Le
Défi Atlantique - It's Not Over Till It's
Over
STB
TACK - 17 KNOTS - APPROX 140 MILES NW CAPE FINISTERRE
- TEAM COWES 5TH - DISTANCE TO LEADER ECOVER 79
MILES
IN
BRIEF:
*
HIGH PRESSURE COMPRESSES FLEET AND SHUFFLES FRONT
PACK...only a matter of miles separating the top
three now led by Mike Golding (Ecover), Sébastien
Josse (VMI) and Alex Thomson (AT Racing). This
morning's leader, PRB, now in fourth place 12
miles behind Ecover as TEAM COWES pushes to close
the 67 mile gap...
*
FINAL STAGES OF RACE IN UPWIND CONDITIONS TO FINISH
AT LA ROCHELLE...with under 400 miles to go to
the finish, the final stages of this race will
be in upwind conditions to La Rochelle... After
nearly 4,000 miles of racing it will be an incredibly
close finish - Ecover ETA is for Wednesday morning...
*
MOLONEY IN UPBEAT MOOD NOW BACK IN THE FRAY and
believes it's not over until it's over: "There
are potential passing lanes out there - all it
takes if for somone to make a mistake, fall asleep
at the wrong time, miss a wind shift...who knows."
AUDIO CALL NICK MOLONEY - 1500GMT 15.12.03:
Yesterday we could see the high pressure and knew
that this compression of the fleet could happen.
And Joe Seeten is also making huge gains on us
- we have all got to go upwind although he may
reach longer and close up on us even more. When
he eventually goes on wind like we all are I hope
to manage to hold him.
We
are averaging around 9.5 knots with full main
and solent. The wind has built to 17 knots and
we are pretty much in the same conditions - it
is a really tight bunch up at the front. PRB is
suffering a bit right now but expect him to put
in a hard chase in the upwind conditions which
PRB is fast in. VMI is not so flash in the upwind
stuff and I can put some heat on Jo-Jo and maybe
even PRB if they can't get out of the south quickly...
There
are potential passing lanes out there - all it
takes if for somone to make a mistake, fall asleep
at the wrong time, miss a wind shift...who knows.
It
is really, really close and very bizarre to think
of how far we have all come dealing with many
different stresses along the way and it comes
down to just 50 miles in the final stages of this
race...
LE DEFI POSITIONS 15.12.03 1100GMT:
Pos/Skippers Name/Boat Name/Lat/Long/DTL/DTF
1st Mike Golding / Ecover / N443852 / W0095463
/ 0 / 0374.6
2nd Sébastien Josse / VMI/ N444784 / W0100163
/ 2.2 / 0376.8 3rd Alex Thomson / AT Racing /
N444300 / W0100344 / 4.8 / 0379.4 4th Vincent
Riou / PRB / N442308 / W0100567 / 12.2 / 0386.8
5th Nick Moloney / TEAM COWES / N441772 / W0114208
/ 79.4 / 0454.0 6th Joe Seeten / Arcelor-Dunkerque
/ N432204 / W0134808 / 183.7 / 0558.3 7th Benoît
LEQUIN / Wel.network / N374364 / W0221020 / 681.5
/ 1056.1 8th Benoît PARNAUDEAU / Colibri
/ N350128 / W0241068 / 856.8 / 1231.4 9th Anne
LIARDE / Gonna Gitcha / N292104 / W0255188 / 1160.9
/ 1535.5 10th Jean Pierre Dick / Virbac / N232948
/ W0324120 / 1664.5 / 2039.1
For Race Information go to www.defi-atlantique.org
