Sport-heute: Sailing - GROUPAMA 70 MOVES INTO FIRST PLACE

25. August 2010, 23:05

GROUPAMA 70 MOVES INTO FIRST PLACE

After the second night at sea, French Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 entry, Groupama 70 slipped inside Spanish Telefonica Azul and took first place on the water in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.

Brüttisellen, 25.8.10 (mk) Wednesday, 25th August 2010 15:00GMT

The French crew spent Tuesday afternoon positioning themselves closer to the Scottish coast, where they believed the stronger breeze would be. This tactic eventually paid off for them at 0600 GMT this morning (Wednesday) when Groupama moved into the lead and have gradually pulled away through the daylight hours.

At 1300 GMT Wednesday, Groupama was 20 nautical miles to the northwest of Telefonica Azul and near to reaching the turning mark off of Muckle Flugga, which is often referred to as the northernmost point of the British Isles, north of the Shetland Island of Unst. The Spanish team at the time had more breeze and was sailing a knot faster. The forecast shows that in the next 12 hours the breeze will decrease to around 5 knots, as they start making their way south again.

For Team Groupama this race is a great training ground for their Volvo Ocean Race campaign and allows them to test not only their crew work but carry out some of the media duties they have to perform on the Volvo Ocean Race. They have onboard a Media Crew Member (MCM), Yann Riou and he has been sending off images, footage and words from the media station through the past days. Riou is experiencing his first taste of being an MCM on a racing VO70 and earlier today spoke of the fatigue of the crew and how hard he is finding even writing on a keyboard.

"On the deck, we are starting to notice the cold, commented Riou. "We're still about 60 degrees north! On the inside of the boat, everything is rocking and rolling around. Moving around the boat is hard work, and each movement is a little struggle to keep our balance. Weariness is starting to show on all faces."

To see footage filmed by Riou onboard, have a look at the exciting video of how Groupama's team fixed the hole in her bow before the start here: you toube

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Onboard, Volvo Ocean Race, Training, Racing Crew, 2011-12, Groupama, Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland.Credit Volvo Ocean Organisation.

Onboard, Volvo Ocean Race, Training, Racing Crew, 2011-12, Groupama, Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland, Shetland Isles, Muckle Flugga. Photocredit Volvo Ocean Race Organisation.

Teams/ Telefonica Blue (2008-09)/ Aerial Copyright: Rick Tomlinson