Hugo Boss came under the knife this morning as the six strong team of boatbuilders got to work on cutting away the damaged area of Alex Thomson’s wounded Open 60. David Duff, Shore Operations Manager for Team ORIGIN, who is helping with the logistics and project management of the repair reported today that the new replacement panel should arrive this evening from Vannes. Their operational target is to re-step the mast Friday 31st with the objective of sailing again Sat 1st November.Duff´s boss Mike Sanderson, who was in Les Sables d´Olonne until Monday night and is skippering a Transatlantic record attempt, is being kept up to date with progress. (Hear David Duff in the audio section of www.vendeeglobe.org.)

The Vendée Globe village is forecast to experience another fine, sunny day thanks to a 1030 hPa high-pressure area stretching from the Azores to Germany. The temperatures remain stable between 9 and 14°C. A very light southerly wind can be expected today.

Tide times in Les Sables d’Olonne:
Thursday 23rd October 2008: coefficient 45 – 48
High tide: 1h23 – 13h47
Low tide: 6h28 – 19h22
Friday 24th October 2008 : coefficient 53 – 58
High tide: 2h25 – 14h47
Low tide: 7h44 – 20h28

That was the number of visitors to the Vendée Globe village during the first weekend of it being open. The week has got off to a good start with visits from the first groups of schoolchildren, in spite of some dull weather on Monday. More than 10,000 children are expected to attend during the three weeks leading up to the start of the race. With the sun returning, the conditions are once again ideal for a trip to visit the pontoons and all the events going on in the Vendée Globe village.

Samantha Davies sailed out to sea today to train for the start. The skipper of Roxy, the legendary 60´ boat aboard which Michel Desjoyeaux and Vincent Riou successively won the last two Vendée Globe races, timed how long it took to leave the quayside, pass through the harbour entrance channel, hoist the sails and make her way to the start area off Port Bourgenay.

Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch) today obtained his IMOCA certification, the final document necessary for him to complete his registration papers. The Austrian skipper has therefore become the thirtieth and final entrant to obtain his ticket for the sixth edition of the Vendée Globe.

Preparatory work is continuing apace for Hugo Boss´ surgery which is expected to begin tomorrow. According to Alex Thomson the first job is to cut away the damage to the hull side and cut away the bulkhead areas which need to be replaced and that will probably happen tomorrow. Multiplast should, he says, have the 5m by 2m replacement panel ready Thursday night or Friday. The rig repair is also reliant on the replacement spreader roots being made in Auckland, New Zealand. And Kiwi boat builder Paul Quinn, who ran the build of Offshore Challenges’ Farr designed Open 60 BT, and built the Amer Sports VO60’s is arriving to supervise the repair.