Route du Rhum

From Francis Joyon vacation (in french) this afternoon : 20 knots of Wind, high mainsail and great gennaker, about 34 knots at the speedo, he is a bit faster that when in crew with the previous version of the boat, because she is lighter, He knows that he is faster than Macif since 2-3 hours, due probably to locally different wind, but anyway the chance to come back is very small, except if the final round the Guadeloupe is very troublesome for Macif.
Skippers' Communications | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/skippers-communications

Ultim race analysis :
Gabart on course to smash race record | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/news/781

… and the last cartography :
Cartography | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/cartography

 

Suspens suspens, …. at each new hour Idec shows a better speed, 5 to 6 knots better last hour : is he a volontary strategy from a cold blood Gabart to maintain a cautious 25-26 knots, an "ultim" effort from Joyon to hard sail at 31-32 knots, the final day tomorrow could be more tighter than expected. Again, hats off to Francis Joyon, at 62, his 8th Route du Rhum, on the boat already twice winner (in 2006 under the name of Groupama with Frank Cammas, in 2010 under the name of Banque Populaire with Loick Peron) to perform like that.
In Imoca : Hugo Boss still the faster but on a quite North route, his 3 followers are putting more South in their routes, that could be a problem at term for Alex to cover them, to maintain his boat between them and the arrival line. It is the normal strategy for Yann Elies, he cannot fear to loss his 4th place and could try to disturb the route decision of the other threes.
Cartography | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/cartography

 

I wonder if Francois has stuff wrong we don't know about?

 

Joyon has now halved the gap - from 120nm to 55 with 260nm to go & he is travelling 8kts faster ! a.t.m
could be a very close finish after all those miles ...

 

From Francois Gabart communication this morning : there is still squalls but less than the last night, the wind has some fluctuation, he stay near the helm and ready to adjust the sails. He is preparing to a difficult final round the island, he fear erratic winds, there is a buoy very near the coast, the race is not finished.
Gabart com, at 5h00 : https://www.routedurhum.com/en/skippers-communications
News on the finish :Gabart: It promises to be a thrilling finish… 
 | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/news/795
The last cartography :
Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://tracking.routedurhum.com/

 

It looks like Francois can no longer use his great gennaker...

 

Idec now just 36 NM behind Macif and 9 Knots faster during the last hour, with 218 Miles still to run. It seems that Macif has a serious speed problem.
Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://tracking.routedurhum.com/

 

Macif 28.2 kts, IDEC 29.2 . IDEC 21m back. Macif a little over 5.5 hours to the finish but the tricky round the island part is ahead.

 

He may have been making repairs. Battens perhaps. He's back up to speed, now within a knot of Idec.

 

Looks to me like Francois will have to tack before too long and that will give Francis another chance to catch up..... Going to get real exciting.
As well as IDEC has done I'm afraid there is a problem on board Macif-I hope Francois can keep ahead and win!

 

Now that Macif is inside the 30 NM zone, the tracking is updated every 5 mn !
Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://tracking.routedurhum.com/

 

Macif at last reveals the problems : losses of the starboard foil and of the port rudder, since the first 2 days !
Gabart's Team confirm foil and rudder losses on MACIF | Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe https://www.routedurhum.com/en/news/837

 

Wow!!

 

The wind is said very light on the lee side of the island, Basse Terre buoy will be terrible to turn !

 

Oh, man-light is right! This could take hours and hours. And it takes so long to tack or gybe these things...
UPDATE: Gabart-2.6kts, Joyon 14.4!! IDEC has 7.8 m to go to catch Gabart.....Gabart has 29m to go to the finish.