Transat Jacques-Vabre: Maxi Banque Populaire still leads the Ultim fleet

Maxi Banque Populaire still led the fleet of five Ultim maxi-trimarans in the Transat Jacques-Vabre on Sunday, while the Ocean Fifty and the Class 40 will return to sea on Monday before the departure of the Imoca on Tuesday. At the last score at 6:00 p.m., Maxi Banque Populaire of the duo of Armel Le Cléac'h-Sébastien Josse was 95 nautical miles ahead of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Charles Caudrelier, Erwan Israel) and 112 over SVR-Lazartigue (François Gabart, Tom Laperche).

Saturday evening, the competitors had to negotiate the passage through the Doldrums (intertropical convergence zone). “The Pot came very quickly. We saw the activity take place with large clouds forming within a few minutes. The road closed in front of us. We went from 25 knots to 4/5 knots,” explained Armel Le Cléac'h on the race website. Maxi Banque Populaire, now off the coast of the Brazilian islands of São Paulo and Sao Pedro, has still managed to consolidate its leadership position, but behind it the fight is very close. SVR, who had taken second place during the night, saw Maxi Edmond de Rothschild pass him back in front.

After a week of forced stopover in Lorient due to storms Ciaran and Domingos, the Ocean Fifty (15m long multihulls) and the Class 40s (12m monohulls) will be able to leave on Monday mid-morning, heading towards Fort- of France. The classification at the finish will be obtained by adding the times on the two sections of their transatlantic, Le Havre - Lorient and Lorient - Fort-de-France. The 40 Imoca (monohulls), stuck in Le Havre, will finally set off on Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m.

Rankings of the first three in each class Sunday at 6:00 p.m.:

Last (32 m)

1. Maxi Banque Populaire (Armel Le Cléac'h, Sébastien Josse) 4,096.5 miles from the finish in Fort-de-France (Martinique)

2. Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Charles Caudrelier, Erwan Israel) 95.2 miles from the first

3. SVR-Lazartigue (François Gabart, Tom Laperche) at 112.7 miles

...

Ocean Fifty (15 m)

1. Solidarity in a platoon, arrived in Lorient in 20 hours 44 min

(Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, Quentin Vlamynck)

2. Le Rire Médecin 45 minutes away

(Luke Berry, Antoine Joubert)

3. Primordial

(Sébastien Rogues, Jean-Baptiste Gellée) at 1 hour 46

...

Class 40 (12 m)

1. Alla Grande Pirelli, arrived in Lorient in 1 day 10 hours and 5 minutes

(Ambrogio Beccaria, Nicolas Andrieu)

2. SNEF Group, 1 hour and 15 minutes

(Xavier Macaire, Pierre Leboucher)

3. Inter Invest, 1 hour and 20 minutes

(Matthieu Perraut, Kevin Bloch)

...