Top Story:
New mark would smash old 84-day record by a week
- Most compact race ever
Fleet News:
Gabart sets new record for equator return
Le Cléac’h edges back
Le Cam battles back against becalmed Golding
Top Story:
The forecast for the finish keeps changing with the evolution of the Azores High ahead of the leaders, but one thing seems certain, barring multiple failures in all of the first four boats, the record will be broken.
On Monday it looked like a January 26 and a 77-day finish, on Tuesday the long range forecast and routing suggested it might be January 27 or 28.
“I still say January 26, but it is not possible for anyone to know the weather this far out,” Denis Horeau, the Vendée Globe race director, said. “January 26 would be 77 days and that would be significant for two reasons. First of all because of Jules Verne (author of the famous French adventure book 80 Days Around the World) and because that was what multihulls were doing just 15 years ago.
“Then, it is incredible because of the previous 84-day record by Michel Desjoyeaux (2008-09). But we have to be careful here because in fact it was 84 days, it was 84 less 40 hours in port (Desjoyeaux returned to port to make repairs after the start of the last edition). But 77 days would be remarkable.”
There are four boats who are likely to break the 84-day mark and all may even be able to claim that they went around the world alone in 80 days – although Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) would need a fast finish.
“There are four boats and big difference has been the fleet has been very compact,” Horeau said. “Previously the adventurers were satisfied to make it around the world, now everyone is sailing very fast. Nobody seems to be hurt, fragile or plagued by problems and big dangers on board. It’s even different to the last edition because we had slow boats and people were sick.”
The last skipper in 2008-9 finished more than 42 days after Desjoyeaux, in 2004-05 the gap was 38 days; in 2000-01, 64 days; in 1996-97, 34 days; in 1992-93, 43; and in 1989-90, 53 days. This time Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique) should finish within 20 days of the winner.
There are places the race could have been faster – not least in the first two weeks, when they did not break the record to the Equator, the only major mark (Jean Le Cam’s 10 days 11 hours and 28 minutes from 2004-05) not rewritten by this race. But Horeau does not the think the positioning of the ice gates has slowed them down this time.
“In 2008 we kept them up in the Pacific (because of icebergs) and this time we did it in the Indian Ocean,” Horeau said.
Fleet News
The apparently unstoppable Francois Gabart (MACIF) continues to break records and set a new Vendée mark for the return to the equator when he crossed at 1341hrs UTC on Tuesday. The 29-year-old’s time of 66 days 1 hour and 39 minutes, broke another of the records of his mentor, Michel Desjoyeaux, the 71 days 17 hours and 12 minutes, set when he won in 2008-9.
Though it is normal to slow down towards the equator and the doldrums where the fleet normally compresses, such has been Gabart’s speed that Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire), in second, will have been relieved to have won back 69 miles in the last 24 hours.
Likewise Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3), in third, who has been the fastest in the fleet for the last 24 hours, averaging 15.9 knots with 381 miles, but with a slightly worse VMG than Le Cléac’h.
Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), in fourth, has watched Dick stretch away to 224 miles ahead, but has not lost to Gabart, who is 870 miles ahead. As the most westerly of the skippers he is hoping for an easier doldrums.
“I’m almost undoubtedly going to cross the doldrums further west than all those three boats and in theory a more westerly doldrums crossing is more secure and less disruptive,” Thomson told Vendée Globe TV live.
“For me the chances to catch up are number one the doldrums and number two hopefully the guys will be slowed by the Azores high and maybe there’s a chance of me getting into the westerlies a bit further west of everybody else. We just have to wait and see, it’s too early to say.”
After being caught and passed overnight, Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) has escaped again to the west, somehow finding a band of tradewind easterlies in the godforsaken windless hole the four behind him are mired in. Mike Golding (Gamesa) was becalmed on Tuesday afternoon, averaging just 1.6 knots over the last four hours compared to Le Cam’s 15.7 knots. Le Cam has skipped away, 64 miles in the lead.
Javier Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered), like Golding, to the east, has fared almost as badly. His charge is over, or at least on pause, and he was averaging 4.4 knots, 176 miles behind Golding. Ninety miles further down the leaderboard and to the west, Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud), was averaging just 4.6 knots. At a glance, Arnaud Bossières (Akena Verandas) was recovering, averaging 7.6 knots, but he has veered to Uruguay (that’s not a euphemism) and was averaging just 1.1 knots of VMG.
The latest charts suggest that Golding is back into some 13 knots southeasterlies, but as he has bemoaned, the charts have been lying and regardless the road ahead looks far from simple. The true picture for all five boats will take days to emerge.
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