| Douguet snatches mini lead |
Last night he was 10 miles behind, this morning Corentin Douguet, Mini Transat race favourite, is three miles ahead of his closest rival Alex Pella on Open Sea/Team Work in the Transat 6.50 Charente-Maritime/Bahia.
Now settled into the south-east Trade Winds Douguet aboard Point Mariagehas managed to pick up a shift out to the west and slip through Pella's lead overnight.
With still 520 miles to the finish however, it's still early days and with the likes of Isabelle Joschke on Degremont following the same track as Pella, in third place, and the young dinghy sailor, Adrien Hardy on Brossard less than 100 miles astern of the leader, the next few days leading up to the finish off Bahia, will prove particularly interesting.
The leading British sailor, Phil Sharp aboard Le Gallais who finished Leg 1 in fourth place, is also one to watch if his recent display of tactical racing is anything to go by. Sharp who found himself down in the 60s after the first 24 hours of the second leg after taking a flyer out west, has spent the last 14 days effectively climbing up the fleet to a respectable top 10 position. He now has a possible chance of an overall podium position, or even second overall, if he can retain his sixth place on this leg.
Yves Le Blevec's misfortune of losing his mast on Saturday has helped Sharp's quest because now, of the three boats that finished ahead of him in leg one, only the winner, Douguet, is ahead of him at this stage. The final classification is calculated on time difference over both legs.
The first boats are due in Salvador in the early hours of Thursday morning (local time).
Sue Pelling/Yachting World, 24 October 2005
|
| |
|
