Vendée Globe

Today saw the arrival of a further two competitors in this Vendée Globe. Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre was the first to arrive in the chilly early hours of this morning on Temenos to take a deserved fourth. He was followed around six hours later by the youngest skipper of the fleet, Sébastien Josse. It was at 0515 GMT this Tuesday 8th February 2005 that the 60 foot monohull Temenos skippered by Dominique Wavre crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe 2004, a single-handed race, without stopovers and without assistance departing and finishing in Les Sables d’Olonne (France). The race time to make the 23,680 miles is 92 days 17 hours and 13 minutes and 20 seconds at an average theoretical speed across the course of 10.64 knots. At lunch time it was the turn of Sébastien Josse who made the finish at 1204 GMT under clear blue skies, and a temptingly warm sun. VMI’s race time is 93 days 00 hours and 02 minutes and 10 seconds at an average theoretical speed across the course of 10.61 knots. There are now eight competitors still out racing. British skipper Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) is 2136.9 miles from the finish averaging 12.7 knots at 1500 GMT and American skipper Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet) is 630 miles behind him averaging 8.9 knots.

“I have no idea whether I’ll do the Vendée Globe in four years time or not”, said the wise Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre on his arrival early this morning. “Who knows what they are going to do in 4 years time? These projects really depend on your financers. For this Vendée Globe my goal was to fight it out in the leading pack so I was really disappointed with my sailing the first week. I had problems with my foresails off Madeira during the first week. After that I lost a fair number of miles on the leaders in the Doldrums and then again in the Saint Helena High. Later on I managed to make up some ground and there were 5 or 6 of us grouped together in the Indian Ocean. It really felt good and together with the rough weather it really was a total pleasure to be on the water. In the 40’s and 50’s I loved the waves and the boat was absolutely magnificent. Four years ago we didn’t have any real storms but this time around there were three occasions when you could honestly say that the sea conditions were dangerous. Anything could have gone wrong and we were really on a knife edge. Making high speed in very rough weather – Temenos was just fantastic. I was a bit stressed but it calmed me down to see how well the boat was handling it. She’s a great boat.” About six hours later the youngest skipper of the fleet passed the finish line under a glorious sun and clear blue skies with barely a whisper of wind. It was an emotional Sébastien Josse (VMI) that addressed a large mass of local supporters, friends and family, minutes after stepping onto dry land for the first time in three months. “The memory I’ll hold onto about this race is that I’m happy to have done it. Unless you’ve done this race you can’t imagine what it’s like. I feel very emotional. It’s difficult to explain. Lots of things go through your head. It’s a pleasure and a joy to finish. It doesn’t bother me at all to have been on my own for three months – in fact I could go off again tomorrow and I certainly hope to be able to do the Vendée Globe 2008. Before hitting the growler my motivation was the competition, afterwards I had to change my objectives and just wanted to finish. I know I could have kept up the rhythm of pure regatta racing. My entry into the Indian was pretty difficult as it felt much quicker than on other boats, it was like being on an optimist (small kids sailing boat). You quickly have to adapt to that. After the growler I felt stressed all the way to Cape Horn with my damaged rudder but I think I handled the situation well. It was also difficult to have to lose Bilou (Roland Jourdain – retired for keel problems). It was the loss of both a friend and a reference. The positive thing about my race is to be here in Les Sables d’Olonne today! We knew from the start that given the conditions, it wasn’t the time for going slow. Some would say it was the youngsters like Alex (Thomson) and I that were going to go off like that but it was the ‘old hands’ that set the pace and we simply followed. You knew if you broached that you’d gone too far that’s all.” Author KJ

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