No longer in the race after losing the keel: Nick Moloney's "Skandia"
Actually unbelievable - even after more than 20,000 nautical miles, the three leaders of the one-handed regatta, Vincent Riou ("PRB"), Jean Le Cam ("Bonduelle") and Mike Golding, no more than 134 nautical miles apart, sail towards the goal.
The most difficult regatt in the world has still not been decided. After all, the loss of the keel of Nick Moloney's "Skandia" yesterday before Brazil shows once again that the winner will only be known at the finish line in Les Sables d'Olonne.
Vincent Riou is still the first to get closer to the goal. The Frenchman lost a large part of his lead over his first rival Jean Le Cam yesterday because he had continued to orientate towards the northwest. Today, however, it becomes clear why Riou took this alleged detour. At the height (actually, of course, the width) of the Canaries, he is now the first of the leading trio to receive the southerly winds of an approaching low and with their help slides on a direct course towards the Azores and further towards the goal.
So he, who was the first to benefit from these winds, was able to sail another 40 nautical miles ahead of Le Cam in the last night alone. He is now desperately waiting to get the same wind as Riou. It looks even worse for Mike Golding at the moment, who has to fumble between two highs and is now 134 nautical miles behind Riou and 64 nautical miles behind Le Cam.
Nick Moloney, whose "Skandia" lost its keel around 140 nautical miles from Rio de Janeiro yesterday, is now sailing towards the Brazilian metropolis at a boat speed of almost six knots. A motor ship is on its way to him to be towed and safely brought ashore. Tonight he was supposed to reach the city on the Sugar Loaf.
All in all, Moloney was still lucky, as he recognized the risk of losing the keel early on and pumped the middle ballast tank of his ship full of water. Had he been in bad weather at the time or even in the Southern Ocean in a storm, this situation would certainly have been life-threatening for the likeable Australian.
Why the keel finally fell off, whether it was the collision with a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object) a week ago or the sum of the storms (including knock-down) that Nick experienced in the Southern Ocean, can be explained by his Shore crew of Offshore Challenges (the same company that Ellen MacArthur belongs to) only clarified after a thorough inspection in Brazil.
Ranking on Wednesday at 11 a.m.:
1. "PRB", Vincent Riou, 30 ° 40 '92 N, 32 ° 58' 96 W, nautical miles to the destination: 1,728.0 2. "Bonduelle", Jean Le Cam, nautical miles behind leader (ShF): 70.43. "Ecover", Mike Golding, ShF: 134.84. "Temenos", Dominique Wavre, ShF: 982.65. "VMI", Sebastien Josse, ShF: 1,004.86. "Virbac-Paprec", Jean-Pierre Dick, ShF: 2,419.97. "Arcelor Dunkerque", Joé Seeten, ShF: 3,291.98. "Hellomoto", Conrad Humphreys, ShF: 3,468.39. "Ocean Planet", Bruce Schwab, ShF: 3,841.410. "Max Havelaar / Best Western", Benoît Parnaudeau, ShF: 4.183., 911. "Roxy", Anne Liardet, ShF: 5,327.712. "AkenVérandas", Raphaël Dinelli, ShF: 5,653.213. "Benefic", Karen Leibovici, ShF: 6,256.9Abd: "Skandia", Nick MoloneyAbd: "Pro-Form", Marc ThiercelinAbd: "Sill et Véolia", Roland JourdainAbd: "Hugo Boss", Alex ThomsonAbd: "VM Matériaux", Patrice CarpentierAbd: "UUDS", Hervé LaurentAbd: "brother", Norbert Sedlacek