At the 1900 GMT ranking tonight, Vincent Riou (PRB) has closed down to within just 4.6 miles of Jean Le Cam Bonduelle) according to the distance to the goal, the first of the gateways to the southern ocean, a waypoint off South Africa. On the water this translates as a 76 mile lateral difference with PRB to the north east of Bonduelle. The big question tonight is whether the expected wind shift will indeed kick in from the south-east as forecast favouring the latter’s course or whether Riou will be able to win this particular game in a virtual sense at least, by favoring heading over speed, down just over a knot on the leader.
Whatever the case Sébastien Josse (VMI), Roland Jourdain (Sill et Véolia) and Mike Golding (Ecover) also have the emphasis on heading. Alex Thomson(Hugo Boss) is strangely holding onto his northerly option despite losing ground on the frontrunners which may mean that he is suffering further technical problems preventing him from joining the others, or he is waiting to begin a secret attack in the 8 hour “twilight zone” between tonight’s last ranking and the next one at 0400 GMT tomorrow.
Currently the leader is level with the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha to its right as he drops down the southern Atlantic, 275 miles off Natal on the Brazilian mainland. After having multiplied the manœuvres of late to escape the doldrums as quickly as possible, the leading competitors set out on a long port tack yesterday that is likely to last several days.
Rankings as of Friday, November 19, 2004 - 04:00 AM GMT
1. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, 20503.3 miles to finish
2. PRB, VIncent RIou, 11.7 miles to leader
3. VMI, Sébastien Josse, 23.8
4. Sill Véolia, Roland Jourdain, 57.3
5. Ecover, Mike Golding, 79.3
6. Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson, 110.7
7. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick, 177.6
8. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 213.7
9. Pro-Form, Marc Thiercelin, 244.6
10. UUDS, Hervé Laurent, 253.3
11. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, 264.4
12. Skandia, Nick Moloney, 267.3
13. VM Matériaux, Patrice Carpentier, 267.6
14. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, 270.5
15. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 326.8
16. AKENA Vérandas, Raphaël Dinelli, 484.2
17. Max Havelaar / Best Western, Benoît Parnaudeau, 498.0
18. Benefic, Karen Leibovici, 524.3
19. ROXY, Anne Liardet, 538.2
20. Brother, Norbert Sedlacek, 858.3
Vende Globe webiste.