Loïck Peyron leading Vendée Globe

[Source: Vendée Globe] On the 1000hrs GMT update Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) holds on to his most of his lead, but it is Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) who is stepping up to the plate as his most likely challenger. Could Le Cam become the sixth different leader?

Peyron’s margin this morning was 27.5 miles but it is Le Cam who is now up to second, who is sailing a higher angle, banking something and looking like he might either cross behind the leader, or generally work out to the west. One thing is certain, that VM Matériaux, a 2004 Lombard design which was updated by Juan K, is certainly competitive, and Roland Jourdain on another 2004 design has been consistently fast when he has not had the odd minor hiccup.

The duelling pair in the west, Riou (PRB) and Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) are tracking parallel courses for the moment and in terms of DTF (distance to finish) are less than a mile apart.

Mike Golding has the bit between his teeth on Ecover 3 and has again made a small advance on the leaders – albeit a small one – but he looks to have left Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) for the moment, gaining about 20 miles, and also continues to move away from Jérémie Beyou on Delta Dore. Golding is tenth and will be looking now to Marc Guillemot (Safran) who he has gained two miles in the intervening four hours.

Dee Caffari has dropped to 14th, losing out to Arnaud Boissiers (Akena Vérandas) for the time being, while in the battle of the British girls, Sam Davies - out to the west - has made a gain of about 10 miles on her.

Dominic Wavre (Temenos 2), 15th, continues to make good progress but he is finding Davies a tough nut to crack meantime, although he was registering a 2 knots speed advantage at the moment and was in much the same westerly lane as ROXY.