Groupama are eyeing up a weekend victory celebration in New Zealand as they lead by 95 nautical miles (nm) with less than 450 nm to go to the finish of Leg 4 from China.
“We are thinking about the victory a little bit, but it’s far from over” Thomas Coville - watch captain, Groupama sailing team
However Franck Cammas' French crew are taking nothing for granted as they count down the miles to Auckland.
“We will live in the moment, each hour and each watch, and we’ll see at the end how that plays out. A race is only over once you have crossed the finish line,” watch leader Thomas Coville said today.
Coville said the Groupama crew, exhausted from more than two and a half weeks of exposure to the elements, lack of sleep and the high level of concentration needed to fend off attacks from the fleet, had been reinvigorated by the chance to claim their first offshore victory in the race but remained vigilant nevertheless.
“We are thinking about the victory a little bit, but it’s far from over," he said.
Reaching stronger winds first gave the French team a jump on their competitors as a new weather system moves east, leaving the trailing boats in decreasing winds.
Second placed Team Telefónica, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG in third and CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand in fourth are also expected to get into the fresher south east winds today.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in fifth and Team Sanya in sixth could both be set to make gains by sailing a more direct route to Cape Reinga on the northern tip of New Zealand’s North Island.
The scrap for third place is heating up between PUMA and CAMPER with just 23 nm separating the pair at 1300 UTC after PUMA endured a second consecutive night of “raincloud induced agony” according to Media Crew Member (MCM) Amory Ross.
Abu Dhabi and Team Sanya made gains on the top four while reaching towards the transition zone at average speeds over 16 knots.
But Abu Dhabi’s bowman Wade Morgan said speeds were dropping as they began to feel the effects of the lighter winds.
“We’ve just put up a bigger sail, our code zero,” the Australian said. “Right now we’ve got about 11 knots of breeze, it’s slowly dropping. We expect it to get quite light, to about seven knots.’’
On the upside, Morgan said Abu Dhabi may be able to use any mistakes by the boats ahead to their benefit.
“We get a good idea on where they are and we can watch their wind, so we can kind of gauge where we think the thinnest part of that trough can be,’’ he said.
“Ian (Walker, skipper) and Jules (Salter, navigator) are looking at it all the time to line up what is the best way through it and hopefully we will not stop -- that’s the goal.”
Leg leaders Groupama are expected to reach New Zealand’s North Cape on Friday at about 1200 UTC, with Telefónica, PUMA and CAMPER forecast to get there around six to eight hours later.
The fleet then face a 190 nm stint to the finish at Auckland, where Groupama are predicted to arrive around 0900 UTC on March 10.
