Nov 18 Daily Report TJV plus Onboard Clips, Cremer, Herrmann, Davies, Greck, Colman more

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With just less than 700 nautical miles to sail to the Fort de France, Martinique finish line of the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre race for the leaders of the IMOCA fleet, there is still a question mark over who will win what has been a hugely competitive race from Le Havre.
One day ago there was nothing to choose between ‘the Jujus’ – Swiss female skipper Justine Mettraux and French counterpart Julien Villion on Teamwork.net who last Saturday night broke away from the fleet to route ‘by the north face’. They moved quickly away from the main peloton which made the collective decision to stay south. When they split Mettraux and Villion’s gain was touted to amount to winning move… by as much as 24 hours.

Hoping the trade winds would strengthen again, the main group carried on south. They mostly cited their collective desire to avoid five or six days of slamming hard upwind. Instead they sought to protect their boats and to profit from the very close speed testing which they say is more valuable in optimising and fine tuning in the lead up to next year’s Vendée Globe.