Vendée Globe

After a tense morning of waiting, there was huge relief for Vendée Globe organizers and competitors this afternoon with the news that Vincent Riou (PRB) had arrived at the scene of VM Matériaux’s capsize at 1421 (GMT) and made contact with Jean Le Cam inside the upturned hull.

The pink IMOCA 60 is floating upside down around 200 miles west of Cape Horn (56° 17’ S, 73° 46’ W), with the bulb of her keel detached, in a slightly stern-down position — possibly due to the ballast tanks being full at the time of the capsize. Riou was able to spot a ‘flag’ poking out of one of the through-hull fittings of the yacht and shouted for Le Cam, who responded. Both EPIRBs have also been activated on the yacht.
Riou was joined on the scene around an hour later by fellow skipper Armel Le Cléac’h in Brit Air. The two are now standing by, as is an oil tanker, the Sonangol Kassanje, who was first on the scene. The tanker was unable to deploy a rescue boat due to a rough sea with 4-5m waves, but may be able to provide a lee.
A Chilean naval tug has now left Puerto Williams to assist the rescue effort, and is equipped with a RIB and divers onboard. They are expected to arrive at the scene around 0500 (GMT) tomorrow.
Of the racing skippers, Michel Desjoyeaux is now skirting the outlying edges at the north-west of the Falkland Islands. Foncia is being chased hard on the route north by Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnment), who is currently 135 miles behind, having regained some of the distance he lost to Mich Desj earlier today. A low pressure system currently between Argentina and the Falklands looks set to bring the leading duo favourable south-westerlies of 20-25 knots for the next couple of days as it tracks north-west.
Samantha Davies (GBR) is the fastest skipper on the course, clocking averages above 16 knots as she sails on the edge of a cold front that is bringing 25-30 knot north-north-westerlies. Having passed through the East Pacific Gate, fifth-placed Roxy is now on a fast lane south-east direct to Cape Horn, although it’s worth bearing in mind that the mileages around the gates can be a little misleading.
By contrast Steve White (Toe in the Water, GBR, 10th) has been experiencing the effects of a high pressure system for the past day. Aviva (Dee Caffari, GBR, 8th), Akena Vérandas (Arnaud Boissieres, 9th) and Bahrain Team Pindar (Brian Thompson, GBR, 10th) are currently between two fronts which are bringing them changeable conditions — in this afternoon’s update the more southerly Boissieres seemed to be making the best of it and Caffari is now converging onto his line.
Nobert Sedlacek (Nauticsport Kapsch, AUT, 12th) reported today that he was enjoying pleasant sailing conditions after 30 hours of heavy winds and waves, although another low pressure system looks set to move over Sedlacek and back marker Raphael Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) tonight, bringing around 45 knots.
Retired sipper Sébastien Josse is now safely moored up in Auckland with BT. Josse arrived at New Zealand’s America’s Cup venue Viaduct Basin shortly before midnight last night.

Skippers update in English:

7th – Brian Thompson, Bahrain Team Pindar (GBR): It’s very, very worrying for Jean and his family. I’m very hopeful he’s safely inside. It certainly makes me double check, because something like that can just happen at any time. So I’ve been looking around the boat thinking; is everything tied down? Where’s my grab bag, and what would happen…? You can get quite complacent and there’s certainly a lot of things I’m going to be lashing down a bit better. Overall it indicates the level of risk you’ve got in the Southern Ocean and you’ve got to be very careful. You’ve got to be very, very prepared for everything but something like a keel failure would happen very fast. So it brings it to the forefront of your mind, but much more than that is being concerned for Jean until he’s rescued, that’s my overriding thought at the moment.

12th – Norbert Sedlacek, Nauticsport Kapsch (AUT): At the moment things are great, the last two days was a little bit heavy with a lot of wind, and swell and waves and rain! But this afternoon the sun’s come up and now just at the moment we have a nice smooth wind from the west and it’s easy sailing. I’m not sure what happens next, the last time I calculated the weather it works out differently! But I think there will be another depression tomorrow evening, but not too bad – around 25 knots – and the systems all come from the west so it’s nice to have a good surf to Cape Horn!
The one and only problem is a little water in the back compartment. Two times every day, there around 5-10 buckets to get the water out of the boat. It’s not too much, maybe around 100 liters, but the problem is that in the same compartment are the control electronics for the autopilot so I must be careful nothing gets wet and breaks down.

 

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