La Charente Maritime Bahia Transat 6.50 - Raison unstoppable

6:58 AM Fri 28 Oct 2011 GMT

'Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50' La Charente-Maritime /Bahia Transat 6.50

David Raison (747 - TeamWork Evolution) is sailing one knot faster than those chasing him and continues to increase his lead over the La Charente Maritime Bahia Transat 6.50 fleet. An arrival in Salvador de Bahia on Sunday evening is now a possibility.

The fight for the heir's place is fiercer than ever. Unpredictable: the struggle between production boats with 10 leading boats in thirty miles.

24 hours ago, Benoit Mariette (599 - Odalys Vacances), on the direct route seemed able to capitalize his dozen miles lead, to make certain his chances of victory in Salvador de Bahia. But the doldrums that again triggered important storm phenomena with squalls to over 45 knots, has dealt cards again for a compact group of 10 sailors. Benoit Lauri?re (539 - teamkalonig.com), 33 miles from the leader closes this small group. Today's leader is Cl?ment Bouyssou (514 - Douet Distribution). Benoit Mariette was cast-off in the fourth place and sees in his wake Davy Beaudart (674 - Innovea Environnement) that stubbornly defends his chances for the podium in the great final sprint.

Vincent Kerbouriou (435 - CGGVeritas), tired of contemplating for several days now, Cl?ment Bouyssou's boat transom, has begun to slip leeward of the leader. Neck and neck, the two young sailors, delighted with the dirty trick made to Mariette, cause even more difficulties to their opponents. One naturally thinks to Jean-Marie Oger (774 - Forest Brazil - E.Leclerc) who is trying hard - with his third place - to forget his disappointment in Funchal (45th). But also to Robert Rosen Jacobson (602 - NED602), which celebrated a few days ago his 57th birthday, and who is less than 10 miles behind the leading duo, Kerbouriou-Bouyssou, he shows every day without complex, his new ambitions. Renaud Mary (535 - runo.fr) imperceptibly and safely erases the gap caused by his west option. Spared by the rough squalls of the last 24 hours, he can hope to participate to the last momentum of bravery in the South Atlantic. All of them, will indeed 'switch' tomorrow morning. There, the southeast trade winds will finally offer them some nice acceleration.

If, as we just mentioned, the final podium of the series classe remains totally uncertain, it seems the Protos have tonight, to be used warily, only one name in mind, that of David Raison, of which TeamWork Evolution (747) commands admiration more and more each day.

Off the island of Fernando da Noronha, David can smell the first South American's scents. Bahia is now only about 670 miles away from him, to his current speed that means a little more than three days at sea.

Thomas Normand (787 - Financi?re de l'Echiquier) at eighth place in Funchal, just over five hours of the podium, knows - since the withdrawal of S?bastien Rogues (716 - Eole Generation - GDF SUEZ) on the 19th of October - that he reaches out for a result to Bahia.

Jorg Riechers (753 - Mare.de) and Etienne David (679 - TeamWork), ninth and sixth, are currently significantly off the pace. Bertrand Delesne (754 - Zone Large) also made concessions last night. 'Beber' has managed, anyway, to overtake the astonishing Antoine Rioux (800 - Festival des Pains) that is now at the fourth place. His next chaser is none other than Lucas Montagne (618 - ONG Conseil), former President of the Classe Mini, who achieves an authentic performance thanks to his option very west of the pack. He is able to overtake the group led by Etienne David, Jorg Richers and Guillaume Le Brec (667 - OCCAMAT / ADT), all driven by the podium's hopes.

La Charente Maritime Bahia Transat 6.50 website

by La Charente Maritime Bahia Transat 6.50