Sunday Morning News

There is no leadership change this morning on the Transat Paprec. Skipper MACIF (Loïs Berrehar / Charlotte Yven) are up front ahead of second placed Mutuelle Bleue (Corentin Horeau / Pauline Courtois) who are just 3.8 miles behind and  Région Bretagne – CMB Performance (Gaston Morvan/Anne-Claire Le Berre) are third, 5.6 miles behind on the Sunday breakfast ranking. And all three are now under 1000 miles to the finish line in Saint Barths.

 “The pressure is on this leading group which is really within six miles of each other. Skipper MACIF probably no longer sees Région Bretagne – CMB Performance on the AIS, but there is only an 8-mile gap laterally, which is very small on the scale of a transatlantic race. They will meet again as and when they line up.” says Francis Le Goff, the Race Director. “They are sailing in 12-13 knots of wind with small variations that they will exploit as soon as they can turn a little to starboard”.

If the leading trio maybe seems impregnable, there will still be chances for the pursuing pack led by Région Normandie. "It's up to Guillaume and Sophie, and Camille and Pierre to play the game now. They have to find very small moves to reduce the lateral separation because when we do their routing to Saint-Barthélemy, the seeming 32.7 mile delay of Région Normandie to the leaders Skipper MACIF translates into only a 1 hour gap at the finish . There are still possibilities for these two boats to find solutions to catch up. They will have to try”, suggests Francis Le Goff.

"It's going to be interesting to watch how they are going to take small starboard gybes as the day goes on to make up the miles to the long port tack," says Francis Le Goff. “Then it will be pure speed until next Friday, when the first boats are expected between 08:00 and 12:00 local time.”