Global Ocean Race -Getting south in a big hurry

There is a very real sense of urgency in the double-handed Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet as the high-pressure system north-east of the Falklands continues to sprawl across the western side of the South Atlantic and threatens to slam the door on the majority of the Class40s. At the front of the fleet, Campagne de France and BSL continue to hammer south in north-easterly breeze with Ross and Campbell Field finding the sweet spot on BSL early on Tuesday morning, picking up speed to over 12 knots and chiselling away relentlessly at the lead held by Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron, reeling in Campagne de France by six miles under the cover of darkness and shadowing the leaders by 44 miles pre-dawn on Tuesday in increasingly harsh conditions.

North of the leaders by 460 miles, Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon polled the highest speed averages overnight in third place peaking at 13 knots around midnight with their Akilaria RC2, Cessna Citation, sailing deep and west, 400 miles off the coast of Brazil. Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs – keeping the distance to Colman and Ramon steady at around 90 miles – were sailing slightly higher and slower in 16 knots of breeze on Financial Crisis in fourth place, but were averaging ten knots throughout Tuesday and getting some easting in the bank.

On the South African Class40, Phesheya-Racing in fifth place, Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton-Squire encountered slightly lighter breeze south of Fernando de Noronha and have sailed deeper, keeping up the pace to just below ten knots, but dropping back 40 miles behind Nannini and Peggs in 24 hours and trailing Financial Crisis by 168 miles at 06:00 GMT on Tuesday. At 20:00 GMT on Monday, the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk in sixth with Sec. Hayai crossed the Fastnet Marine Insurance Scoring Gate and immediately hardened up, making between eight and nine knots and pushing to the south-east rather than dropping directly south.