Dutchman Mark Slats has closed the difference in ‘distance to finish’ to within 353 nautical miles while race leader Jean-Luc Van Den Heede was serving his time-out penalty.
While Jean-Luc was serving his ‘time-out’ in the penalty box south of the 20°N parallel, 2nd placed Dutchman Mark Slats was powering northwards through the SE Trades at more than 5 knots.
By 12:00 UTC Tuesday (8 Jan) Slats had closed the difference in ‘distance to finish’ to within 353 nm.
Worse for Jean-Luc, the NE Trade winds have disappeared and he is likely to be facing the frustration of calms until Wednesday at least, while Slats continues to make strong gains.
The estimated finish date for Van Den Heede Friday 25 January.
Third placed Estonian skipper Uku Randmaa and his Rustler 36 One and All, survived last week’s South Atlantic storm unscathed, and now finds himself drifting in a hole, making only 1 knot on Sunday, so has used the time to dive overboard and give the hull another clean.
Golden Globe Race Leaderboard – 08 Jan 12:00 – DTF – DS
1st Jean-Luc Van Den Heede FRA – 2095 NM, 25610 NM
2nd Mark Slats NED – 2448 NM, 25340 NM
3rd Uku Randmaa EST – 5252 NM, 21922 NM
4th Istvan Kopar USA – 6312 NM, 21298 NM
5th Tapio Lehtinen FIN – 9214 NM, 18715 NM
