Vendée Globe

Following the loss of Loïck Peyron’s mast just two days ago (Wednesday) it is damage to Dominique Wavre’s keel which has forced the Swiss skipper to head  150 miles NE to the Kerguelen Islands.

At 1320hrs this afternoon Wavre contact Race HQ in Paris to say that he had lost control of his keel following damage to head of the keel. The official new release from his team states that the ‘ram attachment to the keel head’ is damaged and the keel, freed from the support of the hydraulic rams, is swinging free under the hull of his Open 60.

The Swiss skipper is now reported to be heading to the Bay of Morbihan on the east side of the Kerguelen Islands. Having immediately dropped his sails and filled his ballast tanks, Wavre has been sailing under a deep reefed mainsail and very small headsail, with the mainsail fully twisted off to de-power it.

His most recent communication says he hopes to reach there by 0900hrs GMT Saturday morning.

Wavre had just risen to tenth place in the race.

The keel, with its 3 tonnes bulb, is freed to swing beneath the hull of the IMOCA Open 60 and threaten the integrity of the hull. Wavre’s team report that he was in contact with the yacht’s designer Mervyn Owen immediately to discuss how best to deal with the situation. He told his shore team that he did not feel any impact.

Last winter, Dominique Wavre and his partner Michèle Paret were forced to make a stopover in New Zealand during the Barcelona World Race because of a problem with corrosion on their steel keel.

When they returned the team opted for a carbon keel for the Vendée Globe.

 Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) and Mike Golding (Ecover)'s option to the south seem to be paying off.  Dick led the fleet through the gap between the Kerguelens and Heard Island.  The pace is as wild as ever at the front.  Covering 448 miles over the past 24h, averaging 18.6 knots, Jean-Pierre Dick, out in front beat the previous race record (439 miles for Roland Jourdain in 2004) and is only 20 miles off the absolute record for a solo sailor aboard a monohull set by  Alex Thomson in  2003 (468 miles).

While Michel Desjoyeaux experienced something new since re-starting in this Vendee Globe, dropping two places, Golding, who spent some of yesterday morning on a phone link up with his 5 year old son’s school in Hampshire during which they sang Christmas carols to the British skipper racing in the Furious 50’s, also beat Jourdain’s 2004 record this afternoon.

This morning Dominique Wavre (Temenos) told the Radio Vacations that he was happy this morning as good speed again. 6 metre waves, but high speed sailing.  He said that he had sliid off a wave at 30 knots. He confirmed that he had been pushing hard to make gains.  He said it was very noisy, so is listening to recorded radio programmes with headphones.

2^nd Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3), on hearing his son’s school sing to him;

 “It was absolutely lovely, the school decided to go that extra bit and it is very motivating when you are a long way down here, away from everything.”

“It is very easy to sit here and think that everyone has forgotten you and you are sitting here bashing your brains out here for nothing, but when you hear your son and his school friends and the school supporting our efforts so vigorously it is really rather rewarding.”

Otherwise the British skipper, now in his best place yet in this thrilling race, explained:

“ I am pretty good, pretty happy with. I had a slightly confusing night because I saw everyone except for Jean-Pierre bearing up to the north very slightly and then in the middle of the night Bilou popped up on my radar and crossed ahead of me by about a mile, and again I was very confused and kept looking at the weather charts why they were all staying up there, and I could not see anything. I think what they are doing is they are putting their bows up to get a little more speed, which us giving them a little bit more speed but in the case of Mich I think he is way too close to Kerguelen, and I think that he has probably sailed into some lighter breeze behind Kerguelen. If that is true it will also affect VM Matériaux, BT and PRB and so a good bunch of there which I think might be slowed down, which might start to create a little bit of margin.”

Steve White, GBR, Toe in the Water:

On having to turn back north because he had ‘missed’ the ice-gate.

“ It is very frustrating because I have been watching the lead boats put in some pretty good speeds.”

“ I would like to say there was something technical but there wasn’t I forgot to re-route it.

What happened was I got the e-mail that said the ice gate had been moved and I registered it and then when it came to putting the ice gates on to the MaxSea from the sailing instructions I forgot it had been moved, the frustrating part was that when I nearly crossed the first part of it I was only 12 miles out of it, so if I had gone on another couple of hours I would have crossed it anyway, and that would have been that. But luckily I worked it out or it would have been the ‘naughty boys corner for me’. Luckily we got away with. I don’t think I lost miles especially to Jonny and the boats behind, but certainly to the boats in front. When I realised, I had just started to get some good breeze and get nicely south. And then so I had to turn and get north, and once I got there and turned south again it got light, all the usual stuff”

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