Vendée Globe

The next competitor expected in Les Sables d’Olonne, Benoît Parnaudeau (Max Havelaar Best Western), may well cross the finish line of the Vendée Globe at midday tomorrow, Thursday 3 March, given his current speed. In so doing Benoît will take a highly merited 10th place in the general ranking. The last few miles must seem like an eternity as the La Rochelle skipper sails in a very active N’ly air flow scattered with numerous squalls. Consequently Benoît is striving to make seemingly constant sail changes to keep up with the devilish pace set by the capricious winds.

Anne Liardet (Roxy) is currently crossing a transition zone that Benoît bore the brunt of at the start of the week. As a result she is being forced to tack across the ridge of high pressure while awaiting the wind to fill in from the N as forecast. Roxy’s VMG will suffer once again and in such conditions, 750 miles from Les Sables d’Olonne, Anne’s ETA is difficult to gauge.

As Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Verandas) indicated during yesterday’s penultimate radio session, he has been firing on all cylinders in the recent favourable conditions. He has been clocked at 16.1 knots of instantaneous speed this morning, and over 12 knots on a direct course. No doubt that Raphaël is also keen to get home. He is passing the latitude of the Canaries today and is hoping to be able to stay on the SW edge of the depression as long as he can to continue racking up some fine days of over 250 miles. Abeam to the wind, his Akena Verandas is smoking along without putting too much stress on his fragile rig.

Karen Leibovici (Benefic) is touching the Southern edge of the vast system that has been dealing out the powerful wind cards to Anne Liardet and Raphaël Dinelli. The N’ly wind will freshen for her as it veers to the NE, leaving poor Karen with upwind followed by more upwind with 1900 miles to go.
Translation Kate Jennings

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