Newswire : Sébastien Josse officially retires

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December 29. 2008 at 15:15Sébastien Josse officially retires

At 14h01 today, The Vendée Globe Race Directors received an e-mail from the team director, Mark Turner officially declaring that Sébastien Josse was retiring from the race. He becomes the thirteenth competitor to retire since the start. Sébastien Josse decided on Monday morning to head for Auckland (New Zealand) because of his damaged rudder (see photo).

December 29. 2008 at 14:48Bernard Stamm on Reunion Island tomorrow

Currently aboard the Marion Dufresne, Bernard Stamm is due to reach Reunion Island tomorrow with his Cheminées Poujoulat, which is also aboard the supply vessel.
"Since leaving the Kerguelen Islands with the Marion Dufresne, things have gradually calmed down. I’m getting my spirits up a little and I can start thinking and functioning again by looking a bit further ahead than the few minutes which follow each event. The boat has to be assessed and I’m going to analyse her as fully as I can, so I can learn as much as possible about what happened before, during and after racing. I was incredibly lucky that the Marion Dufresne was in the Kerguelen Islands when I arrived. Without that the boat would have been matchsticks. We don’t yet know if the boat can be repaired or not. We’re going to examine the boat and only after this will I be able to clarify what the next few months will involve."

December 29. 2008 at 11:45An unexpected visitor

"I passed south of Auckland Islands last night and had a pretty bumpy ride during the night time hours. When dawn broke I had a call asking for my position out here in the middle of nowhere in the Southern Ocean. Three hours later a call came again with a familiar voice and asked for my position again. Ten minutes later a plane was overhead and Dave Greenberg with three buddies were flying around Aviva and saying hi. It was awesome to hear a familiar voice and see people in the plane even if I could not see faces. It was quite murky still and the wind was gusty but I sat on deck grinning like a Cheshire cat. In 2004/5 on the Global Challenge, Dave was the winchman involved in the rescue of a sick crew member on New Year’s day. Then again in 2005/6 on the Aviva Challenge, Dave flew out off the South Island of New Zealand and collected some video tapes from me on Valentine’s Day. Now here we are again in his neck of the woods and he came and took some photos of me and Aviva. It was very cool and it seems that I am not destined to pass New Zealand without a visit from either a plane or a helicopter. Still it made Aviva happy as she is after all a kiwi!"

Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message

December 29. 2008 at 10:22Christmas over for Steve

"Since I wrote last, there have been some real highs and lows, I think for me the most extreme of the race so far. I have to say Christmas day was thoroughly miserable, so much so I nearly wasn't going to mention it. I felt I was on a go slow at the back of the fleet on a broken boat, on the opposite side of the world to my family who I really missed, and I have come here to race after all not cruise, and it was very, very difficult at that moment as you see the leaders slipping away, those behind gaining on you as you feel you are just firefighting breakages all the time. Alone on a boat all emotions are heightened, so all of the above coupled with some very touching Christmas cards and a sad book for a present meant I was really struggling. I had to give myself a really good talking to and examine why I was here, what I have gone through to get here, and what the event meant to me. Sometime in the early hours of Boxing Day I awoke to a sharp cracking noise and thought the worst, that the boom had come off, but no, it was my small wooden Christmas tree which had come unstuck from the chart table and had hit the chart table all at once with a sharp crack right by my ear. I took that as a sign and packed it away and put Christmas and all of the associated emotions firmly behind me. So after having given myself a good kick up the backside I pulled my finger out and had quite a good run over the next period - maybe I tried a little too hard, the generator ripped off its mountings and is currently lashed down! Another job, but a quick and easy fix when it calms down in the next forty eight hours. I am absolutely fine now, and looking forward to getting past New Zealand, getting the boat mended and weather wise having a somewhat nicer time in the Pacific that we have had in the Indian Ocean. I want to try and get a few miles back on the boats in front of me by Cape Horn.."
Steve White (Toe in the Water) in his daily mesage

