The latest weather forecasts for the start of the Vendée Globe on Sunday 9th November are showing a strong south-westerly wind. The shore teams took advantage of the quiet weather this afternoon to check out sail reductions. It will probably be with two or three reefs in the main and under staysail that the solo sailors will be crossing the start line.
Yves Le Blévec, the winner of the last Mini-Transat, skipper of the 50-foot trimaran Actual Interim, currently being built in Saint-Philibert, came to visit the Vendée Globe pontoons today (Thursday).
«It's amazing to be here. I can understand what they feel: I can imagine the state of mind of the sailors as they get ready to sail… At the same time I'm a spectator just admiring these incredible machines. Moreover, I found the village really impressive: it's huge and of a high quality. There's a beautiful presentation of the sailors, who are about to leave, where you can learn a lot… It's very successful.»
The public is flocking to this sixth edition of the Vendée Globe. By this evening (Thursday), more than 600,000 people will have strolled through the village and along the Port Olona pontoons to discover the thirty monohulls and to catch a glimpse of the skipper. As for the media, more than 650 journalists have been accredited so far…
The famous French football star, Zinédine Zidane will be present on Saturday between three and five on the Vendée Globe pontoons: godfather to Yann Elies's boat, Generali, he has decided to come and visit the Breton sailor. After a short sailing trip together, they became great friends. This is essentially a friendly visit and the football star has not planned any interviews. The star is after all the sailor, rather than the footballer this time…
Alex Thomson and the Hugo Boss team must have hoped their long nights were behind them but Alex and the shore team spent the entire last night, 9pm to 9am, trying to establish how bad a halyard chafe problem they had noticed actually was.
With such a short time left the only way to discover how bad it was, and to find a solution was to spend the night hoisting and lowering the loaded main halyard.
In total the team of ten, including Alex, worked hour shifts through the night in total making 1800 hoists over the 12 hour period.
The process both reduced the chafe by simply smoothing off the rough point(s) and is reported to have left only a small mark on the rope.
“It was a big effort from all the guys for more than ten hours. We did about 1800 cycles so a good replication of doing a few miles. We had some chafe on the main halyard and now it looks like some of the solutions have put in place have worked. A lot of it was just fact finding, but the main thing is just to put a different piece of rope in which Blew Stube helped us with supply, providing it almost overnight.”
“Alex did a shift, put his fair share in, he did an hour or two if not a bit more. At the start of the night there were a few more including a few experts. We just had to prove to ourself that we did not have a problem and I think we went as far as we could in doing that.” Explained the team’s rigging specialist Giles.
On Sunday morning, the thirty Vendée Globe monohulls will be leaving the pontoon in Port Olona in a precise order and on a very tight schedule: Each boat will follow the previous one four minutes later, with the procession beginning at 9h15 with Dee Caffari (Aviva). The right-hand side of the pontoon (looking outwards) will start the procession through the harbour entrance channel between Les Sables d’Olonne and la Chaume. Please note all times here are in French time:
9h15 : Dee Caffari (Aviva)
9h19 : Sébastien Josse (BT)
9h23 : Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss)
9h27 : Mike Golding (Ecover 3)
9h31 : Derek Hatfield (Algimouss-Spirit of Canada)
9h35 : Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty)
9h39 : Marc Guillemot (Safran)
9h43 ; Yann Eliès (Generali)
9h47 : Jean Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2)
9h51 : Jérémie Beyou (Deta Dore)
They will be followed by those moored up diagonally.
9h55 : Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Ocean Vital)
9h59 : Marc Thiercelin (DCNS)
10h03 : Vincent Riou (PRB)
10h07 : Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux)
10h11 : Jonny Malbon (Artemis)
10h15 : Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar)
10h19 : Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air)
10h23 : Jean Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve)
10h27 : Dominique Wavre (Temenos II)
10h31 : Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat)
10h35 : Steve White (Toe in the water)
10h39 : Unai Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia)
10h43 : Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas)
10h47 : Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport-Kapsch)
10h51 : Rich Wilson (Great American III)
10h55 : Samantha Davies (Roxy)
10h59 : Yannick Bestaven (Aquarelle.com)
11h03 : Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia)
11h07 : Kito de Pavant (Groupe Bel)
11h11 : Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement)
