Calais Round Britain Race - Day 10

• Vincent Riou (PRB), Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore) and Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux) complete the podium for this third edition of the Calais Round Britain Race.
• Coloured by fog and light winds the 2007 race time is 9 days 7 hrs 7 mins 36 secs or around 2.5 days longer than the record set in the 2005 edition, but in ideal conditions Riou improved on the 2003 Dover-Calais record last night, setting a new time of 1hr 08 mins 57 secs at an average speed of 7.35 kts.
• Dominique Wavre and his crew arrived in glorious sunshine around lunch time today and a flurry of new arrivals is expected between 2100 hours and tomorrow morning, a precious 5th place still hotly contended between Generali, Artemis Ocean Racing and Roxy.
• Dee Caffari on Aviva is now just 131.6 miles from the head of the fleet tonight, bringing up the rear of this Imoca 60’ fleet.

PRB's 'bulletproof’ performance and much deserved first place in this Calais Round Britain Race is perhaps best described by one of Vincent Riou’s crew, Hugues Destremau, a celebrated match racer and Orma trimaran specialist. “ There were a few critical points in the race where I was really impressed by Vincent's accuracy of judgement. We were neck and neck with Jean Le Cam, for whom Vincent has a lot of respect, and a couple of times we had a really important strategic decision to make. He knew exactly what to do and when, without hesitation. As Jean didn't make the same move he had to wonder if perhaps Le Cam had different weather information. Very, very impressive! It was tough, long, challenging, but most of all fun. It was a really good team who worked their butts off! ”

Around 6 hours later, second placed Jeremie Beyou on Delta Dore made Calais after a fantastic comeback from the bottom of the fleet at the start of the race. “ We had a very bad start. I don't know if we were surprised, or we were unlucky or we were bad - I'm not really sure. We ended up a long way back in any case. You can’t make a comeback if you don't have a boat that goes fast and if you don't make the right tacks, and to make the right tacks you need good people aboard who spend their time working on the weather. Also, when you're behind, sometimes it's easier as you can see what the others are doing. ”

3 hours on, Jean Le Cam completed the podium and was clearly a little sad not to have won given that, like every other skipper here, he had come to Calais for that very reason but he will take with him some useful lessons. " If you are preparing for the Vendée Globe then it was very important to be here. Added to that, sailing in crewed configuration where everyone is at 100 % it is only then that you understand the true potential of your boat and I’m very happy with it. "

4th placed Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre (Temenos) echoed Jean's thoughts and admitted to having " misplayed the descent of the North Sea " and not having done the boat justice, but in second or third place for the majority of the race he was clearly doing something right! “ We're very happy with her, just a few holes in our sail wardrobe that we need to work on in the light conditions. ”

Flat out in the battle for the highly prized 5th place at the head of the chasing pack, Generali was still just over 50 miles from the finish at the 1600 hour ranking today but skipper Yann Eliès wasn’t terribly optimistic about the hour of their arrival in Calais. “ The grib file I have in front of me now forecasts a new zone of calm across the channel so it doesn’t look like we’re going to break any records for the Channel. We understand that PRB snaffled the prize, good for them! For us meantime, we have the current on the nose, we have 11 knots of breeze at 236° and we’re sailing close to the wind. ”

The 2002 Owen Clarke Design, Artemis Ocean Racing is still very much in contention for the same coveted place, only 6 miles behind the Farr prototype. Contacted by his shore crew around noon Jonny Malbon reported conditions that were " still pretty slow. We’re around 55 miles away from the Dover mark with a possible ETA of 2100 hours if we can get in before the tide turns! "

“ We’re just 5 miles behind Artemis right now and trying as hard as we can” said a tired Sam Davies on Roxy this lunch time. By the 1600 hour ranking they’d slipped back 4 miles astern of the Anglo-Saxon boat and their hopes of keeping Maisonneuve astern of them till the finish weren't looking quite so good either, Roxy losing 4 miles to them too in the past four hours. “Our ETA is early tomorrow morning and we think we’ve got enough wind to get there. We're really looking forward to a nice bed and a croissant and seeing trees and cars and the horizon! We're all really tired. "

Further back and now reduced to 10th place behind Maisonneuve and Cheminees Poujoulat, things weren’t looking too bright for Figaro hotshot and crew aboard Akena Verandas, Gérald Veinard either after there attempt to breakaway last night. He hadn't lost his sense of humour however, even if their position in the ranking is a long way off what they were hoping for. “ We took our chance, we lost, but it could've worked. We saw Generali reposition herself but we didn't have the right conditions to do the same. It was a close run thing. This morning we saw Cheminées Poujoulat in the fog. We’re really looking forward to the finish especially as we’re in our own computer and electronic fog ”.

Less than 30 miles astern of 10th place, Dee Caffari on Aviva is making good headway at just over 7 knots of boatspeed with a likely ETA in Calais of tomorrow morning. “ It has been a far from relaxing night for the safety of Aviva and her crew, let alone for the underlying reason for being here and that is to race. The morning positions came through and we now have evidence that the race is far from over as in the last 24 hours we have continued to take miles from those ahead. We are now more confident than ever that if we can get into the same area as these guys then we are back in the game again. Today will be a testing day ”… for the seven boats remaining at sea!

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