Vendée Globe

Over half the fleet has now retired from this year’s punishing Vendée Globe, with this morning’s announcement that Artemis is the 16th boat to abandon racing. Meanwhile Michel Desjoyeaux is powering ahead, set to become the first boat past the Cape Horn tonig

And then there were 14… The 16th skipper to retire from this Vendée Globe, Jonny Malbon (GBR) announced his abandonment following the severe delamination of his mainsail. With at least 7,000 miles still to go until Les Sables d’Olonne, the question no one dares ask is: will there be any more?

For leader Michel Desjoyeaux reining back is still not an option. At this afternoon’s rankings (16h GMT) Foncia is once again the fastest boat on the course as he powers towards Cape Horn. However, second placed Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environment) is not holding back either, putting in the greatest average speeds since the last sched to average over 15 knots since this morning’s update. Now on Foncia’s line, Jourdain can be expected to pass the Cape around six hours behind him tomorrow morning.

Behind these two there’s another sailor from the famed gang of Port la Forêt solo skippers. Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) may well be some 450 miles behind, but in terms of a distance as great as the Atlantic there is still room for things to change considerably over the coming weeks. Le Cam can expect have better weather than those ahead: while the leader and his hunter will be shaken around all the way to the coast of Chile as a front passes over, Jean Le Cam will be benefiting from a steadier 20-25 knot westerly flow to finish his Pacific crossing.

Behind several duels continue: Riou (PRB) and Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) just 24 miles apart, Dee Caffari (Aviva, GBR) and Arnaud Boissieres (Akena Vérandas) separated by some 19 miles — these two crossing the West Pacific ice gate today. However, Rich Wilson (Great American III, USA) is now missing his ‘Iridium penpal’ following Jonny Malbon’s retirement (Artemis, GBR). Malbon will now head for Auckland, the same destination as fellow retirees Sebastien Jose (BT) and Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) who are also on their way to the New Zealand port.

English skippers update:

ABD - Jonny Malbon, Artemis (GBR): Gutted is probably the correct word, absolutely gutted. I can’t really say much more than that. It’s such a terrible feeling having come so far and having to pull out now but I know it’s the grown-up decision.
I could have continued to the point when the mainsail becomes completely unusable, the only definite is that will happen, but we don’t know when. So there comes a point when you have to look at the rest of the year and try and focus on that. I’m headed north up to Auckland, where we’ll hopefully get onto a big container ship and shipped back to Europe.
I keep second-guessing myself that I’ve made the right decision and checking that the main is terminal. I just wiped my hand across the sail and the laminate skin just flies off, the whole thing is on its last legs.
It’s been a huge experience on many, many levels and I’ve really enjoyed it. That’s the gutting thing: the hard miles in my mind are behind me and the boat’s relatively unscathed apart from an issue we can’t control. I’ve learnt a lot from this race. But it’s also left me really hungry and already I see this as unfinished business.

8th - Brian Thompson, Bahrain Team Pindar (GBR): We’re past the penultimate ice gate and aiming for the final ice at 110 West, which will be great. Then it’s a big right-hand turn to get down to the Horn. It really has turned into a slalom race between all these gates, but I’m certainly very happy to have them. Even though it’s added 1500 miles to the voyage it’s made it a lot safer for the whole fleet not to be encountering ice the whole time, just a little bit in the Indian Ocean – the Pacific where most of the ice was we’ve been routed around.
In a 60ft monohull instead of a 110 cat you tend to see more weather systems because you’re going slower. In the big cats you tend to be sitting in front of the low for a long, long time doing the same speed. So it’s much more mixed weather and variety in an IMOCA 60 so you actually see much more of the flavours of the Southern Ocean. Although I’ve only seen the sun for about 5 minutes since New Zealand, just a little glimpse of it yesterday!

13th - Norbert Sedlacek, Nauticsport Kapsch (AUT): I’m feeling quite comfortable inside the boat. The only thing now is the dust and humidity is getting worse, there are a few little leaking points so all the time there is always water in the bilges. It’s not a problem for safety but everything is humid inside and I must be very careful with food and electronics, that nothing gets damaged. There are just a few containers which are really dry, but all the other compartments takes some water from the deck or hatches. The problem is that the deck is working under the pressure of the rig so even if you find a crack and you fill the crack up with epoxy the next day you have a new little hole somewhere so it’s not possible to keep the water outside.


 

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