Vendée Globe

Pressing hard in the SE'ly trade winds there is little to choose between the top seven or eight boats, speeds are even, but Peyron is still making small gains

Speeds between the top ten boats at the head of the Vendée Globe fleet remain very even in the hard pressed, stable trade winds conditions but Loïck Peyron has managed to add a further two miles to his lead, and now has 24.4 miles in hand over Seb Josse,

It is a straight speed test still, a long 1000 miles plus leg on the same tack, and now the leaders get used to life crashing upwind, applying as much power as they dare while trying to keep a good balance while the trade winds settle. Up ahead there is a complex meteorological pattern to decipher with the fractured, difficult St Helena looming down the track.

But with four very evenly match Farr designs at the top of the fleet, it is presently about how the boats, rigs and sails have been optimized for this motorway racing, and how hard the skippers work at trimming.

Gains and losses have been small. In fourth Vincent Riou appears to have lost about five miles over the day. Jean Pierre Dick accounted for some of his loss yesterday reminding us he had to stop the boat and dive to remove a rope which was round his rudder on Paprec-Virbac 2, who lies third, 38.7 miles behind Gitana Eighty.

“It is time to get some rest after the hard work of past two weeks.” Said Dick, “ Seas are choppy and we are banging into waves. A piece of net caught under boat which slowed me down.  I tried to free it, but ended up diving to get it away.  I hove to and had had to take a rope over with me to be able to get back on board.  It wasn't too worrying as warm water.  Climbing the mast is more scary.”

Mike Golding, GBR,  made a three miles advance this morning, but if evidence of how close these latest generation of Open 60’s are, Ecover 3 was computed to be 75.4 miles behind Gitana Eighty, the leading Farr design, at 0800hrs this morning at six hours of hard close reaching, the British skipper’s differential is computed 75.3 miles. Ecover 3, the latest Owen Clarke design, is seventh and has eased clear of the 2004 Lombard designed and had gained seven miles today on sixth placed Générali (Yann Elies).

The second wave, Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos), Brian Thompson. GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar), Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) and Marc Guillemot (Safran) emerged relatively unscathed from a swift Doldrums crossing, but were forced on more westerly heading. But Thompson has the Juan K design well powered up and has been quickest, along with Golding (who is quickest this afternoon), and was gaining on Wavre, while Safran, a more modern and powerful design; has overtaken the double Vendée Globe winning Roxy.

It has been a painful day for the British pair Steve White and Jonny Malbon. Their Toe in the Water and Artemis have been stuck in the re-formed, especially sticky Doldrums, losing 98 and 75 miles respectively today. More fortunate has been Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) who is up to 18^th place.

Ends   

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia): "After being slightly slowed down in the Doldrums last night, the transition into the SE'ly winds was immediate! I didn't think too much about it and hoisted the staysail straight away.  But, for the next stretch, we won't be going all the way around the "parish"(the St. Helena high).  It's going to be upwind and more upwind. It's not going to be much fun and it's not going to be very fast." 

Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore): "I was sleeping as we crossed the Equator, so didn't have any ceremony or do any offerings.  I'm not like Francis Joyon, who raises his daggerboards when he crosses the famous line.  Why is Loïck Peyron doing so well? He knows how to get the most out of his boat. And in all of his choices, he was more extreme than us…"

Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty): This is not a holiday cruise! The boats are being sailed at 100% of their capacity.  Any little pleasures?  Going outside in my birthday suit. The air is warm and the water is above 20 degrees, so it's very pleasant." 

Mike Golding, ECOVER 3: It is wet and wild now, I am reduced to wearing foulies (waterproof clothing) and trying to keep the salt off my skin, and there is lots of tending to the boat and trying to get the last bit of speed out of her. It is good progress, but a lot of ballast in, ballast out, trim in and trim out going on, it is very steady conditions, it is trade winds, but the wind is fluctuating between 15 and 20 knots and that is quite a big space for me quite the number of variables for me in terms of ballast and sail combinations and so invariably I am chasing my tail, trying to keep in the right performance

In this particular configuration I have a pretty extraordinary angle of heel and it is very, very uncomfortable on board.

Dee Caffari, GBR AVIVA : “I had a wet and difficult 20 hours but now I seem to have come out the other side, but now I seem to have got a more Southerly wind which is not so great because I am heading a little bit more towards Brasil, but at least I have got through the difficult bit. Once I had found my first black cloud then I had twenty knots and then nothing and then I had four or five of them, with the wind from all different directions, it was a bit sticky to just keep going, but now we are out, we are in sunshine with fluffy white clouds and a southerly breeze, so it is not too bad. Now it is pretty difficult, it is ranging between 12 and 20, and it is starting to go round more to the south east more, but when we came out first it was a more southerly breeze.

There is no air in the boat now because I can’t have the forward hatch open because of the spray.”

Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): “ We are bashing upwind, the temperature in the cabin is 33 degrees and it is baking hot outside, but we are charging our batteries well.

There are a few little squalls around, I am at about 60 degrees to the wind, and so I am not completely bashing upwind. It is pretty good.

Last night I passed close to the Peter and Paul islands which are just a couple of volcanoes which stick up. I have seen them before when I was on Ecover (TJV)

These are the conditions now that the boat loves, we have a lot of stability so it is great to be slowly gaining some miles back. I think Dominique (Wavre, ahead) is sailing a slightly tighter wind angle.”

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