François Gabart keeps all the cards in his hands to win the Route du Rhum. The Macif skipper has increased his lead over Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) to more than 155 miles. The two Ultimate have passed the Tropic of Cancer and are now taking advantage of the trade winds, easterly winds, to push them to Guadeloupe. "There will be no more pivotal moments by Sunday night, we must exploit the trade winds at best," said Guillaume Combescure, of the technical team of Macif.
François Gabart (Macif) increased his lead at the top of the Route du Rhum on Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) on Friday, as both skippers passed the Tropic of Cancer and set sail for Guadeloupe. At the end of the fifth day of racing, François Gabart has nearly 150 miles ahead of his main competitor, just over 1,200 miles from the finish in Pointe-à-Pitre.
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" Happy Friday to everyone ! The day rises here on a well-shaped trade wind ... Guadeloupe we arrive !! François Gabart tweeted Friday morning, accompanying his text with a picture of the sunrise and a rough sea. The two maxi-trimarans - 32 m long and 23 m wide - ran at the last score (12.45 French, 11.45 GMT) around 30 knots (about 55 km / h).
Happy Friday to everyone !
The day rises here on a well-shaped trade wind ... Guadeloupe we arrive !! pic.twitter.com/xg6H5K6HPb
But in 24 hours, Gabart increased his advantage over Joyon by about thirty miles, seeing a first victory in the queen class on the Route du Rhum when he won in Imoca (monohull 18, 28 m) in 2014. "We are in the trade wind, it's going well. There are a lot of waves. And we always have a little advance on Francis! We will have to keep the cash, " added the winner of the Vendée Globe 2012/13, in a video posted Friday morning.
"Exploiting the trade winds at best"
"There will be no more pivotal moments by Sunday night, we must exploit the trade winds at best," said Guillaume Combescure, member of the trimaran Macif technical team. "The presence of Francis is hot, it's cool," he added. Since the departure of Saint-Malo, Francis Joyon follows the trace of Gabart, in range but with a gap that continues to increase steadily. These are the last two "Ultimate" still in the race for the final victory, after the damages that hit Sebastien Josse (Edmond de Rotschild), Thomas Coville (Sodebo) and Armel Le Cléac'h (People's Bank IX).
At the back of the race, the skippers face a third storm off the Bay of Biscay, "with gusts at 55 knots, possibly 60 knots or more under the most violent kernels," the organizers said. "The powerful waves will go up to six meters. It will be necessary to wait for the passage of the cold front at the end of the evening to see a beginning of improvement " , warned the organizers.
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In Imoca, another flagship category of the Route du Rhum with the monohulls of the mythical Vendée Globe, Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) has given way to Boris Hermann (Malizia II - Monaco Yacht Club), the German having chosen a trajectory well further north, while Thomson is off the Canary Islands, accompanied by Paul Meilhat (SMA), Vincent Riou (PRB) and Yann Eliès (Ucar - Saint-Michel). The race recorded several retirements Friday morning, with Yannick Bestaven, Yann Marilley or Willy Bissainte.