December 29. 2008 at 08:05A hard job

"For once, I'm going to talk about sailing. I know that's not really an original idea, but it is in the news. Today I lowered the mainsail to replace a batten and that is the first time I've had to do that on this boat. Eight years ago, I had to do that almost every day, changing them over, repairing them, as I only had 12. Up until the Azores I worked on them. In the end, I was an expert. I hoisted the mainsail in two goes, really annoyed. In fact, what is hard is not lowering the sail nor changing the battens, although it was the top one, it is getting the sail around the outside of the lazy jacks, as this requires patience and care. I had forgotten how good it was to see the job done. In any case, the Pacific is being kind to us for the moment with lots of sunny days, which is a change in the dark world we had on the other side of Tasmania. Perfect for some work in the garden this afternoon."
Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) in his daily message

December 29. 2008 at 07:24An inspiration to so many

"Despondent about Derek. After returning for repairs after the start, he had sailed brilliantly through the Atlantic, catching up many miles. He was relentless and had gained on our group of 2 (with Artemis) to make a group of 3. Brothers in arms through the last week of severe gales of 45-55knots each. Our group talked on the phone through these gales, and through Christmas. We were all in the same sea state that rolled Derek, so it could have happened to any of our 3, frightening. We will miss him from our little group. Derek's project is one of the great ones in the Vendee Globe. Starting with no sponsor, no boat, he raised money via a group of 10,000 supporters that he gained one by one by relentless pr work, he built the boat by himself, an extraordinary feat, he made hundreds of corporate presentations to no sponsorship avail until the very end, almost too late to help, no big shore crew, and on and on. He is a great ambassador for the Vendee Globe to Canada and North America. He has so much to be proud of with his project, even if he won't finish this race. Surely hundreds of thousands of people are inspired by his total effort, people whom he will never meet will change their lives because of him, and his retirement from the race does not dilute this impact one bit. Derek, I'm sure you'll be disappointed and discouraged by not finishing this course, but be proud of your total effort, be proud of the inspirational impact you will have on countless numbers of people. You're an inspiration to me for certain."
Rich Wilson (Great American III) in his daily message

December 29. 2008 at 06:50Brian halfway there

"I am very sorry to hear about Derek Hatfield breaking his top spreaders in a big knock down, he put in such a massive effort to get to the start line, then having to return, repair and restart again meant that he has then been having to battle storm after storm in the Southern Oceans, when the earlier boats got through the same waters with much better conditions. 24840 is the number. After moving the final ice gate the race committee have settled on this final race distance, about 1000 miles longer than the last race, or about 3 days further in sailing time. So doing some quick maths 24840/2=12420 which is half the course, and I have a mere 12203 to go to the finish, so I am now officially over half way! Last night I passed by 25 miles south of the Auckland Islands, home to tens of thousands of albatross and other seabirds, but with the thick fog I did not see the islands, and the seabirds did not see me, so out here I have unusually little company today. The night before was clear and I was able to see the glow of the Antarctic continent to the south, keeping a faint light on the horizon for the whole night, like the first tinge of dawn. Now, apart from some sub Antarctic islands, I have the entire Pacific Ocean in front of me, with Cape Horn as the destination, tucked away in the bottom right hand corner, 5000 miles away via the ice gates. Lets hope this second half of the race is faster than the first."

Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) in his daily message

December 29. 2008 at 06:02The monohull GENERALI lost at sea.

While Yann Eliès's health will have improved sufficiently to allow him to be flown home on Wednesday 31st December, the GENERALI monohull has been lost at sea.

As the medical teams were busy taking care of Yann following his accident, GENERALI launched an operation to recover the boat. 2 members of Team Generali arrived in Fremantle in Australia and looked for a boat to take them to the zone where the monohull had been abandoned.

On 23rd December, the Race Directors noticed that the positioning beacon on the GENERALI boat was no longer transmitting and were informed by the French Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (CROSS Gris Nez) that the COSPAS SARSAT distress beacon had been triggered. The GENERALI team was immediately informed.

Philippe Laot, the technical director of Yann Eliès's team and Jean-Baptiste Epron, a GENERALI crew member were able to set off in a fishing boat on Wednesday 25th December, but soon encountered very bad wind and sea conditions.

As they were on their way on Friday 26th December, they were told by the GENERALI shore team that the distress beacon had stopped transmitting. It was therefore no longer possible to identify the boat's position. The weather conditions worsened (7-8m high waves and cross seas) and the team was forced to call off the search.

December 28. 2008 at 20:05Greatest distance over 24 hours

Over the past 24 hours, Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) currently in the lead, 9957.2 miles from the finish, sailed the greatest distance towards the finish. Between 19h yesterday and this evening, he covered 361.2 miles