Vendée Globe

The weeks slip by and look more and more like each other in the southern seas.  Last Sunday, the week's summary talked about several retirements. This week, once again, the race has had its fair share of incidents...

The first was the tragic story of Bernard Stamm's boat running aground on the rocks in Morbihan Bay, as the Swiss sailor sought shelter in the Kerguelens to attempt to carry out repairs on his steering. Fortunately Cheminées Poujoulat, which was seriously damaged on the port side, was taken off the next day. After having her mast removed, she was loaded onto a supply vessel, the Marion Dufresne, setting sail for Reunion Island. Then, just as Stamm was completing the tricky loading procedure onto the French territory vessel, we learnt that Jean-Pierre Dick, who had been galloping away at the front of the fleet for eight days, had hit a UFO.

JP Dick suffers rudder damage
In a collision at more than twenty knots, the starboard rudder attachment cracked. The skipper of Paprec-Virbac 2 had to ease off to sail upright with the port rudder in the water. To strengthen the starboard rudder mechanism, he had to find a way of bolting it to the transom and then attaching the rudder stock: an operation which was to take the solo sailor a lot of time. In first place last Sunday, this morning he was sailing 965 miles from the new leader in seventh place. Yesterday, Saturday (20 December), Paprec-Virbac 2 returned to race mode, but Dick was trying to avoid putting too much strain on the starboard rudder, as the transom to which the helm is attached was not designed for that. Once again this morning, Jean-Pierre tried to reduce the strain by wrapping ropes around the repaired rudder.

Golding grabs the lead and then his boat is dismasted
On Monday night (in Europe), Mike Golding quickly overtook Dick, who was suffering from the handicap of his damaged rudder, and had grabbed the lead by the end of a day when the dials went crazy. Michel Desjoyeaux achieved the best performance since the start in les Sables d’Olonne, covering 466.5 miles in 24h, at an average speed of more than 19 knots (only two miles off the outright record held by Alex Thomson). The skipper of Foncia was right behind the British competitor… whose boat then dismasted on Tuesday morning. Mike Golding reported: "The  main bulk of the weather system had gone through and I was in a quieter area afterwards, under staysail and double reefed main. Once it went through I left the main and went for a reacher and I was very happy with that for two and a half or three hours and was quite stable for the conditions, and then all of a sudden I had a 50 knots squall come through. I was below and did not see it. No sooner had I got my jacket on and was sort of half out on deck, than there was a bang and I just went back down below, because there was a lot of stuff flying around. There was no mast, the sails were over the side of the boat. It was broken with a couple of breaks." The incident happened more than 1000 miles from the nearest land in Australia. On Tuesday 16th September, the 37th day of the race, Michel Desjoyeaux, who had made a remarkable return to the race after restarting in les Sables d’Olonne, thus took the lead and has held it ever since.

Yann Eliès breaks his leg
On Thursday morning, (18th December), Race HQ were informed that Yann Eliès had seriously injured his right leg. As he was carrying out manoeuvres at the bow, his boat slammed into a wave, coming to a sudden standstill. In the violent movement, Yann was thrown against the pulpit and felt a severe pain in his leg. He crawled back to his cabin and contacted Dr. Jean-Yves Chauve, who diagnosed a probable fractured femur (this was later to be confirmed in addition to some cracked ribs). The sailor could no longer move, but managed to heave to (he was under staysail and reduced mainsail) by using the autopilot, and requested an evacuation. That evening, the 180m frigate HMAS Arunta, capable of speeds of up to 30 knots, left Perth to head for Generali, which was located 800 miles to the south. Already that morning, Race HQ had asked Marc Guillemot (Safran), sailing 100 miles south of Yann Eliès, to change course and head for Generali. Samantha Davies was given the same instructions, but she was much further away to the west. Marc's presence in the area and the conversations he was able to have by VHF relieved Eliès's suffering from a psychological perspective. His physical condition also improved slightly once Yann managed to grab some food and painkillers while awaiting the Australian rescue service. The arrival of the frigate took place much earlier than initially planned on Saturday. The wind had eased off, although a heavy swell remained. Yann was taken off on a stretcher using a RIB, then taken aboard the HMAS Arunta on station alongside - a successful rescue operation all round. Two men from the Generali team are due to motor out to the yacht in the coming days to bring the drifting boat back to port.

The leaders at the halfway stage tonight.
After the damage this week and the rescue of Yann Eliès, the race rankings have been modified considerably since last Sunday. On the 42nd day of the race,  Michel Desjoyeaux, sailing this morning at 52°19’S and 160°50’E, to the S/SW of New Zealand, is still in first place, 11,925 miles from the finish. He covered 2614 miles towards the finish this week at an average speed of 15.5 knots, the best weekly progress since the start of the race. This evening, the skipper of Foncia is due to reach the halfway stage and thus will be getting closer and closer to Les Sables d’Olonne. Michel, the first to enter the Pacific, is leading a small group including Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), Sébastien Josse (BT) with Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), in fourth place, just 186 miles from the leader. In other words, the four competitors are keeping a close eye on each other. Next, Brit Air and PRB, sailing together 250 miles from VM Matériaux are hanging on in there and ready to make a move once conditions allow. Jean-Pierre Dick, in 7th place is now almost 1000 miles from the boat he was in front of last Monday. Further back, after going to the help of the skipper of Generali, Marc Guillemot (to whom the Jury will be granting a time bonus for the days he spent alongside Yann) is sailing alongside Samantha Davies. Brian Thompson, now in tenth place, is more than 1500 miles from the leader. Much further back, approaching the Kerguelens, Raphaël Dinelli and Norbert Sedlacek are bringing up the rear. On Sunday 21st December, twelve boats have retired from the Vendée Globe and eighteen are still racing.

Patrice Carpentier
 

Infos précédentes :