News : Giving it some - Vendée Globe

Giving it some

News

November 13. 2008 at 18:32

The pace at the front of the fleet is incessant. The leading five are passing Madeira with Loïck Peyron hanging on to a lead of 13.6 miles, making nearly 16 knots of boat speed, ahead of Seb Josse (BT) who has taken back second and who lead last night.

Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) lies third as all three pass to the west of Madeira, while the maverick Jean le Cam (VM Matériaux) continues his run down the eastern-most flank and has chosen to go inside the main island of Madeira and risk the wind-shadow effect of the mountains which reach nearly 2000m.

A bitterly disappointed Alex Thomson confirmed this afternoon that he has no choice but to retire from the Vendée Globe. He said that the repairs required to be made to his Open 60 Hugo Boss would take ‘weeks rather than days’. With just six days now until the start line officially closes, the British solo skipper vowed to return in 2012 to try again, after now being forced out of two consecutive editions of the race with structural damage.

Thomson is returning home to England immediately, shattered after the combined effects of first a two and a half week battle to repair his boat to make the start after he was struck by a fishing boat and now the damage which terminated his Vendée Globe after less than three days of racing.

The chasing pack have picked up the pace too, well into trade winds type sailing although some mentioned the lack of sunshine so far on today. Several of the leading skippers today remarked at having so little time to rest and recuperate, so intense is the need to keep up the ferocious work rate.

Of the international skippers Mike Golding on Ecover three retains 11^th spot on the rankings, but has Brian Thompson becoming a threat with the Juan K designed powerful Bahrain Team Pindar. Thompson has made up to be just 13 miles behind and slightly east of Golding, though Golding on his Owen Clarke design is consistently quicker than his former co-skipper on this afternoon’s register.

Derek Hatfield gave details of his plans to leave Les Sables d’Olonne again to re-start the Vendée Globe early Friday morning. He will have a deficit of around 1200 miles on the leading boat, but perhaps around 170-220 miles on Bernard Stamm, the Swiss skipper who restarted about 24 hours earlier than the former RCMP policeman.

“I am a very competitive person, but it takes a little bit of soul searching and re-motivating to get back into it. The motivation is getting round the world safely and see how we fare.” Said Hatfield.

Seb Josse, FRA, (BT)

“I am happy and will wait for the gybe when I can. It is not so important to be leading at this stage, it is most important to be at the front of the fleet, and having all these boats behind is good. The wind builds up a bit so that we mean we had to drop the big gennaker and put up the smaller sail. I'm happy about my position because the Trade Winds our a little big stronger in the east and all the times its easier to trans form this position if I g! o down a little bit in speed.”

FROM TODAY’S RADIO VACS:

listen live each day at approx 1200gmt on www vendeeglobe.org

Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III)

confirmed that he is still trying to rest his badly bruised back, which is requiring him to be a little conservative:

“When I went up from one reef in the main, I had to make 250 revolutions on the pedestal winch, and I can feel every one of them.”

He said that he has a reaching sail up rather than a spinnaker as a concession to his back:

“I have been tidying up a few things, some attachment points for gear came loose and things like that, so we are getting things sorted out, and we are going along nicely under a full main and reacher, making about 11 knots or so. It is a beautiful sunny day, so this is pretty nice to have after those first couple of days. We are in a pack of boats (Artemis about 30 miles ahead, and Pakea) and so we are moving along nicely with this group. We gybed late last night away from the centre of the high pressure system, that seems to have worked pretty well for us. Things are under good control.”

Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA)

“I am still waiting for the sunshine, but progress has been good, I am managing to hang on to this pack who are surging south, so I am pretty pleased with where I am.

“I have had a good look around the boat from front to back to be sure that I have not had any damage, and that has allowed me to relax and enjoy the sailing and the dolphins which were with me last night.”

“I am really pleased to now be able to perform in this arena, and not just follow everybody, it is very exciting but there is still a very long way to go.”

Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada):

“ Things are looking better and better. “

“ If all goes well I will be leaving on the early morning tide.”

“ Team Pindar has stepped up and are doing a great job, getting the boat back together again. The list was a little longer than we expected, because of the mast problems, taking the mast down was not envisaged. It was very lucky that we came back because we did not know that it was a problem, and that would have continued. The mainsail would not come down.

I need to thank the folks here because without them we would be having to withdraw. It is a much bigger job and I don’t have a full team here to do this kind of work.

Andrew, for me, helped me get back when I dismasted off Cape Horn in 2002, and now he is helping me again. He is helping me again and I really appreciate that.

The storm was not a really high winds storm, it’s the waves that were the problem and did all the damage. The boats are getting bounced around by different waves coming from different angles.”