The duo, aligned in the Ultimates category, the fastest of the fleet, with boats equipped with foils (appendages allowing the boats to rise above the water) widens the gap on the whole pack .

His immediate pursuers, Armel Le Cléac'h and Kevin Escoffier (Maxi Banque Populaire XI) went from 290 to 410 nautical miles (760 km) in 24 hours.

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, monohulls that are 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 this category of sailboats, Thomas Rettant and Morgan Lagravière (LinkedOut), stuck in the doldrums - intertropical convergence zone where the wind speed is either almost zero or can bring the storm - which they entered on Wednesday , saw their lead reduced by more than half in one day, from 70 miles to 33 miles, over Charal, joined by Apivia.

The Class 40 category, that of the smallest boats, saw its leader change: the Belgian sailboat Volvo, with Jonas Gerckens and Benoît Hantzperg on board, passed Redman, now second at 3.3 miles.

The last day also reshuffled the cards in the Ocean Fifty fleet, where the British boat LEYTON, recovered from 4th to 2nd place, is less than 60 miles from Primonial.

The Transat Jacques Vabre has lost two elements in quick succession over the past 24 hours, Thursday morning and mid-day: HBF - Reforest'Action and Lenzi - Lanternes de Paris, the first two Class 40s to leave the race, the 3rd and 4th total.

Rankings Thursday at 3:00 p.m .:

Monohulls

.

Class 40 (12 m)

1. Volvo (BEL) 2,290.0 miles from the finish

(Jonas Gerckens, Benoit Hantzperg)

2. Redman (FRA) 3.3 miles behind the leader

(Antoine Carpentier, Pablo Santurde Del Arco)

3. Edenred (FRA) 38.2

(Emmanuel Le Roch, Pierre Quiroga)

4. Bank of Lake Geneva (SUI) 60.7

(Valentin Gautier, Simon Koster)

5. ORGANIC BAKERY (FRA) 61.3

(Amélie Grassi, Marie Riou)

...

.

Imoca (18 m)

1. LinkedOut (FRA) 2,656.7 miles from the finish

(Thomas Rouillard, Morgan Lagravière)

2. Charal (FRA) 33.0 miles behind the leader

(Jérémie Beyou, Christopher Pratt)

3. Apivia (FRA) 33.0

(Charlie Dalin, Paul Meilhat)

4. Initiatives-Cœur (GBR) 200.6

(Sam Davies, Nicolas Lunven)

5. Arkea - Paprec (FRA) 232.4

(Sébastien Simon, Yann Elies)

...

Multihulls

.

Ocean Fifty (15 m)

1. Primonial (FRA) 1,858.7 miles from the finish

(Sébastien Rogues, Matthieu Souben)

2. LEYTON (GBR) 59.5 miles behind the leader

(Sam Goodchild, Aymeric Chappellier)

3. Koesio (FRA) 62.4

(Erwan Le Roux, Xavier Macaire)

4. Solidaires En Peloton (FRA) 93.9

(Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, Frédéric Duthil)

5. Les P'tits Doudous - The Arch (FRA) 121.4

(Armel Tripon, Benoit Marie)

...

.

Ultimate (32 m)

1. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (FRA) 2,597.9 miles from the finish

(Franck Cammas, Charles Caudrelier)

2. Banque Populaire XI (FRA) 410.1 miles from the first

(Armel Le Cléac'h, Kevin Escoffier)

3. SVR-Lazartigue (FRA) 516.6

(François Gabart, Tom Laperche)

4. Actual Ultim 3 (FRA) 848.0

(Yves le Blévec, Anthony Marchand)

5. Sodebo ultim 3 (FRA) 1,343.2

(Thomas Coville, Thomas Rouxel)

./bds/chc/agt

© 2021 AFP