During the first night at sea for the Class40 fleet, the 11 boats raced in a compressed pack: Boris Herrmann's Beluga Racer leading the field with Benoit Parnaudeau's Prevoir Vie the backmarker with just a handful of miles separating the fleet as the light began to fade on Sunday evening.
At 0430 BST this morning, Beluga Racer and Giovanni Soldini's Telecom Italia were fighting for first place around the The Artemis Transat Champagne Mumm race gate at the Lizard and by dawn, Soldini had taken the lead holding a slim two mile advantage over Thierry Bouchard and Mistral Loisirs - Pole Santé ELIOR as the fleet slipped south of the Scilly Isles with Christophe Coatnoan on Groupe Partouche and the Class40 Prevoir Vie of Benoit Parnaudeau keeping closest to the islands and trailing in 10th and 11th place over 30 miles from the Italian boat. Trailing Soldini in second place by two miles this afternoon, Thierry Bouchard, skipper of Mistral Loisirs - Pole Santé ELIOR.
The first night at sea is always a tremendous drain on solo skippers, especially the smaller Class40 teams with limited funds and personnel: the pressure to prepare the boat on time and the emotional departure combine lethally with little sleep due to the close proximity of the fleet and the busy shipping lanes along the English South Coast.
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