Vendée Globe

October 23. 2008 at 16:55Drying out

Spirit of Weymouth, Steve White’s monohull, was today treated to a little facelift on the underwater section of the hull. Lifted onto the hard yesterday, her undersides were entrusted to Karcher to remove the algae and barnacles, which were beginning to grow. The British skipper has to touch-up a little of the coating prior to applying some protective underwater paint and returning her to the liquid element.

October 23. 2008 at 16:27Four top models

Armel Le Cléac’h, Marc Thiercelin, Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) and Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) were transformed into fashion models for Gala magazine during a photo session. They had their hair done, got made-up and dressed-up and played the game with a certain ease… despite amused grins from their shore crews!

October 23. 2008 at 15:03Hugo Boss under the kinfe

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.)

October 23. 2008 at 11:03Another fine day…

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

October 22. 2008 at 16:3468,000 !

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.

October 22. 2008 at 15:41Training for the start

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.

October 22. 2008 at 15:36And then there were thirty

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.

October 22. 2008 at 14:45ER: Hugo Boss under the knife

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.

October 22. 2008 at 10:31The sun is coming back

The skies, still veiled early this morning, will gradually clear, as a ridge of high pressure builds over the north west of France. Temperatures remain on the cool side ranging from 8 to 14°C today (Wednesday). The NNE´ly wind is currently around ten knots and will die away during the afternoon.

Tide times in Les Sables d’Olonne:
Wednesday 22nd October: coefficient 47 – 44
High tide: 0h04 - 12h31
Low tide: 5h06 – 17h59
Thursday 23rd October: coefficient 45 – 48
High tide: 1h23 – 13h47
Low tide: 6h28 – 19h22

October 21. 2008 at 10:19First drops of rain

As a cold front passes over France, the first drops of rain have fallen on the Vendée Globe village. This will fortunately not last long, according to Météo France, who have forecast an improvement for late this afternoon. On Wednesday, the skies will remain partly veiled, before the sun returns in all its glory on Thursday. The north-easterly wind currently blowing at around ten knots is expected to back north-westerly during the afternoon and strengthen to 15 knots.

Tide times in les Sables d’Olonne:
Tuesday 21st October: coefficient 51 – 47
High tide: 10h50 – 23h57
Low tide: 2h52 – 15h28

Wednesday 22nd October: coefficient 44
High tide: 12h31
Low tide: 5h06 – 17h59