Waiting for the calm…
With very little separating the leading group in the BPE Trophy, Thierry Duprey du Vorsent, currently 4th on Domaine du Mont d'Arbois, anticipates the imminent crossing of the area of high pressure that should determine whom, out of the ‘southerners' or ‘northerners', has made the right choice! Thierry is keeping closest eye on the central group, with whom the gaps have also narrowed over the last few hours and who are becoming a very real threat.

Having crossed a large squall, Domaine du Mont d'Arbois is currently sailing in 8 knots of west/north-westerly wind, mainsail and genoa up. The wind seems to be returning and the Gitana Team skipper has not given up hope of still being able to keep up a reasonable pace aboard his Figaro. Then, the wind is likely to drop and Thierry is resigned to facing the torments of the windless zone, “the worst enemy of the Figaro sailor”!
 
Thierry Duprey du Vorsent on the radio at 11:30:
 
On the last 48 hours? "Yesterday was hell… Figaro style! It wasn't only the difficult conditions with the passing of a front averaging 30 knots and gusting up to 40, plus a cross sea, but over and above all, a boat that is hard to control in itself. There's nowhere to sit down for a second, let alone relax! It's very uncomfortable and you're permanently watching out so as not to injure yourself… And what's more, feeling as if you're sailing in a swimming pool doesn't help! Since this morning, I've mopped up three times and probably need to do it again. Everything's soaked, there's literally nothing dry … So let's be positive; within a few hours, I'm sure to be stuck in the doldrums but at least I should be able to dry things out a bit! Last night was a bit calmer, 20/25 knots rising to 30 in the squalls, all beneath a lovely starry sky.”
On the next 36 hours?“I noticed that Armel Tripon's headed much further south… I don't know what he's hoping for or what he saw in the weather info, but I'm carrying on… given the speed a Figaro travels at, I can't imagine getting around the high pressure zone. It's slap-bang in the middle of our route! The best thing to do is to prepare oneself psychologically, as these windless periods are definitely the most difficult to manage, especially with the fatigue accumulated over nearly 2 weeks' racing! The next 48, 72 or even 120 hours are going to be really testing… you make less progress than normal, and you have to be permanently vigilant so as not no miss out on any adjustment that might gain you a few tenths of a knot!
 
On the rest of the fleet? “I'm watching the central group most closely, as they've got dangerously near. I'd really like to increase the gap with them a bit in order to avoid any nasty surprises.”

Ranking of the TRophée BPE, Friday 6 April at 15:00:

Rank Boat / Skipper Latitude  Longitude Vit.  Cap  Dist.  But  Dist. 1st
1  Gedimat/Armel Tripon 29 48.52' N  37 16.73' W  7.0  222  157  1.3  0.0
2  Susuki Automobiles/Eric Defert  32 26.88' N  38 51.60' W  7.5  223  157  5.7  4.3
3  Theolia / Robert Nagy  30 27.40' N  37 32.69' W  6.6  226  157  6.6  5.2
4  Domaine du Mont d'Arbois / T. Duprey du Vorsent 30 54.90' N  37 37.08' W  7.5  231  158  4.9  13.5
5 Art Immobilier construction /Daniel Dupont 31 06.47' N 36 36.91' W  6.3  206  163  7.8  66.4
6 A.ST Groupe / Marc Emig 26 51.80' N  34 29.02' W 5.8  231  163  9.8  68.5
7 Groupe Céléos / Ronan Treussart 27 21.36' N  34 25.91' W  5.9  203  165  1.3 80.0
8 Luisiana / Eric Drouglazet 27 04.22' N  34 13.92' W  5.7  215  165  6.3  84.9
9 Les Mousquetaires / Bertrand de Broc 27 21.06' N  33 54.60' W  6.3  233  167  5.7 104.4
10 Aquarelle.com / Yannick Bestaven  24 21.04' N 32 49.21' W  5.5  209  168 6.1  114.7

Source www.tropheebpe.com

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