Sixtieth day of racing, 6 of 13 boats have already round Cape Horn and are moving up the Atlantic; during these two days four more boats will be able to pass the mythical Cape while for the last three, including Alessandro Di Benedetto, who is still in full Pacific Ocean, the road is still a bit long. But let’s order.
In head, goes on the battle between Francois Gabart of Macif and Armel Le Cleac of Banque Populaire, currently separated by the leader of about 90 Nm. The two are sailing with almost parallel courses, while in the south, at about 450 Nm Jean Pierre Dick navigates in third place. The latter had to face a major drawback for the breaking of the forestay’s textile strop, which took place at night sailing upwind with about 30 kts of wind; the skipper was nevertheless able to rest and discharge pressure to prevent a major damage, then intervening for the replacement of the strop.
Alex Thomson, in fourth place, having lived for almost half the race with electrical problems, after dealing with the repair of the rudders, yet determined and chose a completely different route than the other, remaining significantly to the west in rising the Atlantic. In the present state of things it seems that Thomson has the right view and that his radical choice could also take him to blow the third to J. P. Dick in the coming days.
Further back, the rest of the fleet continues with ups and downs, dealing with technical problems of various kinds, as well as the weather because near Cape Horn the Meteo is much worse than what they have found the first.
A Separate mention for Bernard Stamm, still in the race but in the scent of disqualification for the story of assistance received to fix the hydrogenerators problems. A few days ago he struck an unidentified object, getting further damage, and now in a crisis of energy is organizing a refueling at sea off Cape Horn, and it seems clear that in this case the would be, without further doubts, the disqualification from the competition.