 
					Rather  than the strong gales which often prevail on the Bay of Biscay it was  irregular, unsettled winds and big squalls which set a high work rate  for the solo skippers through their first night of the Vendée Globe solo  race around the world.
  Sailing a direct SWly course from Les Sables d’Olonne to pass Cape  Finisterre, the first 24 hours of racing have been a straight boatspeed  test, dealing with big, at times confused seas and using the variations  in both wind strength and direction to best effect. But the rewards for  those at the front of the fleet will be greatest as they will reach the  fast downwind conditions of the Portuguese tradewinds soonest.
   As the leaders passed the infamous Cape Finisterre late this afternoon  it remains Francois Gabart on Macif who has already built a useful  margin, sailing consistently quicker than his nearest rivals. During the  late evening hours of Saturday, Gabart and Armel le Cléac’h, sailing  sister-ship Banque Populaire, were consistently 1 to 1.5 knots faster.
 
   Briton Sam Davies is just one of the skippers who found the variable  breezes tough, with big squalls bringing very heavy rain. She reported  that she had seen everything from seven to more than 40 knots of wind  during the night.
 
  Steadily the gaps have opened in the 19 boat fleet as reality bites. As  it stands now it is a clutch of the newest boats, driven by a posse of  skippers who have trained hardest as a group which are setting the pace.  Gabart’s lead on the late afternoon, 1500hrs UTC rankings, was at 11  miles ahead of Vincent Riou on PRB who had 1.1 miles in hand over third  placed Le Cléac’h.
 
  The leading trio have established a cushion of 12 miles to Switzerland’s  Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat. Briton Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss  is starting to show his customary pace, polled fastest of the fleet this  afternoon along with Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac-Paprec 3. Thomson had  risen to fifth place this afternoon and had less than one mile to catch  Stamm. He will be quietly pleased to have passed the point where he had  to turn back in the 2008-9 race when he suffered hull damage. This trio  now compose a second group, at around 24-25 miles behind the leaders.
 
   Another 12 miles back Jean Le Cam in seventh heads a third pack of boats  with six miles separating his SynerCiel from Mike Golding in Gamesa in  tenth.
                 
                 Guillemot retires
                 The Vendée Globe habitually seems compelled to deal the  toughest blows to some of the nicest, most popular and deserving  skippers.
  After enduring one of the most compelling races of the last edition –  standing by the injured Yann Eliès, repeatedly climbing his mast to try  and fix a damaged mast track which meant he sailed much of the course  with two reefs in his mainsail and then sailing the last 1000 miles to  finish in third place into Les Sables d’Olonne with no keel - after it  snapped off -  Marc Guillemot might have considered he had earned the  right to better luck this time. 
 But the Safran skipper became the first to be forced out of this Vendée  Globe when his titanium fin keel snapped off less than six hours into  this race. Inspection back in the start port this morning revealed that  just 30cms of the keel stub remained. Guillemot reported hearing two  bangs in quick succession before his IMOCA Open 60 heeled alarmingly. 
 “I don’t know if we hit something or not. We are trying to know what  happened. We will tell you what we discover. We won’t hide anything.”  Guillemot told a press conference in Les Sables d’Olonne this morning.
   “The keel had done between 23,000 and 25,000 miles. We trained with it  before the last Transat Jacques Vabre in 2011, we did the B2B, went  around the British Isles, and then four or five thousand miles in  conditions which were not always easy. So, given that all it had been  through, I left with confidence and no competitor would consider leaving  without a lot of confidence in your keel.”
  Since starting his race at around 0300hrs local time this morning  Bertrand De Broc has been facing a more complex weather picture than had  been gifted to the other 18 Vendée Globe soloists. The French skipper  had to about-turn and go back to port before he had even started the  race in order to make an express repair on a small puncture hole in the  hull of his Votre Nom Autour du Monde avec EDM Projets.
Photo: JEAN-MARIE LIOT 
 ARTICOLI
ARTICOLI I PIU' LETTI
I PIU' LETTI“Abbiamo la fortuna di portare il nome dell’Italia nel nostro brand, e vogliamo che ogni componente, ogni fibra, ogni finitura parli la lingua del nostro saper fare"
L’italiana Django Deer di Giovanni Lombardi Stronati con Vasco Vascotto alla tattica ha confermato un anno straordinario, dopo il terzo posto all’Admiral’s Cup e la vittoria di classe al Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup
I giovani azzurri protagonisti della classe iQFOiL con Mattia Saoncella e Medea Falcioni, che hanno conquistato il titolo europeo al termine di una competizione intensa ed emozionante
Undici squadre in rappresentanza di altrettante Zone FIV in regata sul Garda per l’edizione “zero” del nuovo format senza tutor over 25 a bordo di ciascuna imbarcazione. In testa la IV Zona Lazio
Vittoria di Ginevra nella XTutti, Hauraki X2. Il Trofeo Caorle 2025 assegnato a Demon-x (nella foto) e Super Atax
Trionfo azzurro all’Europeo U21: podio tutto italiano per la squadra ILCA 6 femminile con Ginevra Caracciolo (oro), Maria Vittoria Arseni (argento) e Emma Mattivi (bronzo)
La regata è la più corta offshore di casa CNSM su percorso costiero Caorle-Lignano- Grado e ritorno e chiude il Trofeo Caorle X2 XTutti, iniziato in aprile con La Ottanta e proseguito a maggio con La Duecento e La Cinquecento Trofeo Pellegrini
Un sogno inseguito da cinque stagioni che diventa realtà. Andrea Battistella, 27 anni ingegnere gestionale di Legnano, timoniere del “Diva”, armato dal padre Ferdinando, è il vincitore dell’edizione 2025 della RS21 Cup Yamamay
Dopo 9 ore di corsa Francesca è quarta a 2.4 miglia di distanza dal leader Jeremie Beyou su Charal
Line Honours al 100' Black Jack, vittoria assoluta per il 72' Balthasar. Le italiane Django Deer, Lunatika (nella foto) e Mon Ile vincono le rispettive classi, IRC 2, Double Handed e ORC 5