Vendée Globe

As the leading group gybe Seb Josse has stretched his leading margin again to 4.1 miles over the omnipresent Jean Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) while Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) stays third on the 1900hrs standings report.

Josse’s strategy looks solid for the moment, he is consistently sailing faster in slightly better breeze and has remained closer to the rhumb line, only Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) has posted the better VMG over the last 24 hours. As it is, now that VM Matériaux is closing back from the west then some of that relative gain evaporates, but Le Cam is still sixth, but his margin behind Josse has doubled in four hours. 

Further back Sam Davies (ROXY), on that easterly inside lane still, has made a gain on Dee Caffari (Aviva) and is now ranked above her. Dee took a short hitch to the south and loses her 12^th place to Sam for the moment.

Evidence of the elastic effect as the leaders gybe back to the rhumb line, see Mike Golding in 11^th still, but his deficit to first place has grown 16 miles over the four hours, but Ecover looked to have just gybed.

Mike Golding explained the compression and extension today:

“ I am following my routing and sailing as well as I can using the sail combination that I have.  I am not leaning one way or another with what the other boats are doing.  There is only about 50 miles spread across the leading boats i n the fleet. I don't think I am in a bad place, although it would be nice to be further forward but I am doing OK on the boats around me. There will probably will be a compression with the leaders and once they have gybed, then they will extend away again.  You would expect to see this and there will be winners and losers out of that.  Strategically it is not about where you are on the course, it is about when you are going to go west.  You are looking at places down the track - passing Madeira and setting up for the Canaries."

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) still holds 14^th place. He reported tto the live radio vacations today : 

“Things are definitely looking up now, we have much nicer conditions now. I had a few problems which slowed us down, especially that first day, with weed, I think that something was wrapped on the keel which prompted a foul-up as well. But I have resolved those, and now the speed is picking up, so it is really good now.”

“We got through the worst of it with no damage which is the main thing, and it was really tricky trying to avoid the biggest waves on that second night, but I think the stuff on the keel, and the foul ups slowed us down more than we should have done. But we are going really well now, under gennaker, staysail and full main, the pilot is working really well. And so we are looking at a gybe some time tonight.”

To muse on overnight - Will those, who have gone for extreme options continue to make gains on their current trajectory or will they try to position themselves ahead of the fleet? 

Will those behind attempt a radical option particularly as there are no rankings between 20h and 5h?
It is often by night that gaps between the competitors widen.  Efforts at night can pay off, as a wisely chosen gybe goes unnoticed until the following rankings at five in the morning.

Between Cape Saint-Vincent, where the fleet is currently sailing to the Cape Verde Islands, they are going to have to get back on track. The passages through the islands, where the wind can suddenly drop off, are tricky.  Madeira is a true obstacle with a height of 1500 metres, while the Teide, on Tenerife rises to 3760 metres. Even if Madeira is still 250 miles idown the track, now is the time to line up for the islands, as this may be the first major tactical play to shuffle the fleet.

Listen to the live English speaking radio vacations around midday gmt on www.vendeeglobe.org, immediately after the French language vacs.

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