Vendee Globe | dag 20
Zoning in…
1500 HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1-Seb Josse (BT) at 19465.9 miles to the finish
2-Jean le Cam (VM Matériaux) at + 3.9 miles to leader
3-Yann Elies (Generali) at + 5.4 miles
4-Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) at + 7.8 miles
5-Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) at + 12.7 miles to leader
Selected International
9- Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) at + 35.1 miles
11- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 167.1 miles
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 185.1 miles
13- Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) at + 196.5 miles
15- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 341.5 miles
17- Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at +563.5 miles
18 – Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 649.8 miles
18- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 730.1 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 756.3 miles
22- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) at + 766.2 miles
23- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) at + 1255.3 miles
24- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 1442.8 miles
– The leading bunch begin to turn left as the centre of the St Helena High finally approaches
– Seb Josse (BT) resumes pole position as the most southerly boat, closely followed by Loick Peyron (GItana Eighty)
– Tough night for Dee Caffari (Aviva, GBR), with headsail damage forcing her to briefly head west
– Bernard Stamm (SUI) celebrates his birthday with the fastest 24-hour averages of the fleet
– Penalties come into play – Derek Hatfield (CAN) completes a half-hour penalty for an incorrect course at the start
Another five hours, and another roll of the dice, as the positions shuffle once more in this afternoon’s schedule (1500hrs GMT). Sébastien Josse (BT) resumes his place at the front of the rankings as the most southerly boat, with Peyron on his tail, about eight miles behind (currently in fourth place).
Josse is around 52 miles south of the next most southerly skipper, Armel Le Cleac’h (Brit Air, 5th), but as the fleet start to turn left it is those to the east who are showing well in the position reports — Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) bounces back up to second, about 110 miles north of BT. Whether Le Cam’s high-risk strategy is rewarded in the long term, is of course an entirely different matter.
Behind them the chasing pack advance on a sliding scale — Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar, GBR) about 20 miles closer to the leaders than yesterday in 11th place, Sam Davies in 13th (Roxy, GBR) 40 miles gained, Arnaud Boissieres (Akena Vérandas) 50 miles closer, and Jonny Malbon (Artemis, GBR, 18th) about 70 miles nearer to the front than he was yesterday.
Bernard Stamm on Cheminées Poujoulat (SUI) celebrates his 45th birthday today — and as a timely present, he passed Raphael Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) to move into 21st place. He has also covered the most miles over the past 24-hours of any boat in the fleet. Currently 766.2 miles adrift of the leader, Stamm can take heart from the fact that in the last edition of the Vendée Globe Mike Golding was 800 miles behind at this stage of the race, yet pulled up to finish third overall. Stamm has advanced over 130 miles nearer in the last 24 hours alone…
Whether and when the leaders get away again, of course now depends on how they negotiate the high pressure zone. The current easterly wind is forecast to ease and then back ENE’ly this evening, before becoming northerly and fading to around 10 knots as the enter the high pressure zone. What happens in the middle will likely vary mile by mile, but the front runners should be popping a kite up early tomorrow morning. Then, after the tense calms of the centre, they will suddenly be into the slingshot westerly weather systems of the south. The situation looks similar for the group chasing behind, who are likely to cross the high in roughly the same place, even as the anticyclone moves slowly north-eastwards. Those competitors further north, meanwhile, will have to content with a thundery low developing off the coast of Brazil, which will be moving south-eastwards and then south in the coming days.
Rich Wilson (Great American III) has completed a penalty for crossing a buoy on the wrong side shortly after the start of the race in Les Sables d’Olonne. The International Jury imposed a time penalty of half an hour, which Rich carried out today at a waypoint agreed with Race Management.
From today’s radio broadcast:
-7th Vincent Riou, PRB: I’ve got Jean-Pierre (Dick) upwind of me and Roland (Jourdain) downwind of me. The standard of the competition improves with each edition of the Vendée Globe and in the end the speed differences are minimal. I’m not in a hurry to be in the south, but it’s not far off now: I’m going to have to tidy up, get things ready and I can already feel a chilly wind blowing. There’s going to be some strong downwind sailing, but I’m not feeling as tense as I was four years ago: it’s nice knowing where I’m going.
