Rhythm of the Race A spread out fleet sees varying sailing modes.  Leader PRB is sailing at 13 knots, 7th place Whirlpool at .99 knots.

Standings table 

Top 3

1.  PRB 12 South 26 West
2.  Kingfisher 13 South 28 West + 96 miles 
3.  Active Wear  20 South 30 West +512 miles
 
Fleet round up section

Day 75 sees the front of the fleet still split in match racing pairs. Michel Desjoyeaux has added 8 miles to PRB's lead over Kingfisher.  This could grow as he is currently 1 knot faster than Kingfisher.

In the second pair its advantage to 3rd place Active Wear which is .3 knots faster than Sill.

6th place Sobedo at 7.2 knots is several knots faster than UBP which is 21 miles ahead.

8th place EBP-Gartmore has a knot advantage over Group 4.

Skipper Communications

Marc Thiercelin Active Wear "Hats off to Ellen, really. She has the talent and a top boat. She may not have done anything radical to get near Michel but has just been atomic on pure boat speed... To be honest, I expect to see a tight run finish. My prediction, it was to see the top 5 boats within 48 hours. I think I might be right! It was sort of foreseeable. Well, in two days I hope to come back with more adventures!"


Josh Hall EBP-Gartmore "I hope we can get an opportunity with the weather to get an attack going on Whirlpool before the north Atlantic. If I can lose 1000 miles in 2 weeks due to the weather, so can she!!"

Mike Golding Group 4 "The weather forecasts have been dreadful for the last 5 days, so the only good one I can rely on is the one I see looking outside the door! I can’t have a long term strategy as the model hasn’t been playing the game! Whichever the source, GRIB files or Internet, they’re all wrong! I’m losing faith in these forecasts, but despite being skeptical, I’m going on the right hand side of the track, firmly what I’m doing based on the long term models."


Bernard Gallay Voila Fr. "I am sailing upwind. Yesterday was an exceptional day, I spent two hours at 19 knots in the west of the Falklands. I dried my clothes."

Yves Parlier Aquitaine Innovations "I have done well, some 18 knots average but now the wind has dropped a bit and I am doing 10 knots ."

Ellen Macarthur Kingfisher "I’m happy doing this race, but it’s not over yet, still 4000 miles to go. It would be perfect if I could finish in the top 5! It’ll be a hard race to the finish. Of course, I’m watching Mich and he’s watching me, that’s racing."

Current Weather A mixed bag of forecasts and actual conditions for the boats along South America.

Weather Forecast Slowing up for the leaders as they approach the Doldrums.

What does it all mean

Adding 8 miles in 24 hours equates to .3 miles per hour.  It is by such small margins that places will be decided.