Vendée Globe: Southbound Decisions Split Fleet

(November 7, 2016; Day 2) – The game plan for the opening of the Vendée Globe was simple yet crucial: outrun a predicted drop in wind pressure to occur over the first 48 hours of the 24,020 nautical miles solo race around the world.

Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss had done it best to lead the fleet past Cape Finisterre on the rugged NW corner of Spain around midday today. But Hugo Boss was not alone, sailing in close company with pre-race favourite Armel Le Cléac’h on Banque Populaire VIII. The duo were racing less than half a mile apart during the middle of this afternoon, within sight of each other as the breeze started to ease slightly.

Thomson and Le Cléac’h head a leading group of which four of the top five IMOCAs are new foil-assisted IMOCAs. Only Vincent Riou on the classically configured, but highly optimised PRB has been able to stay the pace with the leaders. But the 2004-5 Vendée Globe winner sounded tired and slightly resigned when he spoke briefly to Vendée Globe Race HQ in Paris this morning.

“It’s used up a lot of my energy trying to keep up with those in front,” Riou admitted as he approached Cape Finisterre.

The fierce pace through the first night and, more especially, the gusty variable winds caused by bubbles of cold air moving south, made it tough to hold a rhythm for any length of time. Jéremie Beyou, in seventh place this afternoon on Maître CoQ suffered when his rudder kicked up, his boat luffed violently and he broke a tooth when he hit his face on a winch.

Didac Costa, the unlucky Spanish skipper who had to turn round one hour after the start because he found a ballast pipe had dumped water into his boat, damaging his electrics, was still in Les Sables d’Olonne this afternoon. The plan was to fit a new alternator and fully check his electrics with the objective to restart late tomorrow or early Wednesday depending partially on the weather conditions ahead at Cape Finisterre.

On the evening rankings at 1800hrs UTC Armel Le Cleac’h has moved clear ahead of Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss. The British skipper waited for the mid-afternoon position report to drop before gybing to the east, in theory away from the approaching high pressure ridge and therefore seeking to stay in stronger breeze.

He may have given up his lead but he is going quicker than Banque Populaire. The leaders are expected to stay close to the Portuguese coast as they descend south.

The Traffic Separation Scheme meant a choice was necessary about whether to stay close to the coast or sail a long way offshore. The majority are choosing the easterly option, but this requires lots of gybes and is therefore very tiring.

There is already 170 miles between the first places and 28th placed Sebastien Destremau on his FaceOcean Techno First.

This evening Destremau reported:
“We are going well under the J2 and full main. I should really get the A7 kite out but I am taking it easy. Amazing to think we are starting an around the world race. It was an emotional send off from Les Sables d’Olonne. The channel, family, friends, the start. These are great moments to live through. Doing something with a knife I cut my finger quite deeply. I stuck it with steri strips after disinfecting it well. After dressing it well I have made a cheese omelet with onions. It was top! I am wondering if I need to stitch my finger, but I think I’ll wait and see how it closes.”

The fleet leaders are expected to be slowed to around 7-9kts by the descending high pressure ridge tomorrow. But when they escape they should have fast trade winds on the autoroute south. The leaders are expected to pass the Canaries on Wednesday.

Race details – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook – VendeeGlobe TV

Background:
The eighth Vendée Globe, which began November 6 from Les Sables d’Olonn, France, is the only non-stop solo round the world race without assistance. Twenty-nine skippers representing four continents and ten nations set sail on IMOCA 60s in pursuit of the record time set by François Gabart in the 2012-13 race of 78 days, 2 hours and 16 minutes.

For the first time in the history of the event, seven skippers will set sail on IMOCA 60s fitted with foils: six new boats (Banque Populaire VIII, Edmond de Rothschild, Hugo Boss, No Way Back, Safran, and StMichel-Virbac) and one older generation boat (Maitre Coq). The foils allow the boat to reduce displacement for speed gains in certain conditions. It will be a test to see if the gains can topple the traditional daggerboard configuration during the long and demanding race.

Source: Vendee Globe