Arkéa Ultim Challenge - Brest day 26 morning update
by Andi Robertson 1 Feb 2024 08:09 UTC
1 February 2024
Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim 3) arrived in Hobart last night to start his technical stopover, suspending racing at 1857hrs UTC. With a big storm passing through, looking at the sea state it seems very unlikely he will leave before Sunday 4th.
Charles Caudrelier (Maxi Edmond de Rothschild) is at Point Nemo, or the Ocean Point of Inaccessibility this morning, the most remote point on the world's oceans in terms of distance to permanently inhabited land. It is 2688kms from land in each direction, to the Pitcairn Islands, Easter Islands and to Maher Island in Antarctica. Caudrelier is in a strong, unstable southerly very cold airflow. He is heading directly east towards Cape Horn where he is expected to reach between Monday and Tuesday, regulating his speed to avoid the worst of the bad weather expected. Tomorrow he will be between the centres of two low pressure which by tomorrow will mean a difficult day in light, unstable winds. Right now he is more than five days ahead of Coville and Armel Le Cléac'h (Maxi Banque Populaire XI).
Le Cléac'h passed the longitude of South East Point Tasmania last night at 21:30:50 UTC to enter into the Pacific but since then he had made his way north to the lee of Australia where he is believed to be carrying out some kind of repairs. He has been making between 2.5 and 4.5kts off Eden but he arrived at more than 30kts, sailed an 841 miles 24 hour passage a couple of days ago and was second quickest in the Indian so any problems seem unlikely to be major. His team have only said he is 'checking the boat'. Likewise he has the same stormy conditions to the south of Tasmania and New Zealand and when he does get going again the fastest route is through the Cook Strait between North and South Islands.
At slow speeds in moderate winds Anthony Marchand has passed the Kerguelen Islands Actual Ultim 3 is looking for more wind, and in fifth Éric Péron is in a high pressure system too and making slow speeds.
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