Retour à La Base: the final front-ier and how to follow the arrivals?
One more big front will affect the majority of the Retour à La Base fleet. The top three are due in over the weekend, leader Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) from mid afternoon Saturday and second placed Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Sam Goodchild (For The Planet) during the night into Sunday morning.
For them ahead of the front it will be a hard day, Richomme sailing in warm front right now with some rain.
“They will have strong winds, and quite a bit of rain already,” analyzes meteorologist Christian Dumard.
Well to the north of the fleet Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) is profiting from his move but he will see significantly more wind than those to his south, perhaps up to 50kts in the gusts this evening. “Louis is holding up well making a good 20 knots and again shows all his experience in tough conditions as showed in the last Vendée Globe,”highlights Christian Dumard.
Further south the group around Isabelle Joschke (MACSF) should be a little less affected with means around 30 knots and 45 in the gusts. And it won’t be easy for Seb Simon who is still stopped in Flores in the Azores, he too will see over 40kts.
The rear of the fleet, nearly 1000 miles behind Paprec Arkéa, Tanguy Le Turquais (Lazare) and co will get the depression earlier in the afternoon. They could still experience gusts of 45 knots , which won't make it fun. “They will have to gybe at some point so as not to end up in the anticyclone,”Christian Dumard emphasizes.
2500 miles behind, Jean Le Cam (Tout Commence en Finistère – Armor-lux) begins his northwards climb in a modest trade wind. The trades are affected by the extension of this same Atlantic low creating lots of squalls and rain for the veteran French skipper.
How to follow the arrivals?
LIVE:
Arrival of the 1st Saturday 9 December, between 1pm and 5pm (to be confirmed) - local time (CET)
On:
> the retouralabase.com website
> Lorient Grand Large's Youtube page
> the social networks of the race, Lorient Grand Large and the IMOCA class
On the tracker:
> Every 5 minutes from 50 miles from the finish.
On site in Lorient La Base
Teams info
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