Vendée Globe

At the end of the tenth week of the race, or at the end of Day 70, eight out of the twelve boats still in the race are sailing in the Atlantic. After a delightful feeling of peace after the stress of the Southern Ocean, the climb back up the Atlantic quickly showed how cruel it could be. Anything can happen in this huge zone stretching from Argentina up to Uruguay: steady downwind conditions or thundery, light or strong headwinds. A bit of a lucky dip. As you sail further north-eastwards, there is another difficulty, which is fairly predictable: a period of upwind tacking to reach the easterly or south-easterly trade winds. The famous trade wind highway, which Foncia hopped onto this Friday.

Since then, the white boat has stepped up the pace and this morning has a lead of 450 miles over Veolia Environnement in second place. For a month, Michel Desjoyeaux has been in the lead, but has never been so far ahead. Unless there is a major upset in the Doldrums, or some serious damage, a win for the frontrunner in this Vendée seems more and more likely.

A tough Horn
After Foncia, Veolia and Brit Air, it was a two-handed crew that rounded the Horn. Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam aboard PRB. Vincent had picked up Jean from the stern of his capsized boat. The two sailors had managed to take care of the rigging that was damaged during the rescue, but unfortunately, the mast collapsed shortly after rounding the Horn. Jean had lost his boat and now Vincent was out of the race. Due to the circumstances and applying Rule 62.1 (c), the jury awarded the skipper of PRB the position he was in when he was diverted. Riou is therefore third in the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe, or equal third with the boat that crossed the line in third place back in Les Sables d’Olonne (but there will also be a boat in fourth place!) A few days after this unusual story, three boats were arriving at the Pacific exit relatively close together, when the forecasters announced a storm off Tierra del Fuego, which was to be the most violent in the race up until then. Brian Thompson had no other choice but to wait with four reefs in his mainsail, tacking in the lee of the island of Los Estados, while Arnaud Boissières, a bit further back, preferred to move away from the worst weather by heading towards the south-east, and Dee Caffari stayed where she was close to the Chilean islands. The wind initially blew strongly from the north, before backing SW’ly whipping up some terrible seas. All three sailors made it through without any major problems and Brian was content to have pleased to have waited.

Damage report
There is and will be damage to many of these boats, as they have undergone a real battering in the Southern Ocean and it may not be any easier in the Atlantic. Akena Verandas lost her satellite antenna, as she left the Pacific. Following a collision with a sea mammal, «Bilou» had to strengthen his mast bulkhead by using battens and applying carbon. Aviva’s sail delamination is not entirely new and the courageous British sailor has been carrying out regular repairs. To make her way back up the Atlantic, she will need to strengthen her damaged sail by patching it with pieces of one of her headsails. This is going to be quite some job! Marc Guillemot also had work to carry out. He had to find a sheltered bay (Port Stanley in the Falklands) to climb back up his mast again to re-attach his mainsail track. He was only partially successful. He can only hoist the mainsail to second reef. On Steve White’s boat, the headboard car broke forcing the British sailor to lower his mainsail and find a solution. In spite of all this damage and other problems on other boats that may have been kept quiet, the Vendée Globe has not seen anyone retire this week.

Statistics
In the 10h rankings this Sunday (18th January), on the 70th day of the race, Foncia was sailing at 06°09’S and 32°43’W 3604 miles from the finish. This is the white boat’s slowest week of sailing since the start with an average VMG of less than 10 knots. This is hardly surprising given the prevailing upwind conditions. Veolia doubled the distance to the leader (450 miles) and Brit Air, in third place, was even worse off and is now some 1000 miles behind Michel Desjoyeaux. Samantha Davies is still in fourth place ( 800 nautical miles from Brit Air) on her valiant Roxy. She has hardly lost any ground to the leader and neither has Marc Guillemot (Safran), in spite of his pit stop in the Falklands. The duel between these two boats currently 340 miles apart, is that much more exciting, as Safran cannot hoist her mainsail beyond second reef, but has a bonus of fifty hours more than Sam, since the rescue operation alongside Generali. There is also a great battle raging between the three boats behind, with Thompson (6th), Boissières (7th) and Caffari (8th), more or less 700 miles from Safran. The greatest progress of the week was made by Steve White, in ninth place, aboard his old Toe in The Water. He narrowed the gap over Desjoyeaux by 385 miles. It is true that the winds are more favourable in the Pacific than in the Atlantic, but his performance fully deserves a mention. For the three bringing up the rear, the distances are increasing. Dinelli and Sedlacek, sailing alongside each other are at the tail end of the fleet around 7000 miles from the leader. Will they have reached Cape Horn by the time the winner is back in Les Sables? That is far from certain…

Patrice Carpentier


 

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