A stalled weather front off the Azores has cracked the Route du Rhum fleet wide open overnight, splitting the IMOCA and Ocean Fifty classes in two and handing one French skipper an escape route his rivals never saw.
Corentin Horeau, sailing MACSF, pulled off what race organisers are calling a genuine heist. While the rest of the IMOCA fleet ground to a halt in a windless trough north of the Azores, Horeau approached the system from the south and found a lane through it. He is now sliding along at more than 20 knots while his nearest rivals sit stalled at barely 3 knots. His lead has stretched past 80 miles, and nobody quite knows when it will stop growing.
Sam Goodchild, caught further north in the fleet, has dropped to seventh after being parked up. Sébastien Simon, on Groupe Dubreuil Air Caraïbes, is the most northerly IMOCA and is similarly stuck searching for an exit. Francesca Clapcich, on 11th Hour Racing, moves up to second on the revised standings, with Boris Herrmann's Malizia 4 climbing to fourth.
In the Ultim class, Tom Laperche on SVR Lazartigue has built a lead of more than 60 miles over Banque Populaire XI after 48 hours of relentless multihull sailing. Louis Burton, on Armand Thierry, has overtaken Thomas Coville's Sodebo Ultim 3 after what appeared to be a technical hitch for the veteran Frenchman. Both are now more than 200 miles off the pace.
The race, though, is far from decided. The leaders face a ridge crossing tonight that should compress the gaps again, followed by a shift to south-westerly wind. "There's still nearly four days of racing left, with plenty of transitions, and anything can happen," said Sébastien Josse, part of the routing team for Maxi Banque Populaire XI. Sea conditions remain tough, with 3.5 metre swells testing both boats and sailors.
In Ocean Fifty, Basile Bourgnon leads with calm authority, his margin breathing in and out with each gybe. Three back-markers, Le Rire Médecin Lamotte, Lazare X Hellio and La French Fab, gambled on a direct southern route this morning and could now regroup with Anne-Claire Le Berre's Upwind by Mer Concept near the Cetacean Vigilance Zone around the Azores.
Further back, the Class40 and Vintage fleets are still roughly 600 miles from the Azores, sailing in patchy wind on the edge of a large high-pressure system. A complex, slow-moving depression is forecast to form over the islands within 36 hours, bringing strong winds and seas up to four metres. Race director Francis Legoff described it as unusual, noting that it stays largely stationary rather than drifting east.
Among the smaller boats, Kieran Le Borgne on Armor Lux-Le Finistère Assurances has retaken the Vintage Mono lead, just ahead of Sidney Gavignet's Le Cigare Rouge. Jean Le Cam, aboard the Swan Alegria, is sailing deep downwind with his genoa poled out, trimming miles while rivals reach from side to side. "Good roller, good walker," he said of his boat in a video, an old sailor's phrase for hulls that rock gently rather than slam, and for a fleet still hunting its way through the Azores, it could stand as the line of the day.
