Vendée Globe

It was five days and six hours after Foncia’s triumphant arrival that Brit Air finished in second place in Les Sables d’Olonne. We shall now have to wait a few days before welcoming the third boat. Marc Guillemot is determined to grab third place rather than have to rely on the compensation that he received for going to the help of Yann Eliès. There is a close battle going on with Samantha Davies, with another one raging just behind between the two British competitors, Brian and Dee for fifth place. The Azores pressure charts are far from stable and contributing to the suspense with the first two boats safely moored up.

Bilou’s keel broken completely off
Roland Jourdain reached Ponta Delgada in the Azores, where he was helped by two members of his shore team, waiting for him there. Once moored up, the skipper of Veolia Environnement wanted to be certain that he had taken the right decision about stopping. He can be reassured. After checking under the water, it became clear that the red and white boat had lost her bulb as well as the whole of her keel blade, broken off at the level of the hull. His analysis: “In my opinion, I think it broke off in two stages, as otherwise I would have capsized immediately. The bang that I heard must have been the bulb. I reckon that when the keel broke off, it twisted and a piece remained attached to the hull, which stopped me from capsizing. Later on, when I was taking in a reef, I heard some clanking sounds coming from the hull and that was the remaining bit breaking off.”

Marc and Samantha’s yo-yo
In last Sunday’s 10h00 GMT rankings, the young English sailor was in third place 80 miles ahead of Marc Guillemot. Her lead continued to grow over the following days to reach almost 300 miles in terms of distance to the finish. But this did not shake the skipper of Safran, who deliberately chose a route around the west of the Azores high. History proved him right. On Friday, he began to pick up speed, while Samantha was stuck in calms. This morning, sailing 1286 miles from the finish, he had a lead of 100 miles over the former PRB. Nothing has yet been decided between these two boats and both are about to experience a real battering before the finish, although for the moment the advantage would appear to be with the Frenchman. We can add that Samantha resisted any temptation to cry or ask for our pity during this slow week (averaging just 7 knots towards the finish!) To motivate herself, she was still hoping to smash the record for a woman in the event, held by Ellen MacArthur with a time of 94 days and 4 hours. She has her work cut out…

Dee’s confetti
«It was horrible for the mainsail because with no wind and a swell, the mainsail has just been flapping back and forwards and I did not know it is was going to survive, because behind me I was just leaving a trail of mylar like confetti as it was peeling off the sail. And I was thinking ‘Oh this is just the worst thing for the sail.’I am just hoping she will survive upwind, the sections now are too big to do a repair on so it if dies on me I will have to come up with something.»

Armel Le Cléac’h experienced his worst week
Battered by some very bad weather, particularly on Wednesday, the brave skipper of Brit Air rode out the storm sailing cautiously towards Les Sables in order to preserve his boat. At the finish yesterday, he declared, “Over the past few days, in some violent gusts, the protective cover over the cockpit was ripped off. One wave lifted it up and a second one broke it off. During the night, the mainsail car came off the track. I took in three reefs and was beginning to get worried. If it had got any worse, I would have brought down the mainsail and sailed just under the small jib.”

Results and statistics
At the end of this thirteenth week on the 91st day of the race, two boats have crossed the finish and nine others still remain at sea. Michel Desjoyeaux won the race on Foncia finishing on Sunday 1st February 2009 at 15H11 GMT. His race time was 84 days 3 hours 9 minutes and 8 seconds. His real distance on the water was 28,303 miles, which he sailed at an average speed of 14 knots. In theoretical distance, the average was 12.30 knots. Armel Le Cléac’h, second on Brit Air, finished on Saturday 7th February at 08H41 GMT. His race time was 89 days 9 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds. He covered 27,232 miles at an average speed of 12.7 knots (11.57 knots on the theoretical route). In the 10h rankings this morning, Marc Guillemot was in third place aboard Safran, sailing near the Azores with a lead of 100 miles over Roxy in terms of distance to the finish. Brian Thompson, who at one point threatened to challenge Marc and Samantha, was also slowed on his way towards the Azores. This morning, Dee Caffari (Aviva), 6th, had closed the gap on Bahrain Team Pindar, but is likely to see him get away again before the finish a week from now in Vendée. The three boats further back have developed such gaps that the order in the rankings (Akena, 7th, Toe in the Water, 8th and Great American III, 9th) is not likely to change, unless there is a major upset. To finish, at the rear of the fleet, still to the south of the Forties in the South Atlantic, Raphaël Dinelli is 5920 miles from the finish and had regained the advantage (400 miles) over his former companion, the Austrian, Norbert Sedlacek. The best progress towards the finish this week was achieved this week by Safran with an average speed of 8.5 knots. Since the start of the Vendée Globe never has the fastest boat over the week in the fleet sailed so slowly.

Patrice Carpentier
 

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