As might have been expected, the entire fleet of the DRHEAM-CUP-GRAND PRIX DE COURSE AU LARGE encountered a transition zone during the night from Sunday to Monday, with light and erratic winds, leading to shift in the standings in most classes.
On the shortest course, the DC 600, the boat that fared the best and is currently closest to the finish line in Lorient on Monday is Volvo Open 70 Ocean Breeze-Majorica, skippered by the Swiss Alan Roura (first in the crewed IRC class). He “went through his own transition like the others, but the wind is back for him and he is heading straight for the Rochebonne mark”, according to race director Francis Le Goff. His lead over Le Cigare Rouge (Sidney Gavignet) has increased from 4 miles at the previous mark to over 60 on Monday morning.
On the same course, the Orma Arkea-Handicap International (Damien Seguin and Gérald Véniard), headed slightly north to sail around the area of light winds, and has taken the lead. He is expected to gradually pick up speed towards Rochebonne, ahead of Graine de Courage (Florian Guéguen) and Rayon Vert Beautiful Watches (Oren Nataf). Still on the 600-mile course, the IRC Double-handed boats are having to contend this Monday morning with the erratic winds described by the race director, with, for the time being, a duel at the front between the Figaro 2 Auremat (Giulio di Gennaro/Pierre-Emmanuel Dubois) and the Dutch duo on Karma (Rogier Van Overweld/Marteen Jan Reijnders).
As for the Ocean Fifty course, after a fast-paced opening to the DRHEAM-CUP mark, “the fleet hit and area of low winds, and this morning Basile (Bourgnon) managed to find wind to the north of the course, allowing him to make headway at 20 knots, whilst the others are sailing in all different directions”, notes Francis Le Goff. The skipper of Edenred has indeed extended his lead (to around fifty miles) over the rest of the fleet, which has completely regrouped, giving those who were lagging behind at the start of the race (Erwan Le Roux, Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, Erwan Le Draoulec) a chance to get back into contention.
On the DC 1000 course, the IMOCA April Marine-Tahiti Déménage Tout, skippered by Arnaud Boissières, also ran into trouble this morning during the transition, which should allow Resilient (Pierre-Louis Attwell, sailing solo) to close the gap slightly. The latter is currently just ahead of the impressive Class40 field (the top 25 within around forty miles), still led by the steady Guillaume Pirouelle (Seafrigo-Sogestran), with Italian skipper Luca Rosetti (Maccaferri Futura) hot on his heels, having managed to overtake Corentin Douguet (SNSM, Make a donation!) before the DRHEAM-CUP mark, who was third on Monday morning.
The DRHEAM-CUP mark was rounded at daybreak by the inseparable duo Halvard Mabire (GDD) and Marc Guillemot (MG5-Econav), who remain neck and neck at the top of the Vintage Multi category, along with the leader in the Vintage Mono category, Tanguy Caradec (Eurvad), who holds a lead of around forty miles over Titouan Pilliard (Use it Again for Youth), whilst Groupe Cogedis pour Enfants du Mékong (Patrick Isoard) has retired after a collision with an unidentified object.
The general slowdown across the fleet has caused a slight delay to the ETAs, with the first boats expected to arrive early on Tuesday morning – most likely Arkea-Handicap International and Ocean Breeze-Majorica – followed by the Ocean Fifties on Tuesday afternoon, around 24 hours before the Class40s.
