Vendée Globe

Last Sunday, 30th November, the leaders were completing their voyage down the South Atlantic and getting ready to turn left towards the first of the series of gates spread across the southern seas.  A week later, on Sunday 7th December in the 11h rankings, we can see that these boats have been making very fast progress indeed.

 

Paprec-Virbac 2, leading the way in the rankings covered more than 2300 nautical miles towards the finish at an average speed of 14 knots, without any doubt the best weekly progress since the start of the race on Sunday 9th November.  Jean-Pierre Dick's Farr-designed boat won back the lead by going for a route further south than those chosen by his rivals between the two Ice Gates marking the entry to the Indian Ocean. He was at 47°20 S and 27°20 E, or around 700 miles S/SE of the Cape of Good Hope and had not yet completed the first third of the course.

Changeover
Jean-Pierre was in the lead this morning, but yesterday evening, it was one of his rivals that occupied the top spot and in the previous rankings, someone else again. This just shows how compact the leading pack is.  Hardly one hundred miles (in terms of distance to the finish) separate the first from the tenth after four weeks. The boats are so close that some have even be sailing within sight of each other, as we saw in the video clip sent back of the near miss between PRB / Paprec-Virbac 2. They are sailing broad reaching and often zig-zagging along the race course. Depending on these gybes and because of the high speeds, allowing them to maintain 20 knots over long periods and sail more than 400 miles a day, gaps widen and close, without any one really making their getaway.  Clearly the competitors are keeping an eye on each other and tempering their efforts to the conditions and their position in the fleet, while occasionally being forced to ease off because of some technical problem.

Sébastien Josse, the skipper of BT, who is regularly at the front, summed up the situation as follows, "There's a battle.  The standard is high.  Everyone is struggling to get that little inch more. It's a real close contact race around the world.  I'm pleased about my current position. But we're always watching the routes being taken by the others.  JP (Dick) is right down there in the south.  I have been keeping an eye on his progress.   As for Peyron, he's up in the north. Every twelve hours the weather charts change and the options are thrown into question.  This little game continues all the time.  As soon as a competitor changes his course by 5°, we know he has changed sails and is going for a different option.  We don't have much time to get away from the boats, as the fleet is so tightly bunched up.»

Differences in speed
We sometimes see significant speed differences between two neighbouring boats, as if one skipper has chosen to take the high-speed train, by remaining at the helm under full sail, while another has reduced his sail to grab some rest.  In some points of sail, the autopilot can steer as well, if not better than the sailor.  In other conditions, for example broad reaching under spinnaker, it is better to remain at the helm, if you want to sail quickly.  It would appear that some of the competitors are more at ease than others with their autopilots.  Another aspect that stands out in this fourth week of the race, the first in the deep south, is the reliability of the boats, in spite of the harsh treatment they have been through. Although there has been some minor damage (sails), nothing serious has been reported. In spite of the sudden change in conditions as they went in the course of a few days from summer to winter, the sailors are also in great shape, although no one is protected from injury.  At the moment it is Vincent Riou who is such a victim, after his boat broached.  The winner of the last Vendée Globe is suffering from an inflammation around his Achilles tendon and the sole of his foot.  He has been advised not to stay standing up, which explains why this natural racer appreciates the calms.

The hunters keep hunting
For four weeks, Michel Desjoyeaux has been pushing forward on Foncia 48 hours ago, we were able to say he had made it back with the leaders as he cracked the Top 10.  He may not be at the front, but he is sailing in the same conditions as the frontrunners and that is what he has been after for the last three weeks. The question we can now ask ourselves is 'Will the «Professor» continue at this crazy pace or will he adapt to what his neighbours are doing?'.  We shall be watching with interest... Last week, Michel was 13th, 255 miles from the leader. This morning, he was ninth, 108 miles from the leader. However the skipper of Foncia is not the only skipper who had to re-start who has been setting an electric pace. There is no stopping Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat), who is even more determined than usual, in spite of a broken bowsprit that he has had to work on himself. In the space of a week, he went from 19th to 15th place and the gap with the leader was cut by 130 miles.  It is true that he still has some way to go (605 miles) to be up with the frontrunners, but with his steely determination, he intends to have his say.  The same is true of Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty.  Quietly, the youngest entrant in the race, is also working miracles.  He has not only moved up four spots in the rankings on his Groupe Maisonneuve, but he has closed the gap on the leader by 140 miles.  Incredible! We should add that Norbert Sedlacek is currently in 24th place, bringing up the rear, 1845 miles from the leader. The Basque skipper, Unai Basurko has just announced he is retiring from the race because of a damaged rudder.  There are now only 24 boats left out of the 30 that set sail.

Patrice Carpentier 

 

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