Transat Jacques Vabre: Maxi Banque Populaire XI in second place in the Doldrums

Armel Le Cléac’h and Kevin Escoffier are currently sailing through the Doldrums. They have caught up with the front-runners in the fleet, and came in second place in Tuesday’s 9:00 am rankings.

Nine days after the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre race, Armel and Kevin have caught up with the leaders and claimed second place at the expense of SVR-Lazartigue (François Gabart/Tom Laperche). The 430-mile lead enjoyed by the front-running Edmond de Rothschild (Franck Cammas/Charles Caudrelier) on Sunday morning had been reduced to 256 miles by Tuesday morning. It’s necessary to remain cautious in this inter-tropical convergence zone, and the order of any rankings can be completely reversed in just a few short hours.

“There are opportunities to be seized in the Doldrums. The conditions encountered there can vary considerably, and the weather reports are frequently unreliable. With Marcel Van Triest, our weather router, we are trying to slip between the windless zones,” explains Kevin.

In any case, Armel and Kevin are extremely happy with their performance so far in this first half of the race. “We are pleased to be serious contenders, with a boat that still retains 100% of its potential. The work carried out by the whole team is bearing fruit. Since Cape Finisterre, we’ve experienced good conditions and we’re enjoying the fact of being on board this fabulous boat. It’s a pleasure to sail fast,” says Armel. “In the rest of the race, we’ll be facing different conditions as far as wind angles are concerned. It will be interesting to see how we compare with the competition at those speeds.”

To follow the race and keep track of the position of the Maxi Banque Populaire XI:

• www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr 
•  @VoileBanquePopulaire