Vendée Globe: Thomson Stretches Lead

(November 23, 2016; Day 18) – The British skipper Alex Thomson is still leading the Vendée Globe as the leaders prepare to enter the Indian Ocean on Friday morning after nineteen days of racing. Thomson again had the greatest haul in the fleet, covering 483 nm in the past 24 hours, to increase his lead.

Overall, the frontrunners had an incredible route down through the Atlantic, but the situation is changing with areas of high pressure forming from Brazil to South Africa and with the 26 sailors still in the race seeing their speeds yo-yo up and down depending on the local weather situation.

In the long procession down the Atlantic, which has seen many splits develop over the past fortnight or so, there have been upsets in the rankings. The leading group was blown apart when the rear guard lost the 25-30 knot winds as the front passed over and they were left with a gentle breeze and unstable conditions.

This means skippers like Jérémie Beyou (Maître CoQ) and Paul Meilhat (SMA) in particular have had to carry out lots of manoeuvres. They have been gybing to try to get away from this sticky patch separating them from the second front. Unfortunately this second low pressure area from Argentina is set to slide down to below 50°S and so they will have to wait for the next system coming out of South America to finally get moving at speed towards the tip of South Africa on Friday.

With Cape Agulhas, the official point marking the entrance into the Indian Ocean only 300 nm ahead of Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), we can see that the fleet has stretched out from the Equator, (Didac Costa on One Planet-One Ocean is due to cross into the Southern Hemisphere tonight) and the Forties, but the latter are not going to be roaring for much longer. The gentle breeze will give way to light airs.

This time, it is the frontrunners, who will be the first to be affected and they will slow considerably. The front which has propelled them at high speed over the past three days is breaking up and will be replaced on Thursday evening by a light westerly air stream, still with slightly more pressure down at 42°S.

That is where the British skipper is heading with Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire VIII) and Sébastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild) a hundred miles or so north with winds forcing them to continue eastwards. The gap from north to south is set to increase with the advantage going to Thomson, who will be sailing along the Ice Wall at 42°30S: more wind and a better bearing should see him extend his lead.

The following little group will be busy seeking out the wind. It may well be Jérémie Beyou, who decided to dive south, who comes off best… As for Yann Éliès (Quéguiner-Leucémie Espoir), he will be able to continue his route in the first front, which is gradually disappearing, meaning his speed will also drop off as the cloud masses melt away in the St. Helena high… We can imagine him closing the gap on his former Figaro rivals, but catching or overtaking them would be a different ball game.

Nearly 1800 nm further back, another trio is already experiencing the building westerly with a low coming out of Brazil: Jean-Pierre Dick (StMichel-Virbac), Jean Le Cam (Finistère Mer Vent) and Thomas Ruyant (Le Souffle du Nord pour le projet Imagine) have finally got to the other side of the area of high pressure, which is also collapsing. However, tonight looks complicated if they want to stay in the air stream backing to the NW between the high, a front and a low.

Kito de Pavant’s situation is even trickier. The skipper of Bastide Otio was more or less halted for two days in a calm and now he has to get away from this tropical area to get down to 25°S before tonight to hop onto the third low moving out of Buenos Aires.

Quotes

Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss): “The wind is very slowly going down. It’ll be nice to have a bit of respite I guess. It’s slowly going left, going aft. At some point I’m going to have to stick a gybe in. I think it’s going to get very light for a while so it’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out. Not everyone’s dropped off this front – Banque Populaire and Gitana are still with me. It allows the gap to grow, which is good. It’ll be interesting to see when the guys get into the same wind as me how much of a disadvantage I’m at without my foil. I think at the moment I’m in good wind and big seas, and the disadvantage of not having a foil is relatively small. The thing for me now is that I can use my other foil so I’m praying the rest of the race is on starboard.

“A quick word on Vincent Riou – I really feel for the guy, he’s one of the best out here on one of the best boats. He was well prepared and it’s horrible what happened to him. It’s very sad, I feel very sorry for what’s happened to him. Very clearly things could have been worse for me. Last time he hit a mooring rope in the middle of the ocean…”

Pieter Heerema (No Way Back): “The wind is bouncing up and down from eight knots to 14 and back, and the direction is east-north-east. Actually this light wind is a very welcome thing for me because I have three tasks that require a bit of a quiet period. I need to work on the rudder, which is quite dicey because I need to hang over the transom to do it, and I must not lose parts, then I have a foil that is stuck and I know I should not lose the foil, and I have a watermaker that doesn’t work so I have to fiddle around with buckets of water in the boat.

“It’s sad for him [Vincent] – all the preparation and four years looking ahead. He so much wants to complete another Vendee and possibly even win it, though I think that was not on the cards. It’s really sad that he’s had to abandon more or less the same way as four years ago. It’s scary how much there is floating around in the ocean. If you’re on a slow boat doing eight or nine knots you maybe hear a thump and that’s it, but on boats like we have, the speeds and forces are so enormous and the boats are so fragile that you can immediately have major issues. It’s quite scary.”

Jean Le Cam, Finistère Mer Vent: “I think I’ll call up Vincent sometime. In our line of work that happens all the time. There is nothing you can do about it. In the first week, the boat was knocked down and I thought a rudder had snapped; I told myself it was over. We all know it is down to chance. There comes a time when you come across an object. Life goes on and you have to bounce back. Vincent is one of the guys I appreciate. It’s the end of an adventure. It’s happened to Vincent, and will happen to others. You can have all the alarms you want, but if there’s something there in the water, there’s nothing you can do about it. We spend 80% of our time inside the boat.”

Ranking (Top 5 of 29 as of 22:00 UTC)
1. Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson (GBR), 17809 nm to finish
2. Banque Populaire VIII, Armel Le Cléac’h (FRA), 115.0 to leader
3. Edmond de Rothschild, Sébastien Josse (FRA), 229.71 nm
4. Safran, Morgan Lagravière (FRA), 414.62 nm
5. SMA, Paul Meilhat (FRA), 652.12 nm

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.

Retirements:
November 19, Day 14 – Bertrand de Broc, MACSF, UFO collision
November 22, Day 17 – Vincent Riou, PRB, UFO collision

Source: Vendee Globe