about 73 miles behind in eighth when he diverged from the leading group and lay eighth.

At 0600hrs GMT five boats had passed the second ice gate, Josse first at about 0120hrs GMT, Dick around 0230hrs, Yann Eli?s (Generali) about 10 minutes later, followed by Veolia Environnment, Gitana Eighty, Ecover 3 and VM Materiaux all within an hour, but that should not be taken as an indicator of placings since there are so many different crossing options to satisfy the rule which says the competitor must, at some time, have any part of the line to the south of their boat. Hence, for example, Dick's course brought Paprec-Virbac from the south and he gybed approximately five miles from the western extremity of the virtual gate.

Between third placed Jourdain and seventh placed Jean Le Cam (VM Mat?riaux) there are just 9.7 miles.

0700 HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1- Seb Josse (BT) 17139.6 miles to finish
2 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 12.8 miles
3 -Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at + 53.6 miles
4 - Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3) at + 58 miles
5- Lo?ck Peyron, (Gitana Eighty) at + 59.3 miles

Selected International
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 234.9 miles
13- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 440.9 miles
14- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 496.9 miles
15- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Chemin?es Poujoulat) at + 561.6 miles
16- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 657.9 miles
18 - Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 744.3 miles
19 - Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 837.6 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 966.7 miles
22- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 13365.5 miles
24- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 1704.8 miles
25- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) + 1761.4 miles

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