– 11th Brian Thompson, Bahrain Team Pindar (GBR): It’s starting to get chilly here. The water’s a lot colder now. I’ve just seen an albatross flying around me right now, which is my first one. The albatross is the mascot of the Southern Ocean and I’m sure I’ll be seeing lots of them on the journey around, they’re amazing flying machines.
It’s been a lot of upwind and reaching since the Doldrums so it’s going to be great to be going downwind. I’m actually in the forepeak doing some last repairs to the big A3 sail which was totally ripped, then I’ve got to wool it up so I’m ready for tonight. I think about 0200 or 0300h in the morning it might be the right conditions to put it up.
Hopefully the high will move away just as I get there, that’s what both models are saying, the US and the European. When the new weather models came in it looked like the high was moving east quicker than expected so it’s ok to be going a little bit closer to the waypoint now and expect the high to move away before we get there. I think the leaders will probably slow down a little bit more because they’re going to be much closer to the high, so it’s going to be a chance to catch up some miles now, which will be great if we can hold onto them the other side.
-15th Dee Caffari, Aviva (GBR): Well it’s been an interesting night to say the least! About three o’clock this morning my tack fitting on my staysail broke so I had to go careering off to the west to try to solve the problem. It’s an ongoing problem so basically I need to try and get out of this weather to try and fix it, so basically I need to get to the high pressure as quickly as possible. I’ve managed to lash the sail so I can still sail, but to have a working solution for the south I need to have a bit less water across the deck. I’m heading in the right direction now, but I just wish I was in lighter airs and flatter water. My jobs list seems to be getting longer so my 24 hours in the high pressure is going to be a very busy 24 hours before I head out and get the westerly flow.
The race is absolutely intense. It’s phenomenal! No one’s backing off because it’s unbelievable to have this much racing, cover this many miles, and have the greats as close as they are. It’s remarkable to watch the front-runners and be part of it. It’s delivering everything and more. I’m fully behind Mike — he’s king of the south so where he is now, he’s going to just blow them away and it’s going to be cool to watch!
-17th Steve White, Toe in the Water (GBR): Conditions are quite changeable at the moment, the winds are all over the shop! I didn’t know anything about [my top 24-hour run] until a friend sent me a very cryptic email, saying 300 something or other, and that he’d done two laps of the living room, so I took it that meant it was a fairly respectable 24-hour time, other than that I had no idea!
When we’re going downwind [Toe in the Water] is still a light boat and quite wide, so it’s not that bad. The problem is upwind and in the light, where we’ve only got a very short mast, no daggerboards, no canting keel, nothing like that so the new boats walk over us. But when it starts to blow hard from just a bit behind the beam then we don’t do so bad.
– 24th Derek Hatfield, Algimouss Spirit of Canada (CAN): I’m a little upwind here since crossing the Equator, but that was to be expected. But I’m starting to crack off now and gain a little more speed. It’s my fifth time across the Equator now so I don’t get too excited about it, but of course you don’t want to tempt fate so you toast King Neptune as you go across. I didn’t have anything other than some orange juice, so I gave him a toast of orange juice!
The autopilot’s doing the work today. I’ve pretty much figured out the generator issue I had, and right now the charging situation seems to be under control. I was hand-steering for up to four hours a day, but now the generator seems to have filled in the gap so I relax a little bit.
Nov 30, 2008 @ 15:37
Michel har nu tuggat förbi även Sam och intagit 13:e, i mina ögon en otrolig prestation. Skulle inte bli förvånad alls om han är med i täten innan de är i mål.
Nov 30, 2008 @ 15:47
Har man verkligen motivationen till att fullfölja ett sånt här race om man ligger 1420 miles bakom?
Förövrigt.. Peter, har du någon aning om vad som händer med din granne och hans båt? Såg att den var till salu… Har han kört något race med den?
Nov 30, 2008 @ 17:49
Har man den mentaliteten som krävs för att fullfölja en satsning i ett sånt här race så finns det nog inte på kartan att ge upp så länge det finns en chans att gå i mål. Placering är nog av mindre betydelse, att ge upp är ju lika illa som att inte ens ställa upp om man har chansen.
Dessutom finns alla chanser att hämta in en hel del. Som det står ovan om förra racet:
“Golding was 800 miles behind at this stage of the race, yet pulled up to finish third overall.”
Tror några deltagare faktiskt inte ens funderat på att vinna denna gång utan kör en budgetsatsning för att lära och hoppas kunna vara med i toppen nästa gång.