Route du Rhum Almost Over

With less than 100 miles to go, Thomas Ruyant looks poised to win the 44-boat Class 40 division in the ’10 Route du Rhum-La Banque Postale. Ruyant’s Destination Dunkerque has a lead of about 60 miles over his next closest competitor, Nicolas Troussel’s Crédit Mutuel de Bretagne. Troussel, in turn, has about that distance between him and a pack of five boats that will most likely be in a dog fight all the way to the finish to round out the podium. None of this is set in stone, of course, as the buttonhook rounding of the northern and western shore of Guadeloupe into Pointe-à-Pitre could see the frontrunners hit a parking lot as they get in the lee of the island.

Italian Andrea Mura aboard his Open 50 Vento Di Sardegna has a 173-mile lead in the 11-boat Rhum Categorie and looks like a lock to win that division with less than 400 miles left to go. The only American in the race, Florida’s Etienne Giroire, was 1500 miles from Guadeloupe when his 42-ft Walter Greene-designed trimaran www.ATNinc.com flipped in a squall. After taking to his liferaft, but staying alongside his boat, the unhurt Giroire was picked up by a cargo ship headed for the island.

All the other division titles have been accounted for, as we alluded to on Monday. Roland Jourdain repeated as the IMOCA 60 winner with Veolia Environment, and race-record holder Lionel Lemonchois took the Multi50 division with Prince de Bretagne after nearly having to retire with rig damage not long after the start.