Global Ocean Race - leaders close in on the Equator

As the double-handed, Class40 leaders in the Global Ocean Race (GOR) dig into the South-East Trades, the two mid-fleet boats are snared by the Doldrums with the fleet tail-enders piling into the pack. Overnight and into Wednesday morning, Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron succeeded in pushing their Pogo 40S² Class40 Campagne de France around one knot faster than Ross and Campbell Field on BSL, banking an extra handful of miles between sunset and sunrise and leading the GOR fleet by 28 miles at dawn. Conrad Colman and Hugo Ramon, in third with Cessna Citation, dug into the Doldrums early on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning, speeds were falling to below three knots with their new Akilaria RC2, dropping the New Zealand-Spanish team back to 228 miles behind BSL.

For Marco Nannini and Paul Peggs, entering the Doldrums saw a rapid loss of speed and miles following impressive gains as their relatively heavy first generation Akilaria Financial Crisis dropped to just over one knot of boatspeed losing 44 miles to Colman and Ramon in 24 hours and trailing Cessna Citation by 114 miles on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the fleet’s two other first generation Akilarias, Phesheya-Racing in fifth and Sec. Hayai in sixth, were piling down from the north in decreasing breeze, taking a massive 100 miles from Nannini and Peggs in 24 hours as the Italian-British team remained stalled.

Nick Leggatt and Phillippa Hutton slowed at midnight on Phesheya-Racing as they ran into the 200-mile wide band of light airs trapping Cessna Citation and Financial Crisis. By dawn on Wednesday, the South Africans where making below three knots, trying to head west away from the wind vacuum as the Dutch duo of Nico Budel and Ruud van Rijsewijk with Sec. Hayai closed up the gap to 16 miles behind Leggatt and Hutton-Squire.

Throughout Wednesday, Campagne de France and BSL averaged between eight and nine knots with Mabire and Merron gradually adding to the distance ahead of Ross and Campbell Field with BSL. By 15:00 GMT both Class40s were making nine knots with the distance deficit at 31 miles.