The race to Ouessant

Who is leading remains anybody's guess at the Figaro boats claw their way north

The final leg of the Solitaire du Figaro is providing no let up for the singlehanders as they forge north across a lumpy Bay of Biscay towards Ouessant.

Since this morning the lead has been changing at every position update and the nice tight pack has divided. Former Orange crewmen Sebastien Josse and Yann Elies are at the moment furthest east and doing well in the overall rankings - Elies is leading, with Josse in fourth. But the rankings are currently not giving an accurate indication of what is going on as they are both currently on port (as the courses below show) and will have to put a tack out sea to round Ouessant.

Then there is a group further west that includes this morning's leader Eric Drouglazet, Vincent Riou, current overall leader Kito de Pavant, Ronan Guerin while out on a flier, further west still is today's early morning leader Nicolas Troussel, who is 26 miles west of the direct course. At the time of writing they were all on starboard heading out to sea in order to hit the layline that will taken them around Ouessant. Hedging their bets in between are the likes of Erwan Tabarly and Philippe Vicariot.

This afternoon the boats have been experiencing 28 knots from the north north west and 1.5m waves. Buoy data in the area at 18GMT shows the wind at 10 knot from the north off Ouessant, 15 knots from just west of north offshore to the west. During the radio chat session the skippers highlighted how conditions have been making life difficult, not to mention uncomfortable.

"It's still very open and it's quite difficult to make even the slightest prediction on the passage to Ushant," was the comment back from the Race Management boat that is following the fleet.

"It's quite difficult, the wind is strong and the sea is breaking heavily," described Thierry Chabagny on board Petit Navire. "It's quite damp too. You're pretty much forced to helm continuously. It's moving about all over the place and it's physically testing, especially for the back. But I'm fairly happy with my position. I took the lead last night and of course I'm a bit lost bearing in mind all the fluctuations in the wind and the lateral gaps."

The order the boats round Ouessant tonight is likely to determine the finish positions in Cherbourg.

Positions at 1800GMT