Vendée Globe

All change again at the front of the fleet as Yann Elies moves up to the number one spot in this morning’s 1000hrs (GMT) rankings, with Armel Le Cleac’h (Brit Air) in second. In eighth yesterday morning, Elies on Generali has now headed south-east towards fourth-placed Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), while previous leaders Peyron and Josse dive dead south.

Loick Peyron (Gitana Eighty) has now dropped to seventh on the rankings as he becomes the most westerly of the leading group, with Seb Josse (BT) in fourth place and the most southerly boat on the course. But these small readjustments are tiny in relation to the miles still to be covered. Just 20 miles now covers the first nine boats, but there are around 2,000 miles to go before they can even make the first gate as they get into the Forties. 
While the leaders have covered 4750 miles towards the finish since the start on 9th November, they have in fact sailed many more miles than that, as they moved a long way from the most direct route. Theoretically, the course for this sixth Vendée Globe comes to 24,275 miles, but none of the previous winners have respected this line. Even back in 1989 when there were no ice gates and the route around Antarctica was totally free, Titouan Lamazou still sailed 25,485 miles. During the last race, Vincent Riou covered 26,715 miles, so we can expect the competitors to sail at least 2,000 miles more than the shortest direct route. 
Thanks to the weather, so far this edition is also taking longer than last time around. Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) was the first to cross the Equator after 12 days and 9 hours of sailing, 46 hours behind the time set by Jean Le Cam four years ago.  But setting out a week later, with more favourable conditions, last placed Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) has in fact taken the shortest time to reach the southern hemisphere, at 11 days and 13 hours…
Those times are likely to increase still further. At the beginning of this weekend, Sébastien Josse (BT) has already covered more than 5,500 miles, while the distance from Les Sables d’Olonne is only 4,750 miles — and he still has 2200 miles to cover to reach the Cape of Good Hope.  The leader is unlikely to reach this longitude before Friday, meaning the voyage will have taken 26 days, or two days more than the time set by Vincent Riou four years ago, which was 24 days and 2 hours.  It might appear that the average speeds are similar to those of four years ago, but this is far from the case, as the solo sailors  in this race are covering many more miles in their faster, new generation boats. The leaders actually crossed the Atlantic at an average speed of 11.5 knots on the water — no mean feat after a low in the Bay of Biscay, a slowdown after the Cape Verde Islands and a week of upwind sailing in the SE'ly trade winds...
Of those who had to return to Les Sables for repairs, only Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia), Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) have been able to make up for some of the miles lost: the former has clawed back 80 miles (out of 360) in 19 days, the second 100 miles (of 950) in 17 days, and the third 500 miles (out of 2,000) in 13 days. On the other hand, Dominique Wavre (Temenos II) set sail some 60 miles behind the leaders and today is 200 miles or so behind, while the Canadian, Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada) has lost almost 300 miles on top of the 1,200 miles he was lagging when he restarted. However, the situation may yet favour those who started out later, as the St. Helena high may allow them to cut across more easily towards the cape of Good Hope.  It is therefore possible that Bernard Stamm will only be a day's sailing behind the leaders as they enter the Indian Ocean, while Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty could be under 1,000 miles behind by the Forties.  Some reward at least, for those who suffered so much early on…
 

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