From the delicious, unprecedented duel between François Gabart and Armel Le Cléac’h at the head of the fleet, sliding east towards Cape Horn 2400 miles ahead of them, right back to Italy’s 13th placed Alessandro Di Benedetto still 750 miles to the south and west of Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, the main focus of the day has been to just get through it incident free.
Speaking to home, family and friends, at Christmas is but a small bonus along the way, snatched when the weather allows, but several skippers today admitted they were simply appreciative that they are still going whilst other skippers who abandoned their race earlier would still gladly trade their place at their Yuletide fireside to be still racing in the Vendée Globe.
The ghost of Christmas future ? An opportunity for JP
For the last eleven days, or 4000 or so miles, the weather advantage has very much been gifted to the leading pair Gabart and Le Cléac’h. From the sublime fast moving frontal conditions which allowed Gabart to set a new 24 hours distance record days ago, even to their superior positioning which allowed them to stay with the system as their rivals successively tumbled off its back, the leaders have had the best of the winds.
But now, as a problematic low pressure trough develops ahead of Gabart and Le Cléac’h – essentially a confused tropical low pressure arriving from the north which will derail the leaders’ low pressure train – there might be the chance for the hard driving, vastly experienced Jean-Pierre Dick to take a bite out of the 478 miles deficit that the skipper of Virbac-Paprec 3 finds himself with.
Gabart and Le Cléac’h have the option to divert north to avoid the active trough, almost certainly losing miles to their pursuers, or to tough it out and try and punch through the knowing that there is the distinct possibility of becoming trapped and only being able to sail at the speed of the system.
And, indeed there, is the chance that the dynamic duo may each choose different options and finally split apart.
“I don’t think that I can be together with François and Armel at Cape Horn but my goal is to be maximum 200-300 miles behind. That is a lot, but, hey, anything can happen. You have to remember the example of Michel Desjoyeaux and Ellen MacArthur. And I feel like I still have some shots to play and I just hope I can.” the animated Jean-Pierre Dick reported earnestly today.
The ghosts of Christmas past ?
In the 2000-1 race which ended in Michel Desjoyeaux’s first win, the French skipper was more than 600 miles ahead of MacArthur who ultimately closed up in the South Atlantic to trade places back and forth with Desjoyeaux in the Doldrums.
While Dick had to give back some 10 miles of an initial Christmas gain of 53 miles as the leaders moved into the night, Virbac-Paprec 3 has been conclusively the quickest of the fleet over the last 24 hours. That said Gabart has stamped down on the accelerator in the early hours of his Boxing Day morning (Europe’s afternoon) to re-take the race lead by 2.1 miles from his long time adversary Le Cléac’h. The skipper from Nice, who finished sixth in the 2004-5 race, well knows the vagaries that the South Atlantic and retains his strong fighting spirit.
Similarly Britain’s Alex Thomson, condemned to a Christmas of radio silence due to his lack of electrical power remains in good shape in fourth. Meantime Bernard Stamm, fighting his own past, was closing to Dunedin this evening where he is expected to continue his hydrogenerator repairs.
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