Europe 1 New Man Star - Ellen leads as multis duel to finish

Ellen still in the fast lane

While the multihulls can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the monohull fleet are still in a train behind the unstoppable Ellen MacArthur on ‘Kingfisher’, the youngest person actually racing in the Europe 1 New Man Star…jaw-dropping stuff!! This evening, her advance over second place Roland Jourdain (Sill Beurre le Gall) has remained steady, at around 40 miles…but 1000 miles are left to go.

At the tender age of 23 years, and on her first competitive solo Open 60 race, Ellen MacArthur has had to cope with a totally new kind of pressure in the last three days: that of staying in the lead…and over the top, professional and richly experienced skippers in her wake. Today she confessed to being faced with the new dilemma of making the choice of route, West or South West. In practice, what she does will determine how the others attack her lead; she must both keep the best course and mark her rivals at the same time. Enormous burden on those small shoulders right now… In the second third of the race, the young British female skipper seemes quite up for the task ahead, fresher than her rivals too. Only Catherine Chabaud, who has reared into the top three recently from the South, is morally and physically on a par with Ellen. Behind them, the other skippers are just astounded at the performance of ‘la petite Ellen’.

Just in from on board Kingfisher are images taken by Ellen of an Iceberg she had a close call with and the injury she sustained when she fell down the forehatch.

"Terrible, terrible night. I fell down the forehatch whacked my head and I think broke my finger... I think I had some deisel on my boots ­ my mistake and to cap it all I lost out big time to Bilou (Sill) and Catherine. I've got some fighting to do and I already look like I've done ten rounds with Nigel Benn. Very sore."

The Return of Marc Guillemot

Since taking his option South right from the start, Marc Guillemot (Biscuits La Trinitaine) has been the underdog to the three leaders for most of the race, despite avoiding the worst of the depressions that have afflicted the others further North. But as we arose today, Marc Guillemot has surged into 2nd place, and at 0520 hrs (French time) he was just 28 miles behind Francis Joyon (Eure et Loir) with only 100 miles to run. His speed to the finish line was reported to be twice as fast as Joyon’s. A photo finish? We’ll see around 1200 hours today (French time).

Speeding at an average 17.3 knots when fixed by the satellite positioning, Marc Guillemot is also the fastest boat on the water this morning heading a more intermediary route, as Joyon, further South, is making only 11.4 knots and Franck Cammas, further North, only 12 knots in comparison. Only 34 miles separates the top 3 trimarans (Alain Gautier not positioned this morning), and if the wind maintains direction from the NE, Joyon is better placed for the last sprint and 40 miles left between Nantucket island and the finish line. However the winds are not giving anything away, unpredictable and variable as ever over the American coastline. Never has a Transat been still undecided less than 6 hours to the finish!

Legend :

• Dist : Distance to finish
• DC : Distance to the class and type leader
• Cse : Course between the two last position
• AVG : Average speed between the two last position
• CMG : Average speed on course between the two last position

More Information:

• Event Website