Golding takes silver

After two week long tussle with La Petite Anglaise in the Route du Rhum

After 13 days of close battle with Kingfisher, Mike Golding crossed the finish line in Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe at 1134:35 GMT, 0734:35 local Guadeloupe time, just 9 hours 17 minutes, 48 seconds behind Ellen MacArthur's winning Open 60.

Mike Golding sailed the course at an average speed of 10.61 knots, in a time of 13 days, 22 hours, 49 minutes and 35 seconds. Like Ellen he too is well inside the previous Route du Rhum monohull record of 15 days, 19 hours, 23 minutes set by Yves Parlier on Cacolac d’Aquitaine in 1994.

The former firefighter from Slough turned round the world sailor, Golding gave every thing he could to the final miles of the Route du Rhum. Having lost the use of two spinnakers, it was frustrating losing miles, and there was little he could do to catch up with Kingfisher and MacArthur. Nonetheless Mike kept the momentum going all the way to the finish line, which he crossed under the blue skies of the West Indies.

With Michel Desjoyeaux's trimaran Geant just 136.3 miles from the finish it looks very unlikely that Ellen will take the overall elapsed time prize. So Desjoyeaux will beat her again as he did in the Vendee Globe and we will have to wait until Ellen's 60ft trimaran is built before Ellen gets another crack at beating 'Le Professeur'.

See page 2 for an update from Miranda Merron

Positions 23/11/02 11:00:00 GMT
Pos	Nom	Skipper	Lat	Long	Dist	SOG	COG
60ft tris
1	Géant	Michel Desjoyeaux	16 42.16' N	60 03.44' W	136.3	16.5	240
2	Biscuits La Trinitaine - Ethypharm	Marc Guillemot	16 31.44' N	56 37.56' W	323.9	19.5	250
3	Banque Populaire	Lalou Roucayrol	18 36.72' N	54 42.16' W	461.8	15.1	245
ABD	Fujifilm	Loick Peyron
ABD	Banque Covefi	Bertrand deBroc
ABD	Sergio Tacchini	Karine Fauconnier
ABD	Sopra Group	Philippe Monnet
ABD	Bayer CropSciences	Frederic Le Peutrec
ABD	Belgacom	Jean-Luc Nélias
ABD	Foncia	Alain Gautier
ABD	Groupama	Franck Cammas
ABD	Rexona Men	Yvan Bourgnon
ABD	Sodebo	Thomas Coville
ABD	TIM	Giovanni Soldini
ABD	TechnoMarine	Steve Ravussin
ABD	Gitana X	Lionel Lemonchois
ABD	Eure&Loir-Lorénove	Francis Joyon
ABD	Bonduelle	Jean Le Cam
Open 60s
1	Kingfisher	Ellen McArthur	16 14.16' N	61 32.10' W		0	0
2	Ecover	Mike Golding	16 07.08' N	61 31.08' W	5.7	8.7	8
3	Arcelor-Dunkerque	Joé Seten	18 28.00' N	54 05.80' W	491.1	11.7	241
4	Sill	Roland Jourdain	19 21.92' N	52 56.84' W	571	12.5	242
5	Garnier Belgium	Patrick De Radiguès	20 42.12' N	46 17.76' W	951.9	11.8	233
6	L'Heautontimoroumenos	Antoine Koch	23 50.00' N	46 30.00' W	959.4	11.3	244
7	60ème Sud	Didier Munduteguy	23 42.72' N	42 47.56' W	1193.7	11.3	218
8	Un Univers de Services	Miranda Merron	22 19.92' N	40 27.36' W	1283.7	10	226
9	Tir Groupé-Montres Yéma	Mike Birch	22 41.08' N	37 17.32' W	1467.8	10.5	273
10	Millimages-Gédéon	Patrick Favre	25 08.00' N	37 31.00' W	1486	8	249
11	Dinan Pays d'Entreprises	Frédéric Lescot	26 36.16' N	37 26.04' W	1527.4	8.6	271
12	Ciments St Laurent-Ocean	Georges Leblanc	25 56.56' N	32 34.88' W	1759.7	8.6	254
13	Leasecom	Elie Canivenc	41 07.16' N	9 17.00' W	3124.6	7.4	177
ABD	Virbac	Jean Pierre Dick
ABD	VMI	Sébastien Josse
ABD	La Rage de Vivre	Loïck Pochet
ABD	Temenos	Dominique Wavre
Monos - class 1
1	Ville de Dinard	Bruno Reibel	28 58.52' N	31 48.28' W	1856.9	7.7	247
ABD	Un Autre Regard Ensemble pour l'UNHCR	Nicolas  Peitrequin
Monos - class 2
1	Ashfield Healthcare	Nick Moloney	24 27.32' N	45 09.48' W	1092.7	10.5	235
2	Florys	Luc Coquelin	25 38.36' N	42 31.56' W	1252.4	9.4	229
3	Branec III	Roger Langevin	26 14.72' N	41 03.24' W	1339.8	9.5	212
4	Mille Visages	Hervé Vachée	24 53.44' N	37 59.60' W	1464.8	9.6	205
5	Laiterie St Malo	Clément Surtel	24 51.24' N	37 39.40' W	1481.6	9.1	261
6	Adecco Etoile Horizon	Bob Escoffier	25 25.28' N	28 04.20' W	1995.3	7.9	242
ABD	Apic A3S	Christophe Huchet
ABD	République Dominicaine	Yannick Bestaven
ABD	Défi Vendéen	J. F. Durand
Monos - class 3
1	Storagetek	Regis Guillemot	25 20.04' N	40 28.80' W	1338.8	9	219
2	Passion Entreprendre	Jérôme Thiriez	26 30.16' N	31 55.88' W	1806.5	7.1	237
3	Grain de Soleil	Etienne Svilarich	28 30.04' N	29 06.76' W	1983.2	7.8	211
ABD	Hellomoto	Conrad Humphreys
ABD	Fantasy-Forest	Alain Grinda
Multis - class 2
1	Crepes Whaou!	F. Y. Escofier	19 48.16' N	54 03.48' W	530.7	11.4	258
2	Yachting-casino.com	Anne Cazeneuve	21 42.54' N	47 05.40' W	922.3	13.5	232
3	Vaincre la mucoviscidose	Hervé Cleris	22 58.26' N	42 27.48' W	1191.2	10.9	232
4	Archipel Guadeloupe	Claude Thelier	21 25.38' N	41 16.14' W	1230.9	9.1	263
5	Lehning-Lapeyre-Blanchet-Gourbeyre	P.Y. Guennec	26 00.96' N	33 36.04' W	1716.2	8.4	240
ABD	E-Sat Tri Sélectif	Pascal Quintin
ABD	Groupe France Epargne	Patrick Morvan
ABD	Chaleur Fioul Elan	Didier Levillain