After 10 full days of open ocean racing the battle for the IMOCA podium places in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2023 continues to rage. The top five IMOCA doublehanded pairings are all within 1,000 nautical miles of the finish line in Martinique and at 0900 this morning the leading trio of For People, Paprek Arkea, and For the Planet, were separated by under 80 nm.
The leading duo Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagraviere aboard For People are keeping a close eye on their nearest rivals Yoann Richomme and Yann Elies on Paprek Arkea – just 30 nm behind – but will also be monitoring the progress of Justine Mettraux and Julien Villion on Teamwork.net who – although currently showing in seventh place on the race tracker and some 220 nm further from the finish – could be set to make big gains from their northerly routing over the final stage of the race.
French skipper and designer Antoine Koch who is sailing with Sam Goodchild in third place on For the Planet (previously Ruyant’s LinkedOut) must surely have mixed emotions at this point, having designed both the top two boats he and his British co-skipper are chasing down.
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