Tipping point South is coming good in Class40

The route to the north was shorter but required the passage of – at that time – at least three mean low pressure systems. Logically it is the shorter route to sail and usually it would yield periods of fast reaching and downwind sailing. 
But going north was by far the more testing route, constant upwind slamming, occasionally ‘boat breaking’ conditions. And, again, as the route modelling extended into the future their passage south to the trade winds was sketchy. 

To date the north has held a steady return for those who had the faith in themselves and their boats and who were happier or more driven to push the risk factor. Among the dozen or so duos who pursued this option, Corentin Douguet and Axel Tréhin (SNSM Faits Un Don) – leaders into La Coruña – still hold a steady margin of around 54 miles ahead of Fabien Delahayae and Pierre Leboucher (Legallais) who are also in the north. 

Southern smiles 

But the balance looks like it is finally tipping. Today the best of the duos 600 nautical miles to the south – Guillaume Pirouelle and Cedric Chateau (Seafrigo-Sogestran) – have been consistently fastest in the fleet and, as a consequence have moved up from tenth to fifth, sailing 297 miles in 24 hours compared to SNSM’s 134. Up in the north the group are trying to escape a high pressure ridge which has gripped them for days. 

And between the two groups the net gains towards the finish have recently been negligible. Several skippers today noted how since leaving La Coruña their predicted passage time has only dropped one or in some cases two days. 

"For several days now, we've been anxiously awaiting the new weather files," wrote the Défi Solidaire crew with Ellye and L'Arche, Nico Jossier and Sophie Faguet this morning. "And for good reason: each new routing gives us the same race time, which means we're covering miles, but the estimated time to finish isn't decreasing."

It's grim up north 

In the north these are tough times mentally for the Spanish duo Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde (VSF Sports). Hoping to hang on to a top ten position they have been slowed in the light and today is the day they have to deal with the harsh reality the south is coming good, 

Costa said, “It is a little frustrating as we are still in this ridge but we are sailing as best as we can, it is frustrating now but we are getting over it. We are just trying to focus on sailing as best as we can but it seems th weather here does not want us to get through on our side. But we have to accept. 
I have no expectation at all to cross before the boats in the south, that is for sure. It is super tough. 
And we still have nine days of sailing which is hard to take, we knew that yesterday, but this is very hard to take. It is getting more and more complicated, it is incredible how things have turned. It evolved very quickly. It is so disappointing. Of course with our stopover in Santa Maria in effect we lost almost 24 hours and even without that this northern group is not in a good position. It is very complicated. It would have been at least nice to fight with the front of this group but it is difficult now. It is crazy because when we left Santa Maria (four days ago) we had a routing of 11 days and a half and my routing now is still ten days – or nine days and 20 hours – so we have been sailing for four days and we have only earned one day on the route – I have never seen that. 
We are just trying to do the best we can. This is racing and we are just trying to make the best of the cards that we have.”

But while the Spanish in the north are downhearted and this evening dropped to 11^th, in the south the Italian duo Luca Rossetti and Matteo Serricano (Macaferri Futura) are profiting and moved up to tenth. 

Speaking from the helm Serricano enthused, “It is a lovely day, it is quite wet across the deck, we are fast and that is really nice, the sun is out, it is hot and even if we are getting wet then it is OK. We are quite fast we did work on the boat the last couple of days, so we are feeling quite good. Actually we thought we could go faster but generally the boat is fast, we are happy with the sail trim and the way the boat is set up. We are good. We will see nearer the end but for sure we are happy with our decision which we made maybe three days after the start of the second leg, we believed in the south Today is the worst day for sure for the boats in the north. For us the forecast is more certain, we are in the trade winds, it is more constant even if it will drop for us a little bit this week. We are quite happy as at least we know that the route in the north is close, so we have a lot of friends in the north but we hope it is not going to work. It will be a tough day for the guys in north, I saw some of their speeds. They won’t be happy to know we have 14 to 16 knots of wind, we are making good speeds and we have sun.”

He concluded, “And on board we have lots of very good olive oil and parmigiano to make the freeze dried a little bit better. We don’t have a moka pot but won’t do the next race without one.”