This is a news archive containing content from our old news system. If you arrived here via a search, you may be interested in our main news section.
Michel Desjoyeaux tops the tables again tonight, fastest in the fleet, best 24hour run at 389 miles, best speed between the rankings. But his lead over Roland Jourdain stays at 81.1 miles, though we might expect that to have grown by the morning.
Like smitten teenage sweethearts Armel Le Cléac’h and Vincent Riou are back together again, just eleven miles apart, with PRB, fifth, making better speed tonight.
Morale would lift today aboard Foncia and Veolia Environnement as the ‘miles to the finish’ clicked down under 10,000 for the two leaders.
Hopes are running high that Team Russia will attract sufficient funding to allow a return to the Volvo Ocean Race track next year, according to race CEO Knut Frostad.
The campaign raised and funded by Russian supermarket entrepreneur Oleg Zherebtsov was disbanded just hours after the crew arrived in Singapore at the end of the third leg when it was confirmed that the funds had run out as a direct consequence of the global economic crisis.
At approximately 21:20 hrs (AEDT), 32 miles south east of Point Perpendicular, a mayday call was issued from the yacht Georgia, a Farr 53 owned by Graeme Ainley and John Williams from Sandringham Yacht Club, as a result of losing her rudder and taking on water.
Tim Cox, Race Committee Chairman liaised with the relevant authorities including AMSA, NSW Water Police and the CYCA Emergency Management Team to effect a rescue. Radio Relay Vessel JBW assisted with the rescue by communicating instructions from the Race Committee to nearby vessels. Telcoinabox Merit, being closest to the stricken yacht effected a rendezvous and stood by for further instructions.
Once the front goes over, SW'ly winds are forecast and should offer more favourable conditions for him than for the leader.
Passing the Gate was not a very gratifying experience for Sébastien Josse (BT) or Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), who both lost ground over the leading duo, but also saw the pair behind them narrow the gap.
A Christmas cliffhanger, or simply the next episode of a long running drama? Well just a matter of hours ago it looked for all the world as if Bilou the pantomime villain was about to steal the lead as the group of four leading boats scale the New Zealand ice gate.
Michel Desjoyeaux, leader for nine days, had slowed to less than ten knots – did he have a problem, was he struggling in the rough upwind conditions?