While the Imoca, the Ocean Fifty and the Class 40 are still sheltered in Normandy (Le Havre) for the first and Brittany (Lorient) for the other two and a departure is not envisaged before the start of next week due to the weather, the giants of the seas have been sailing at high speed due south over the last twenty-four hours with averages of around 35 knots with peaks of 42-43 knots.
Saturday morning, as she entered the Doldrums where speeds risk dropping in a feared zone where the winds are very often unpredictable, the Le Cléac’h-Josse pair continued to dominate the debates. At 9:00 a.m., Maxi Banque Populaire was almost a hundred miles ahead of their first pursuer, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild helmed by Charles Caudrelier and Erwan Israel (precisely 98 miles). SVR Lazartigue, third, was even 160 miles away.
Behind the leading trio, Sodebo Ultim 3 of Thomas Coville and Thomas Rouxel is 234 miles behind and Actual Ultime in the hands of Anthony Marchand and Thierry Chabagny is 351 miles behind. All these little people are rushing in single file towards the island of Sao Paolo and Sao Pedro and should reach Ecuador on Sunday.