Vendée Globe

October 28. 2008 at 11:12Who is in and who is out

Today, the following have requested the right to leave the harbour: Sébastien Josse on BT, Vincent Riou on PRB, Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia, Dominique Wavre on Téménos II.

October 28. 2008 at 10:55Cooling off

The temperatures are back to the average for this time of year with 11°C forecast today. It will remain slightly cloudy, but some fine periods can be expected. Winds - northwesterly 10 to 12 knots. Tide times: Morning: coefficient 86, High tide 3h48 - 5.07m, Low tide 10h02 - 1.02m Evening: coefficient 87, High tide 16h06 - 5.12m, Low tide 22h22 - 1.01m

October 27. 2008 at 19:43Hugo Boss Repairs Update

Update from the Hugo Boss repairs today: Boatworld: Significant progress, the outer carbon skin has been successfully laminated so the new hull section is fixed in place, and the high-density core is being fitted, ready for the the carbon inner skin to be applied tomorrow. Rigworld: A fairly big day for the riggers today as "two becomes one" so the two sections of the mast, with their new inner sleeves have been glued into place, and are joined together by the addition of two outer shells which will clamp around the inner sleeves, thus giving us a whole rig once again! It´s imperative to ensure that all the mousing lines are properly attached at this stage - there´s no chance of threading them through again once it´s complete.Spliceworld: Continued good progress - so much so that the splicers have started to work on the spare ropes that Alex will take with him, rather than just the ones that had to be replaced.Provisional arrangements have been made for cranes and/or lorries to enable us to get the boat back in the water on 31st October, ready for an intensive week of sailing and fine-tuning before the race start.

October 27. 2008 at 17:44Monday night fever

For those of you visiting les Sables d'Olonne, tonight there will be an opportunity to enjoy some Celtic music with the group, Pao Bran, who will be performing in the VOG´ Café from 9.30.

October 27. 2008 at 10:34Today's weather

Today we have a 20 knot north-westerly wind, which will be easing off to around 18 knots this afternoon. The clouds will make way for some brighter periods this afternoon, with a temperature of around 14°C. Tide times for les Sables d'Olonne: Morning, coefficient 82 High tide 3h20 - 4.97m Low tide 9h21 - 1.18m Evening, coefficient 84 High tide 15h39 - 5.08m Low tide 21h45 - 1.03m

October 27. 2008 at 10:08Today's sailings

Four boats have requested permission to leave harbour for PR operations or for some final adjustments: Yannick Bestaven on Aquarelle.com, Loïck Peyron on Gitana, Sébastien Josse on BT and Marc Guillemot on Safran.

October 26. 2008 at 19:00Not as bad as it looks

Having your boat in pieces on the dockside just 14 days from the start of your first Vendée Globe is not ideal preparation, but everything is reported to be well under control in the last minute rush to get Steve White’s Spirit of Weymouth ready. No one knows the boat better than Josh Hall, who commissioned and raced the former Gartmore, which was built by JMV from the same mould as Group 4, Mike Golding’s original Open 60. Hall who was one of four British skippers who raced in the 2000 Vendée Globe, finishing 9th has been in Les Sables d’Olonne, working hard on the nearby commercial dock, to ensure White and his boat are ready to take on the skipper’s ten year dream. Hall reveals that without the last minute sponsorship that arrived last week, White stood a very high chance of losing the boat and his family house: “ It actually looks a lot worse than it is as often these things do, but a lot of work needed doing to the boat, basic work, to get her on to the start line and so she is completely in pieces at the moment with the bottom sandblasted, so it looks like there is a mountain to climb, and there is but it is a small one. But all of the people and all of the equipment is in place.” Hall says. More with Josh Hall in the audio section of www.vendeeglobe.org

October 26. 2008 at 18:02No Boss and Hugo Boss

Even if Alex Thomson's favourite football team has no boss now, all is well with the worlds of repairs of Hugo Boss. With typical humour the Hugo Boss teams have set up Boat World, Rig World, Splice World and Preparation World, all working in their parallel universes towards the common goal of having the IMOCA Open 60 sailing November 1st. If only Football World was that easy. Skipper Alex Thomson has returned home on time to catch his beloved but now manager-less Portsmouth FC – take on Fulham, enjoying a few days rest and recuperation, before he returns here to Les Sables d'Olonne later in the week. Harry McGougan, Hugo Boss shore manager says: “ In Boat World the hull, deck and sections are now both glued in and the outside bonding has started happening, inside bonding on the hull sections. In Rig World the splicing kit arrived at 0100hrs this morning (Sunday) and has been glued into the sections and is being prepared for the outer shells. Splice World is in good shape with probably a day and a half or a bit more of splicing. Prep World is doing good. We have our scrutiny tomorrow morning, and so we are generally pretty on top of getting the prep ready for when we go sailing for the 30th, so that means that when we go sailing, aiming for the 1st it will throw up a whole new list of jobs.”

October 26. 2008 at 17:43Cheminées Poujoulat taken out of the water

Bernard Stamm´s technical team has asked for permission to take Cheminées Poujoulat out of the water to carry out repairs on the engine mounting. During her delivery trip to Les Sables d´Olonne, the head of the shore team noticed some suspicious sounds, when the boat was motoring. After an inspection was carried out by a diver in the harbour in les Sables, the shore team found there was a hole around the engine mount. Even if during the Vendée Globe, the propellor is sealed in place and is therefore not used, the shore team preferred nevertheless to err on the side of caution and replace it: "It´s our job to ensure Bernard is completely relaxed before the start".

October 26. 2008 at 12:55Cheeeese

Time for a photo session for Jean Le Cam on board his VM Matériaux this Sunday morning. While this was going on, his shore team continued to work all out to check out the latest little adjustments.