The fourteenth week of the Vendée Globe got off to a very sad start: on Monday, Safran lost her keel. Consequently, Marc Guillemot who had a lead of a hundred miles last Sunday over Samantha Davies, 1280 miles from the finishing line and on his way to third place, found himself confronted with a completely unforeseen situation: he would have to try to reach Vendée without his keel. In so doing Roxy obviously overtook him to finish early on Saturday morning, but the sailor from la Trinité, now being chased by two other British sailors, Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari, has been doing his utmost to reach Les Sables before 02h41 on Monday morning and thus take third place thanks to his redress for going to the assistance of Yann Eliès (Generali). The suspense mounts, as the finish looks very close…
Safran loses her keel
Marc Guillemot announced serious damage to the keel on Monday 9th February, after noticing that it was loose in its box and had slipped down a few centimetres.
Later that morning, he phoned his shore team to warn them that he had lost his keel. Marc Guillemot filled his ballast tanks to lower the centre of gravity and sailed under small jib with three reefs in the mainsail. He decided to continue racing whatever happened. The cause of the damage to the appendage probably dated back to the collision that happened on 11th December with a whale, as they were sailing off the Kerguelens at twenty knots. The skipper of Safran had managed to secure the appendage using lashings attaching the keel head to the mast and mast winch. Then, the keel broke off and now lies somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic.
A vice that is getting tighter
The good news for Marc was that the sea was calming down and the wind easing off. On his way east he would nevertheless have to tack. This would help Bahrain Team Pindar and Aviva close the gap from behind as they took advantage of a more favourable breeze. Meanwhile Samantha Davies, who had overtaken the ill-fated Frenchman on Monday evening, took advantage to gallop towards the finish, although she too had to take the long way around by heading north. As Roxy, third, crossed the finish at 00h41 on Saturday 14th February 2009 after 95 days 4 hours 39 minutes and 1 second of sailing – covering 27,470 miles on the water at an average of 12 knots - Safran was some 250 miles from the finish and on a bearing taking her a long way from the direct route because of contrary winds. The two other British sailors continued to close the gap, but against all expectations, the Breton skipper, who must have spent a lot of time at the helm of his keelboat turned dinghy, managed to ward them off in spite of having the use of only half his sail. In the 10h00 rankings this morning, 97 miles from les Sables d’Olonne, he still had a lead of 32 miles and was on the same bearing and making the same speed as Thompson’s « aircraft carrier » with the yellow Aviva, 45 miles further back. At this pace, Marc was capable of pulling off the amazing feat of finishing ahead of Samantha Davies on corrected time (after his extra redress) and ahead of the two other British contenders.
And then there were five
By tomorrow evening after a close finish for three boats, as we enter the hundredth day, there will be five boats left racing. Arnaud Boissières, 7th, was still 1337 miles from the finish in the 10h00 rankings. This just goes to show that the skipper of Akéna Vérandas, who rounded the Horn alongside Thompson and Caffari had a very difficult climb back up the Atlantic. Steve White is not likely to pose a real threat to him, as he is still 500 miles further back, although this is nevertheless 250 miles less than last Sunday. The gap of 1500 miles between the skipper of Toe in the Water and the American, Rich Wilson (Great American II), 9th, 3386 miles from the finish has not changed. As for Raphael Dinelli, he still has his lead of 350 miles over Sedlacek, eleventh and at the rear of the fleet, 4900 miles from the finish.
Patrice Carpentier
