La Transat Ag2r La Mondiale

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Can we still get in on the contest? I'm for Le Macaron French Pastries!

The contest hasn’t officially kicked off yet. I’ll try to get it posted tomorrow, but my priorities get a bit drifty when I’m on St Barth. There’s roughly 2 weeks left in the race.
 
Contest rules have been posted at https://www.sbhonline.com/forums/showthread.php/93343-Contest-La-Transat-Ag2r-La-Mondiale

The contest opens to entries when the lead boat in about 1000nm from the finish, which is likely to be sometime in the week after next.

The last position fix is posted just before 13:00ET each day, and posts don’t resume until 01:00. The three leading boats continue on a more Northern track, with Bretagne CMB Performance in the lead by about 5nm, with 2327nm to go.

The 11 boats in the main pack are just reaching the Tropic of Cancer, hunting the faster trade winds. Time will tell how far South they go before they make their move and turn to the West. In 2016 some of the boats sailed as far as Cape Verde before they turned.

Les Frigos Solidaires has reached La Palma, and appears to be considering the Northern track.

Concarneau - Solidarité St Barth is off the coast of Morocco, 600nm behind the leader. At present, they are actually the fastest boat, but have a lot of distance to make up.

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8 days in, and just under 2200 miles to go. Both the Northern and Southern groups are heading a bit more to the west. Bretagne CMB Performance maintains a 5nm lead.

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Each day there is a Performance Trophy, given to the team which logs the most miles in a 24-hour period. Le Macaron French Pastries won the award today, logging 183.3 miles. Le Macaron is one of 3 boats with ties to St Barth, by virtue of crew member Miguel Danet. The other two boats with special ties are Les Perles de St Barth and Concarneau - Solidarité St Barth.

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Concarneau - Solidarité St. Barth is in last place, presently just reaching the Canary Islands. They have a new goal - catch and pass the 15th-place boat, which is about 350nm ahead of them.
 
good news for Miguel and Eric aboard Macaron.. I'm rooting for them, having know Miguel since he was knee high to a grasshopper...
 
Agir Recouvrement has taken the lead, but only by 1.1nm. 1859 miles to go.

The Northern and Southern groups are converging. In 1 or 2 days they’ll be together. The question is who will be in the lead. Will it be northern leader Agir Recouvrement, or perhaps southern leader Armor Lux - Gedimat?

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The two groups have converged, and the main pack is now strung out over 153nm. The northern boats proved to have made the better route choice, and Agir Recouvrement is in the lead, with 1654nm to go.

The contest will be open for entries in another few days, once the lead boat is approximately 1000nm from the finish.

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Agir Recouvrement, the race leader, has sailed 214 miles in the last 24 hours. At that pace, the contest will open for entries sometime on Sunday morning, when the lead boat will be approximately 1000 miles from the finish. The contest will remain open until at least sometime on Tuesday, when the lead boat will be approximately 500 miles from the finish.

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If you look at the left side of the images, you'll see Distance To First, or how far each of the trailing boats are behind the leader. It's starting to tighten up a bit. Yesterday morning, the 7th-place boat was 72nm back. This morning, the 7th-place boat is 58nm back, having gained 14 miles on the leader in 24 hours. You'll also see gains by the 2nd through 6th-place boats.
 
The first of the northern boats has been reeled in by two of the southern boats. Group Royer has dropped to 5th place, passed by Breizh Cola and Guyot Environnement. Agir Recouvrement still holds the lead, but it’s shrinking.

At this pace, the contest will be open for entries as of 09:00ET on Sunday.

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Naturally, we are pulling fro Groupe ROYER....

:cool:

We were there two years ago to watch the celebration of the boats as they arrived. Very exciting, and a great place to go late night to welcome the weary sailors to St Barth.
 
Naturally, we are pulling fro Groupe ROYER....

:cool:

We were there two years ago to watch the celebration of the boats as they arrived. Very exciting, and a great place to go late night to welcome the weary sailors to St Barth.

I have good friends with that name in St Tropez--how could I not cheer this same boat on to victory?
 
Naturally, we are pulling fro Groupe ROYER....

:cool:

We were there two years ago to watch the celebration of the boats as they arrived. Very exciting, and a great place to go late night to welcome the weary sailors to St Barth.

Make a contest entry at https://www.sbhonline.com/forums/showthread.php/93343 Amy has picked that boat, but you can pick it too - just pick a date/time that is at least one hour different from Amy's date/time.
 
By rule, the race map site goes dark each day at 13:00ET, and starts updating again at 23:00ET. In the most recent 10-hour "dark" period, leader Agir Recovrement has sailed 99nm. The closest competitor, Bretagne CMB Performance, has gained 1.5nm, cutting Agir’s lead in half. Breizh Cola and Guyot Environnement are neck and neck, with Breizh losing 3nm on the leader, and Guyot gaining 3nm. NF Habitat has dropped back 2nm. Groupe Royer - Secours Populaire, the SBHOnline sentimental favorite in the race contest, has gained 2nm on the leader. Armor Lux -Gedimat is 50nm back, having gained 3nm on the leader.

I still contend that any of the top 7-8 boats can win this. There are still 856nm left to sail, and there's a big potential problem hanging out there for all of the boats - Sargassum. Sargassum on the keel or the rudders will slow them down. Avoiding it is best, detecting and removing it is second best. Failing to detect it will move a boat into the slow lane.

The SBHOnline contest to pick the winner is open for entries, and three have been made. The prize is a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, to be picked up at the WIMCO SBH office in St Barth on your next visit. I’ve added to that by including a rare Veuve Clicquot Saint-Barth Arrow Tin from my personal VC swag collection.

The contest can be found at https://www.sbhonline.com/forums/showthread.php/93343-Contest-La-Transat-Ag2r-La-Mondiale and entries will remain open only until the lead boat is within 500 miles of the finish, or 09:00ET Tuesday, whichever is later.

As of 23:00ET on Sunday:

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As of the 13:00ET position fix, Agir Recouvrement is still holding on to the lead, with 715nm to go until the finish line. Bretagne CMB Performance is only 1.8nm back, but they can’t quite close the gap and overtake Agir Recouvrement.

Breizh Cola gained 8nm on the leader overnight, and is 3rd place. Groupe Royer and Guyot Environnement have both caught up by a few miles. “Le Macarons” are still holding onto 8th place.

Farther back, Les Perles de Saint Barth is in 9th (-112nm), and Smurfit Kappa - Cerfrance has taken 10th place (-112nm) from the ladies on Teamwork (-128nm).

The last two boats are 15th-place Les Frigos Solidaires (-454nm), and Cournuaille - Solidarité St Barth (-833nm). They may finish 3-4 days behind the winner, but they will finish.

Looking at ovenight reports, there were some squalls overnight, with winds of up to 33 knots. Thoughts turn to the race finish in a few days, and there is discussion of the best wind direction for the various teams as it gets closer. There is also talk of sargassum appearing, and having to frequently clean it off of the rudders.

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Those winds aloft would blow them back to Africa! When I dropped the view down to look at surface-level winds it looked much closer to the winds on the race website.

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