Since her relaunch, Alex Thomson's monohull has been carefully examined by the shore team to check for any collateral damage from the collision with a fishing boat. Thus the mainsail halyard has been changed, as wear was detected: « Following the sea trials we were able to confirm that structurally HUGO BOSS is fine. The issue with the halyard only came to light after some time on the water sailing, and fortunately for us, we were able to get the boat out sailing in enough time to identify the issue,»explained the operations manger, Harry McGougan.

 The alloy chaff plate within the HUGO BOSS mast, was corroded from the time the mast spent on the sea bed, following the collision. This corrosion was causing chaffing to the main halyard inside the mast. Continuously for 15 hours (throughout last night), the team devised a shift system to hoist the halyard up and down the mast, a total of 1800 times. This has effectively smoothed the corroded area.

«Until the incident with the fishing vessel, I felt as prepared as I have ever been for a race. I felt physically strong, mentally ready and after completing the Barcelona World Race in second position and breaking the world distance record - I felt I had a strong chance of becoming the first British skipper to win the Vendée. Since the accident – all I have been able to think and focus on is getting HUGO BOSS repaired in time for the Vendée start,» explained Alex Thomson.

Jean-Pierre Dick was the first solo sailor to work with the American Bruce Farr design team. In 2003, he had Virbac-Paprec built and won the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2005 on her. Since then, Bernard Stamm has bought the monohull and he updated her this winter. However, for the ex-vet, in no way are technical innovations the most important thing: «Design choices and technological developments are a plus, but they are not everything. Paprec-Virbac 2 features two major innovations (trim tab and strakes, editor) which should give me that little bit extra over the competition. However, I am convinced that on such a route, it's what's going on in the mind of the sailor that makes all the difference: the human aspect dominates. Motivation and determination can be found throughout this project from the design and build stage and during the race itself. These are the key elements in such an event, which is won over several years on land as well as at sea.»

The average age of the skippers in this sixth Vendée Globe is 41 and a half. The youngest competitor in 2008 is Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) born on 13th February 1978, while the eldest is the American, Rich Wilson (Great American III), born 19th April 1950.

The disturbed area over the Atlantic is what is going to influencing our weather for the next few days off Europe… A huge low has settled over Iceland, offering variable conditions over the Bay of Biscay. For today (Friday), after the rain late in the night, there will be a mixture of conditions with clouds and sunny periods and here and there a few drops of rain. The temperatures are pleasant enough reaching 19°C this afternoon in a moderate westerly reaching a maximum of fifteen knots. For the weekend, Saturday looks like being fine in the morning, but rain will move in later, while Sunday will be grey, damp and overcast with a strong south-westerly. It looks like being a rather rough start for the thirty competitors…

Tide times
Friday 7th November: coefficient 34
High tide: 11h43
Low tide: 4h55 – 17h35
Saturday 8th November: coefficient 38 - 43
High tide: 0h33 – 12h45
Low tide: 6h07 – 18h41
Sunday 9th November: coefficient 49 - 56
High tide: 1h22 – 13h34
Low tide: 7h05 – 19h33

Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty (Maisonneuve) is the youngest skipper taking part in this sixth edition of the Vendée Globe. He has been sailing for three seasons on a boat built in Brazil, which has been worked on by his team. «Her original name was Galileo. I didn't feel like changing it, because that's something that isn't done and after all, it was him that said that the Earth was round.»

If we look at the waterlines on the boats at the pontoon, we can see that all the solo sailors have taken aboard all of their equipment (sails, spares and repair kits…), but also around 500kg of consumables! Approximately 250 to 300 litres of diesel fuel, around 60 litres of drinking water and between 120 and 200 kg of food, including fresh produce.