| Douguet takes Mini lead |
Corentin Douguet, the winner of the first leg of the Transatlantic race 6.50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia has, overnight, taken the lead of the second leg.
Douguet sailing E Leclerc-Bouygues Telecom has taken six places in the last 24 hours, and now, two and a half days since the start from Puerto Calero in Lanzarote, is back in control heading down the African coast. However, less than a mile behind is Stanislas Maslard on Credit Agricole Skipper Challenge who has also progressed through the leading bunch overnight from ninth to second. Infact racing is so close at the front of the fleet that less than five miles separate the top seven boats.
Yvan Noblet sailing Appart City who had a good start and was leading the fleet yesterday, is now in third place. While Tobias Hochreutner, the Swiss/British sailor on Complete Freight who was lying third yesterday lost out overnight and is now in 14th.
The wayward trio - Nick Bubb (Whittlebury Hall), Phil Sharp (Le Gallais), Jaime Mumbru (Ulisses 65) - who spent yesterday heading out to the west on a massive flyer are now heading south again. Although their interesting decision to break from the fleet looked disastrous yesterday - losing over 60 places in less than 24 hours and are now over 200 miles behind the leading bunch - it's still too early to write them off. Having committed themselves to the west, they need to monopolise on their situation and try to stay in the strongest band of wind around the Azores High to where the expected position of the Doldrums is narrowest. Maybe Bubb, Sharp and Mumbru intend to get as far west as possible and slip through one Trade wind system to the other with the least fuss.
Sue Pelling/Yachting World, 11 October 2005
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