Rhut De Rhum- Multihulls to finish later this week
    The fleet leading multi hulls are under
1,000 miles to sail to the finish. The leader is
Laurent BOURGNON sailing Primagaz. 2nd is Alain
Gautier sailing Broceliande, 27 miles back of Primagaz.
3rd is Marc GUILLEMOT on Biscuits La Trinitaine,
43 miles out of 1st. In 4th is Franck CAMMAS sailing
Groupama, 115 miles back.
    It looks as though these are the 4 mariners
with a chance for overall victory.
    Leading yacht of the mono hull fleet is
Algimouss sailed by Jean Luc Van Den Hede. He has
1675 miles to sail to the finish in Guadaloupe.
Next is Aquitaine Innovation sailed by Thomas Coville
30 miles back. Catherine CHABAUD on Whirpool is 3rd
52 miles behind Aligimouss. All of these mono
hulls are 60 footers.
    In 6th place in the monohulls is Great
Britain's Ellen MacAthur on the 50 footer Kingfisher.
Kingfisher leads Class 2 by 177 miles.
    Kingfisher has had an arduous race. On the
night of the 12th Kingfisher sailed in winds of
65 knots. Shore based weather router Andrew Cape
called for Ellen to tack to take advantage of a shift.
Normally not a problem. However, after 2 tries in
the screaming wind and pitch black Ellen had not
made it happen. She took time out to get on the
sat phone and contact shore.
    Two hours later she had managed to tack
Kingfisher. Ellen descibed the tack this way:
"last night was incredible. The mental and physical
energy required to get the boat through that tack in
one piece was immense. But we made it. You can't
know how good it is just to say I made it through
the night."
    Currently the winds have lightended
considerably. Kingfishers current speed is only
4.3 knots. Still, Ellen's latest report makes it
clear how hard the race has been: "I'm feeling far
cherpier right now than before. It's been a fairly
full on 24hrs, but I have rested, and feel better
for it. My hands and wrists are in quite a bad
state, covered in salt sores, and cuts....Had
the usual anihilation session too. Took 1 hr to get
No. 1 Yankee into cockpit, it weighs twice me!...Light
airs now though. Testing ground."
    Expect the first multi hulls to finish within
3 days. For more Rhut De Rum please see:
http://www.rhum.org/eng &
http://www.offshorechallenges.com