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11:30 AM Thu 5 Feb 2009 GMT
Vendee Globe. Armel Le Cl?ac'h is into more favourable breeze this morning making direct course to pass Cape Finisterre late this evening, on track for second place. But while the Brit Air skipper will be counting down the miles now to the finish, he will be keeping an eye on the buffer he has to Marc Guillemot, even after the finish gun as sounded in Les Sables d'Olonne.
Compared to Le Cl?ac'h Guillemot has a net 71 hours of redress - compensation for time lost when he stood by the injured Yann Eli?s - and so Le Cl?ach needs to see Safran a safe 1300 miles behind when he crosses the finish to be sure.
With 1561 miles between them, Le Cl?ac'h with around a third of that distance to sail, the second placed skipper should be reasonably confident at the moment, but there is not a big margin for him to be slowed if Guillemot gets a westerly slingshot all the way to Les Sables d'Olonne.
Le Cl?ac'h has 11 hours of redress, Guillemot 82 hours and Sam Davies 11 hours.
The British skipper Davies has continued to profit from her easterly option and was 218 miles ahead of Guillemot's Safran this morning, as their speeds even out. Guillemot is starting to take his hit just now, dropped to nine knots at 0330hrs this morning as he sails many more miles to the west. The Roxy skipper is still making NW this morning but will be assessing her lay line to clear Cape Finisterre. The pair now have more than 400 miles of lateral separation and in the lighter breezes Safran will be hurting with her reduced mainsail area.
In the early part of the night, Guillemot was making the best part of 11-11.5 knots so he has slowed noticeably now, but Davies has felt the same effect at about the same time.
Speeds remain consistent for Brian Thompson on Bahrain Team Pindar, 169 miles behind Guillemot, as he slants slightly on a more NWly course he looks set to follow Guillemot to the west, although the high pressure system is tracking SE and so the Cowes skipper should be able to save some miles and cut the corner a little more. His margin on Dee Caffari is 210 miles, so Caffari has gained 115 miles in 48 hours and is still half a knot quicker this morning.
'Make the easy miles.' Is the maxim for Rich Wilson just now as he at last enjoys the SE'ly winds conditions SE of Rio, but it might as easily apply to Steve White who is trundling along on Toe in the Water in eighth place making just under 10 knots, while Wilson has been enjoying speeds to 13 knots on Great American, lying in ninth.
Wilson reported last night: 'Today, we had wind, not too much, not too little, in a good direction, so that we could make a good direction and go straight for a waypoint off Rio de Janeiro. Solent and one reef in the main, and making about 13 knots average, easy on the boat, fairly easy on skipper. Walter Greene, the great designer, builder, racer of multihulls, said to me once, 'make the easy miles Richie, there will be plenty of hard miles, so make the easy miles', meaning, when you can go, go, for as long as you can, as hard as you can. Seems forever since we had some easy miles. At dark, put in a reef to #2, and then a few hours later, went solent to staysail as the wind picked up some more. Still averaging nearly 13 knots. We needed this. Here's hoping it will last for a day or so more, as forecast.'
04:00 HRS GMT. Rankings
1 . Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) finished after 84 days 3 hours, 9 minutes
2 . Armel Le Cl?ac'h (Brit Air) at 582 miles to finish
3 . Sam Davies (Roxy) at 1925 miles to finish
4 . Marc Guillemot (Safran) at 2143 miles to finish
5 . Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) at 2313 miles to finish
6 . Dee Caffari (Aviva) at 2522 miles to finish
7 . Arnaud Boissi?res (Akena V?randas) at 3025 miles to finish
8 . Steve White (Toe in the Water) 3878 miles to finish
9 . Rich Wilson (Great American III) at 5307 miles to finish
10 . Rapha?l Dinelli (Fondation Oc?an Vital) at 6501 miles to finish
11 . Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport - Kapsch) at 6919 miles to finish
RDG . Vincent Riou (PRB). 3rd equal. 30 boats started.
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