In the clutches of the anticyclone!

Untouchable upwind, Macif Santé Prévoyance is controlling the fleet and may well make the Azimut waypoint by around midnight.

A camera and a powerful spotlight would have been handy at the BXA buoy last night as the leaders hurtled towards the mark at 25 knots. Very incisive, Ambrogio Beccaria snatched the lead for several minutes before Sam Goodchild’s faster manoeuvring enabled the Briton to regain the top spot. 

Evidently, there has been a battle royal throughout the fleet with some slight fluctuations in the wind ensuring that there was no let-up in the intensity of the competition. “I was making fast headway from time to time, but there were quite a few minor transitions and I’m a little disappointed to have dropped back,” admitted Sébastien Simon this morning. Fresh out of the box, his Groupe Dubreuil-Air Caraïbes is however geared up to excel in hard-pressed points of sail thanks to her longitudinal bustle designed by Guillaume Verdier. In actual fact, the naval architect was speaking this morning at the Cité de la Voile Eric Tabarly in Lorient during a series of conferences dedicated to innovation, which were organised within the scope of the Défi Azimut (read the interview on the website). 

 A natural leader with some fierce matches astern

The level of skill among the skippers along with the work carried out by all the teams clearly suggest that the future is still bright for these 2022 foilers, which are always constantly evolving. “We are making 18-19 knots of boatspeed at 65 degrees to the wind and I’m kind of just discovering these conditions with the other boats. It feels like we’re going very, very fast compared to last year or in the Vendée Arctique,” confirmed Ambrogio Beccaria this morning. It’s worth noting that the Allagrande Mapei team has shaved more than 500 kg off the former Vulnérable skippered by Thomas Ruyant, plus they’ve fitted new, longer foils to this Koch-Finot Conq design.

With Charal right on his tail, the Italian was managing to keep pace with Sam Goodchild until the wind eased earlier this morning. In medium and then light airs, accompanied by a swell, the ‘Franco-British’ sailor (as he’s become known by the Frenchies… a complement indeed!) managed to put a dozen miles between him and his rivals in the space of just five hours. A warning, if it were needed, that Macif Santé Prévoyance is still the boss upwind!

However, the faultless performance by Sam Goodchild should not overshadow the epic matches being contested in his wake at the moment. These include that of Violette Dorange (Initiatives Coeur) and Elodie Bonafous (Asssociation Petits Princes-Groupe Quéguiner). “I was really pleased with my speed along the first section, explained Violette at lunchtime in a voice message sent out by her OBR Josselin Didou. Right now, I’m sailing within sight of Elodie as well as Jérémie (Beyou) and Corentin (Horeau). With the big swell and gentle breeze, it’s not easy to get the boat making headway, but the calm weather is also very welcome at this midway point in the race, because after the ridge of high pressure, the breeze will continue to build.”

Slow boat to Lorient

This leading group put in a tack mid-afternoon, so the last five boats are slipping further and further behind. Bringing up the rear, Manuel Cousin has not managed to keep up with the solid pace set by the daggerboard boats. At the head of this group, Café Joyeux is neck and neck with Résilient skippered by Pierre Louis Attwell, who is putting up a confident performance in his first IMOCA race. 

As we go to press, Race Management is continuing to run the routing simulations to see how this little group might shake itself free of the ridge of high pressure. The best-case scenario puts them at the Azimut waypoint at 1:00 pm on Saturday. Given the local forecast of a slow finish, an amendment to the Sailing Instructions was published yesterday to push back the line closure to Sunday at 10:00 am.