The duo of skippers, lined up in the fastest category of the fleet (the Ultimes), have a good lead over their direct pursuers (around 290 nautical miles or 537 km), Armel Le Cléach 'and Kevin Escoffier (Maxi Banque Populaire XI ) but they don't get carried away.
The multihull (Ultimate Class) "Maxi Banque Populaire XI", helmed by the skippers Armel Le Cléac'h and Kévin Escoffier, on October 22, 2021 off the coast of Lorient, during a sea trip in preparation for the Transat Jacques Vabre Fred TANNEAU AFP
"It's always nice to be one step ahead of our pursuers like that, it allows us to manage things better, but we must not forget that in a multihull it does not represent a lot of time, so it can come back quickly ", underlined during a vacation with the Cammas Race HQ, whose boat slips well after difficult times in the swells.
"There, the sea is flattened well but we had a fairly heavy headwind. Thirty knots in addition to the swell was not very comfortable ... We have really nice, easy conditions, we will do the same course on the way back !", he added.
The navigator does not expect to arrive in Martinique "before Tuesday evening, or even next Wednesday morning".
"It will go quickly to go back to Sao Paulo, but then the last three days will be complicated."
The Ultimes have a much longer course than the other three classes of boats, a choice of the race management to allow a relatively grouped arrival of the winners of each class.
Star boats of the Vendée Globe, the Imoca - which are monohulls and therefore slower than multihulls - will not have to descend to the Trindade archipelago but will have to turn at the Fernando de Noronha crossing point.
At the head of the Imoca, Thomas Rettant and Morgan Lagravière (LinkedOut) entered the doldrums on Wednesday, this zone of inter-tropical convergence dreaded by sailors, where the winds can bring the storm just as there can be no breath.
The skipper Thomas Rettant, aboard his monohull (Imoca class) "LinkedOut", on November 7, 2021 off the coast of Etretat, shortly after the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre from the port of Lorient LOIC VENANCE AFP / Archives
Rankings Wednesday at 3:00 p.m.:
Monohulls
.
Class 40 (12 m)
1. Redman (FRA) 2,434.9 miles from the finish
(Antoine Carpentier, Pablo Santurde Del Arco)
2. Volvo (BEL) 14.9 miles behind the leader
(Jonas Gerckens, Benoit Hantzperg)
3. Edenred (FRA) 36.0
(Emmanuel Le Roch, Pierre Quiroga)
4. La Manche #EvidenceNautique (FRA) 56.6
(Nicolas Jossier, Alexis Loison)
5. Bank of Lake Geneva (SUI) 57.0
(Valentin Gautier, Simon Koster)
.
Imoca (18 m)
1. LinkedOut (FRA) 2,930.8 miles from the finish
(Thomas Rouillard, Morgan Lagravière)
2. Charal (FRA) 69.7 miles behind the leader
(Jérémie Beyou, Christopher Pratt)
3. Apivia (FRA) 71.9
(Charlie Dalin, Paul Meilhat)
4. Initiatives-Cœur (GBR) 178.8
(Sam Davies, Nicolas Lunven)
5. Arkea - Paprec (FRA) 218.5
(Sébastien Simon, Yann Elies)
Multihulls
.
Ocean Fifty (15 m)
1. Primonial (FRA) 2,299.2 miles from the finish
(Sébastien Rogues, Matthieu Souben)
2. Koesio (FRA) 78.9 miles behind the leader
(Erwan Le Roux, Xavier Macaire)
3. Solidaires En Peloton (FRA) 95.4
(Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, Frédéric Duthil)
4.LEYTON (GBR) 124.2
(Sam Goodchild, Aymeric Chappellier)
5. Les P'tits Doudous - The Arch (FRA) 171.9
(Armel Tripon, Benoit Marie)
.
Ultimate (32 m)
1. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (FRA) 3.314.6 miles from the finish
(Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier)
2. Banque Populaire XI (FRA) 289.3 miles from the leader
(Armel Le Cléac'h, Kevin Escoffier)
3. SVR-Lazartigue (FRA) 406.6
(François Gabart, Tom Laperche)
4. Actual Ultim 3 (FRA) 659.3
(Yves le Blévec, Anthony Marchand)
5. Sodebo ultim 3 (FRA) 1.208.9
(Thomas Coville, Thomas Rouxel)
./bds/sc
© 2021 AFP