Thomson explains why he must make his own way home
Dick is third skipper past the equator and in hot pursuit
The Le Cam Carnival route
Fleet News:
Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) remained the fastest man at the front of the fleet, albeit less dramatically than on Thursday morning, as he chips away at the lead of the three in front.
Only Alessandro Di Benedetto (Team Plastique), getting ready to be the last skipper round Cape Horn on Thursday night, has been quicker since the last ranking four hours ago, averaging 16.1 knots. Otherwise Thomson’s 14 knots is the best.
His more westerly passage to the equator and through the doldrums (probably starting on Friday afternoon) still looks favourable on paper and he gave some insight to his strategy for being there and for what he will do in the North Atlantic:
“Even if I do make the miles up and I was to get equal with Jean-Pierre (Dick), if we’re sailing in the same breeze and neither of us have any problems, he does have a slightly faster boat,” Thomson said to Vendée Globe TV. “So I have to think about that, I can’t really be doing the same thing as those guys, if I have a chance to beat them. There’s a big gap between me and Jean Le Cam (in fifth) so in terms of routing and navigation, maybe there’s a possibility of taking some risks for making some gains and not following people because if I follow I’m not going beat them in a boat speed race.”
One the oldest maxims is sailing races is: ‘if you stay behind, you stay behind.’ This applies especially when those in front have a speed advantage. This is not gamesmanship by Thomson, it’s a fact. Hugo Boss is fast, but it’s a second generation boat from the last edition of the Vendée Globe, the three in front are all new and have been demonstrably faster in the same conditions. It is the reason that Thomson’s performance has drawn praise from all quarters. Despite the extraordinary speed of Gabart and Le Cléac’h and to a lesser extend Dick, he is still in with a chance.
At the front, after seeing his lead dwindle in the doldrums to 61 miles on Wednesday night, Francois Gabart (MACIF) has edged slightly away from Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) to 92.8 on Thursday afternoon. Gabart has averaged 12 knots in the last four hours, compared to Le Cléac’h’s 10.1 knots. But with both clear of the doldrums on Thursday morning, Le Cléac’h looks like he has banked almost all of the 200 miles he made up since Monday afternoon. “In the big picture I did well,” Le Cléac’h said. “I hope I be able to use this great crossing for the finish. Everything remains possible.” Perhaps to rub salt in the wound Le Cléac’h explained he had a nice sail for when there is no wind – a Code 0 - a hybrid between a Genoa sail and gennaker and particularly suitable for light airs.
With around ten days to the finish line in Les Sables, the last big hurdle for them to negotiate is the Azores high.
There have obviously been other negotiations going on and Le Cléac’h, perhaps, had some of the pressure taken off him as his sponsor Banque Populaire reaffirmed their commitment to sailing until 2016. They announced that they have bought the old Groupama III maxi trimaran, renamed it Banque Populaire VII, and that Le Cléac’h will skipper it in the 2014 Route du Rhum.
Meanwhile, third-placed Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3), averaging 13.3 knots in the last four hours, is still edging back. He trails Gabart by 390.6 miles and Le Cléac’h by 298. Unlike Thomson he will be more confident of match racing the two in front if, and it’s still a big if, he can catch them.
Dick became the third skipper to cross the equator at 10.02 UTC on Thursday after 67 days 22 hours and 00 minutes, also well inside the old record of 71 days 17 hours and 12 minutes set by Michel Desjoyeaux in winning the last edition. Dick will enter the doldrums on Thursday night.
At the front of the group of pain for the middle five boats in the fleet, Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) has almost reached Rio. His extraordinary route to escape the high-pressure hole, took him to less than 50 miles from the coast of Brazil before he tacked due east, averaging just 5.8 hours in the last four hours. “As the Carnival is coming soon I’m going to stop at Rio,” he joked on Vendée Globe TV, “if I keep on sailing forward I’ll be there within 5 hours.”
But the situation that has plagued all week has not been a joke. Sixth-placed Mike Golding (Gamesa), who has cut Le Cam’s lead to 60 miles, half-laugh after saying: “We’re in trade winds and the wind is blowing is perfectly out of where we want to go.” Northerlies when you are heading north were not planned for. “I’ve had several doldrums in this race,” he said. He was averaging 10.1 knots to the east, with Javier Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered) averaging 10.4, 159 miles behind him in seventh. Behind them in the ranking, but far to the west, Dominique Wavre (Mirabaud), and Arnaud Bossières (Akena Verandas) have ended up in almost as strange a position as Le Cam.
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