All these great races at the same time and with the ARC starting in a few days, make this November a very special month for the ones that like sail racing. It has been good fun to follow all those crews and sailors racing and battling with the sea, the wind an with other racers.
And there are many very interesting battles going on, starting with the VOR that reached a fulcral point. Till now it has been a bit boring with the French/New Zealanders from the Chinese boat LOL maintaining the lead and all the others following the same routing, without being able to catch them, but staying close.
But things are going to change since they are heading for a storm that will get them from Brazil to the cape of Boa Esperança (Good Hope) really fast and I don't believe that under those conditions they will stay close. Finally some boats stopped following Dongfeng and while they keep going to the West, approaching the Brazilian coast, others are sailing more to the East betting on a shorter course.
They point as leader of the race one of those more to the East, Vestas, in my opinion quite wrongly since it seems to me that the best passage with the best winds is all to the West, very near the Brazilian coast to where Dongfeng is going doing over 16k. The others are slower over the water but many have a better VMG since they are pointing more to the East.
Finally the VOR became really interesting: different routings, a storm approaching and the crews giving their best on the last part of this leg. Make your bets and post them on the comments. It would be nice to have some discussion about the different routings 😏
You can follow here:http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/dashboard.html
On the Transat Jacques Vabre the Ultimate have already finished with an imperial Coville/Nelias
dominating Josse/Roussel, that I suspect have the fastest boat. On the last part of the race, near Brasil they had a difference of less than 15nm but then Josse/Roussel did not follow Coville/Nelias when they went very near to the brazilian coast....and they lost the race there because it was the best routing. When they went for the same routing again, following Coville, they had already lost 25nm.
On Multi 50 race the two fastest boats are very near the finish and after a big fight between them, on the last phase of the race Rocaryol/Pella have been much faster than Leroux /Riou, catching them and going away quickly. For sure Leroux/Riou have problems on the boat (probably one sail out of service).A pity since that battle was being great.
Of them all the Class 40 has been the most interesting race, with three boats in an incredible fight for a long time and they are closer now than before: Sharp/Santurde are still leading but Sorel/Carpentier are only one mile away while Chappellier/Vaillant are at 7, but closing. They are not following the same routing but parallel courses. Difficult to say who will have advantage. They are entering the doldrums and sailing with very light winds, maybe Sharp that is more to the West, but with so light winds it is very difficult to say.
These are the conditions that are more tiring for the crews, the more demanding and where many miles can be lost or won. It will be very interesting to see who will come first out of the Doldrums.
Finally on the IMOCA race the favorites, Dick/Elies, have justified their favoritism and are leading almost from the beginning. The surprise comes from Meilhat/Gahinet that with a boat without the new foils are the ones that give them some fight, being 2nd at 71nm, but losing miles and in a worse position regarding the route and the wind.
You can follow this Transat here: https://www.transatjacquesvabre.org/fr/cartographie-et-classement
On the Mini Transat the great winner, with 90nm advantage over the 2nd, is Ian Lipinsky that made a fantastic race not giving anybody a chance. The 2nd was Riechers, the one that I said on the last update that was making a very interesting move,going all to the South and yes, it paid off: he won 50 nm to the leader and was able to overtake Koster that finished 3rd.
On the serie class (production boat) Erwan is another great winner (he is finishing) and has now an advance of more than 90nm over the 2nd that is Borroulec. He has on his tail Clarisse and Sineau. Very interesting the fight over the finish line. I will bet in Clarisse or Sineau (that is old enough to be her father). Stay tuned on this fight. I believe they will finish in sight of each other and with some luck doing match racing over the finish line😏.
You can follow the mini transat here: http://www.minitransat.fr/en/follow-race/cartography
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