by Marcus Hutchinson
The status quo amongst the Artemis Offshore Academy rookies was dealt a blow overnight with the dropping down the rankings of Ed Hill. He had been extremely well placed in 14th at Birvideaux and was second Rookie, but is now in 19th place and has lost 30 minutes on the leaders over that period. Its hard to go up the ranking and it's easy to down.
At the top of the fleet, Henry Bomby has moved forwards and moved up to seventh to the detriment of a major scalp in the form of Michel Desjoyeaux, amongst others.
Sam Goodchild is not having a great race. He started poorly and has been on the back foot ever since. He started the race with his brand new genoa, as he wanted to see what it was like. This would be the new genoa he will use in the Solitaire du Figaro. He mentioned to me just before the start that he had doubts as to whether he had made the right decision, as there would be more wind than he had initially thought when he signed the sail in. I expect that as a result he is using his Solent jib, which is smaller and not really appropriate for the weight of wind so as not to over use his shiny new sail. This might explain why he has made now progress up the fleet.
Jackson Bouttell is not having his best race either and has found it hard to move up from a fairly poor start and first part of the race. Regrettably we have no information as to the whereabouts of Nick Cherry sailing Artemis 23. He was in 19th at Birvideaux and I have a feeling that he may be further up the rankings now, but until we get to the next good AIS land station, which in Sauzon on the north end of Belle Isle, we probably aren’t going to be sure. And even this land station is quite a long way from the expected route of the fleet. So the reality is that until we get to near the finish when everyone comes into view it will be difficult to know.
Current ETA at the finish for the leaders is 22:00.
Artemis Offshore Academy
