© Photo : Stéphanie Gaspari \ n.c. Acadia after demasting... Double duel… Leaders of each category, prototypes and production boats, have broke away from their pursueurs being more than thirty NM ahead when they only have 300 left on this Saturday afternoon. But the winer is still unknown between Adrien Hardy and Andraz Mihelin in prototypes, Hervé Piveteau and Francisco Lobato in production boats… The wind is really lighter for the leaders of the race, turning East to North East as the fleet is getting closer to the Azores Archipelago. Anyway, thanks to these twelve knots wind, the average speed is of almost eight knots on the rhumb line. But from now, they have to think about the landing and anticipate the jibes that they will have to cumulate to ward off the hills. As hours go by, Adrien Hardy (Brossard) has made up metre by metre and is now only half a mile of the leader of the race Les Sables – Les Açores – Les Sables this Saturday, midday. But most of all, he is more south than the Slovenian Andraz Mihelin (Adria Mobil Too), so he will be in a better position to approach the Archipelago. Because, logically the wind will turn East and still decrease till some ten knots even less for the leaders. The end of the course is thus going to be a real duel, and nobody can tell the end. Behind, they are five boats fighting for the third place David Sineau (Bretagne Lapins), François Salabert (Aréas Assurances), Fabien Despres (Soitec), Isabelle Joschke (Degrémont) et Kristian Hanjsek (Adria Mobil), they should arrive in Horta some ten hours later than the winner of this 1 270 NM long first leg. Regarding the production boats, the first two will probably finish among the first ten in overall ranking ! Reamarkable achievement for these Pogo-2, less fast than the prototypes, especially downwind… Here also, the duel between Hervé Piveteau (Jules) and Francisco Lobato (BPI) is far from being over : they are some ten miles distant, but like in prototypes, the Portuguese is better located in the South of his direct opponent. Behind them, Antoine Debled (ADD Modules) and Jean-François Quélen (Galanz) are in first place for the third position, more than 6 hours later than the eventual winner of the production boats ranking. The end of the race looks less tricky for the pack as the Azores high pressure is strengthening going up, which means that the North-easterly wind is going to be stronger and speeds will remain high till the Azores. This is good news for the end of the fleet as Marie Christine de Brugière (Lady Jim), who has left again Les Sables d’Olonne two days after, is still 800 NM far from the finishing …. For your information, the Race Office is on its way to Faial, finishing of this first leg of the race Les Sables – Les Açores – Les Sables, there will be no other release today, just to have the time to install the Race office in Horta. DBo. & AM.  dimanche 6 août 2006 Brèves : Fabienne Robin est arrivée Vol 774 pour Les Sables Bruno Simonnet et Marc Vertes sont arrivés Benoît Lenglet est arrivé Les trois mousquetaires Vidéos : Clip vidéo Remise des prix 28 août aux Sables Arrivée de Véronique Loisel aux Sables Arrivée de Pascal Chombart de Lauwe Téléchargement : ... Embarquez ... :  Vous souhaitez embarquer sur un bateau accompagnateur... RSS feeds Réalisation : Adonnante.com | Design : fabienne.est.une.indienne | Hébergement : BleuRoy.com