It won’t be easy navigating the last few miles of the Vendée – Arctique – Les Sables d’Olonne! A front, which is accompanying the skippers out at sea, is generating fickle westerly winds of around 15 knots, which means the sailors have to be on top of the trimming and glued to the helm to maintain a good angle…

The head of the fleet is currently playing cat and mouse with a front, which caught up with them on the evening of 13 July and is now slowing up as it makes landfall along the Breton coast. It is not violent. In fact, the winds are actually rather light on the leading edge of the front. They also have more westing in them where the leaders are making headway, a direction less favourable for fast boat speed. As such, the competitors are stumbling into it. It remains to be seen whether they’ll manage to overtake it again in the late afternoon or not. If they do pull this off, they’ll be able to cross the finish line this 14 July from 22:00 hours local time in a WNW’ly wind. If the breeze is too light in the front, the whole of the leading group will stumble up against the back end of the front. In the latter scenario, we may well witness a bunched finish slightly after midnight, which is the time the front is forecast to roll over the top of Les Sables d’Olonne.

Christian Dumard and Squid