Pitstop challenges.

As the duo returned three hours back to the start port Le Havre their technical team swung into action bringing replacements from their Lorient base. The team worked through the night and Paprec Arkéa returned to racing early this Monday afternoon nearly 300 nautical miles behind leaders MACIF Santé Prévoyance.

In and out F1 style Banque Poulaire

Defending champions in the ULTIM class Maxi Banque Populaire XI sustained damage to their port rudder and so Armel Le Cléac'h and Seb Josse diverted to their base in Lorient where their ‘pit crew’ were waiting to attend to the giant trimaran. They docked at around 0600hrs local time. The replacement rudder was fitted and at the same time other small repairs were made before Banque Populaire XI left again around 1145hrs. This Monday afternoon Le Cléac'h and Josse had just over 220 nautical miles of deficit on leaders Tom Laperche and Franck Cammas on SVR Lazartigue and Thomas Coville and Benjamin Schwarz on Sodebo Ultim who were less than a mile behind SVR.

The front running duo were starting to emerge from a ridge of high pressure in the south of the Bay of Biscay which had them slowed to nine or 10 knots at times.

MACIF making miles

A tough first night put the 18 IMOCA duos and 42 Class40s to the test straight from the start off Le Havre. British skipper Sam Goodchild who sails top seed MACIF Santé Prévoyance with Loïs Berrehar had earned lead of nearly 15 miles by this afternoon ahead of Charal (Jérémie Beyou and Morgan Lagravière). Italian ace Ambrogio Beccaria and French counterpart, two times back to back winner Thomas Ruyant are third at less than one mile behind. The US flagged 11th Hour Racing sailed by Italian-American Francesca Clapcich and Brit Will Harris are in contention in fifth.

IMOCA Globe series champion two years ago, Goodchild said this morning, “The first night saw a little less wind than expected, we averaged 30 knots and we had the hull out the water a few times in the big seas especially when wind was over the tide. We have a bit of a lead but will be slowing down in a bit. The main thing was not to break anything at the beginning. When we get to Ushant we will be able to check the boat and put up some bigger sails. So now it is getting through the ridge and placing ourselves in the best position for the high pressure is the next challenge.”

“The disadvantage of being in the lead is being the first to position themselves to pass this zone! " smiled Goodchild.

On 11th Hour Harris said this morning, “It has played out very much as expected since the start. The high pressure looks much as we expected but the cut off low beneath it is challenging the models and

I am sure each boat has their best idea of how to do that. Everyone right now seems to be going for the similar strategy. The cut off low will be a challenge and after that it is hard to say. When we look down to the Canaries there is a big shut down there. It could be crucial to get out of that first and in these situations a mile or two can make all the difference,”

Kiwi pitstop

A pitstop is on the cards for Kiwi Conrad Colman on MSIG Europe. This afternoon he was some 37 miles from Roscoff where he and his team plan to make repairs to several issues not least an autopilot problem which is a particular issue for Conrad who is sailing with Matthieu Blanchard a mountain and polar runner who is more or less a non-sailor.

Of the daggerboard boats it is close between Fabrice Amedeo and Andreas Baden – one of two Germans in the race – on FDJ United Wewise and Louis Duc’s FIVES Lantana Environnement which he is sailing with Japan’s Masa Suzuki. Suzuki is aiming for the 2028 Vendée Globe and will take over the boat after the race.

Extended pitstop…all together

Class40 have a date with a longer pitstop, a mandatory halt in La Corüna where they will be required to sit out the confluence of two low pressure systems which would have given them 45 knot average wind speeds and huge seas.

Leaders of Class40 are the Le Havre heroes Guillaume Pirouelle and Cedric Chateau (Seafrigo Sogestran). The leading Normandy duo know all too well about extended pitstops and races against time as they had a collision only 20 minutes into the last edition, at a turning mark ‘melée; which caused major composite damage. But they got the boat to Lorient where they were able to make a big repair to be able to restart the race – which was held up by bad weather and ‘split’ into two races like this edition. Chateau and Pirouelle are just over one mile ahead of Achille Nebout and Gildas Mahé on Amarris

The leaders are expected into the Galician haven on Wednesday, probably in the afternoon and it could be the weekend before they restart. Italy’s Andrea Fornaro and Alessandro Torresani are in 12th on Influence 2. Their highly fancied compatriots Luca Rosseti and Matteo Serricano are in Cherbourg with an electrical charging issue. The all female duo of the Cap pour Elles initiative Mallorca’s Aina Bauza Roig and her French co-skipper Axel Pillaine on Engie Dessine Moi La High Tec are going well in 15th. A more cautious routing to the north sees Spanish duo Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde catching up miles today on VSF Sports.

Ireland’s Pam Lee on #EmpowHer with USA’s Jay Thompson were 32nd this afternoon, “It’s pretty damp and we are going better now we are not upwind. The start was OK we probably could have pushed a little bit more but we are happy with where we were. We took the option to go across to England as our boat is not a great upwind boat so any opportunity to sail a more open angle which we do now was in our strategy. We had up to 40kts and big messy seas. It was gusty so we were really holding on.”

Wewise 50 miles ahead

In the OCEAN 50s Pierre Quiroga and Gaston Morvan (Wewise) are more than 50 miles ahead passing the latitude of Lisbon this afternoon less than 100 miles off the Portuguese coast.