Vendee Globe | dag 24
Closing in as the Gate opens up options
1500 HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1- Seb Josse (BT) at 18232.4
2- Yann Elies (Generali) + 11.4 miles
3- Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) +43.2 miles
4- Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty) + 67.5 miles
5- Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) + 85.7 miles
Selected International
9- Mike Golding, GBR, (ECOVER 3) at + 110.5 miles
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 260.1 miles
13- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 499 miles
14- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 607.3 miles
15- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 676.7 miles
17- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) at + 765.9 miles
18 – Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 790.9 miles
19 – Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 803.3 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 932.6 miles
21- Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) at + 1032.4 miles
23- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 1505.1 miles
25- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) +1555.4 milesIN SHORT WORDS
A day of respite to recharge and reflect before the charge east as the first big blow of the Southern Ocean is set to arrive.
Seb Josse (BT) looks set to lead through the first security ‘gate’ which is designed to keep the fleet north of the ice zone, but his lead is just 11 miles now, running a parallel course to Yann Eliès (Generali) who continues to be quickest of the top five.
Mike Golding, GBR, 9th on Ecover 3, is 110.5 miles behind the lead boat and has gybed north to cut the gate from the north.
Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar), 13th Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy), 14th rue their losses as they struggled in lighter winds, but they will be among the first to be propelled east by the depression which promises 35-45 knots of wind, 50-60 knots gusts.
Big winds overnight, during which a few of the leading skippers – Vincent Riou and Mike Golding among them – admitting today that they had pushed too hard, gave way to lighter 15-20 knots more westerly winds for the front running group who will pass through the first ice gate this evening and tonight.
First to cross the Kerguelen ice gate – passing north to south – should be Seb Josse (BT), leader now for four days, and Yann Eliès (Generali) who are running neck and neck for the line, side by side about 12 miles apart. Generali, the Finot Conq design, has gained through the day, more than halving Josse’s lead of this morning.
More information on the 8 Vendee Globe Gates
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/race/route.html
While they will then be the first to get the benefit of getting directly back to the south, strongest breeze-shortest route, the flip side of the coin is the choice of Jean Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), 3rd and Loick Peyron, (Gitana Eighty), 4th, who are have been hanging on longer to their more southerly position, before choosing when to gybe north and cut the gate, before breaking south again. They have been waiting for the wind to veer more and build, giving them a faster angle to go on.
Between the two schools Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3), 9th, Vincent Riou (PRB), 6th, and Jean Le Cam (VM Materiaux), 7th are all heading north east on starboard gybe on different angles. Le Cam has been sailing 10 degrees lower and may be looking to just pass the westernmost point of the line before heading south east again.
While Le Cam chuckled that he and his nine nearest rivals are ‘crazy’ Riou and Golding in particular spoke today of sticking to a level, after both had sharp reminders of the perils of being caught with too much sail in a rapidly building wind in the Southern Ocean.
“ In a gang of ten, who are crazy, who are fairly often taking things to or beyond reasonable limits. I think am being reasonable, but difficult to know where to set the cursor. Maybe no one is being reasonable, but some are more reasonable than others. You get used to the excesses.” Quipped the enigmatic Le Cam, who then went on to explain that his pet soft toys, Bibi the puffer fish and Léon the hedgehog had been raiding his foodbags.
Golding admitted he had been caught out with too much sail when the wind rose suddenly, and was forced to run off in the wrong direction, while the 2004 Vendee Globe winner Riou confessed that he had broached when the cold front went over PRB and he had hurt his foot, choosing to consolidate and sail more calmly in the aftermath.
Overall the day has seen a drop in average speeds to around 14 knots, and many of the skippers have been trying to get some rest, consolidating and preparing for the big blow that is about to arrive. A thundery low pressure system moving east from South America will be hitting the fleet, enveloping the “hunters”, from Samantha Davies (Roxy) to Unaï Basurko (Pakea Biskaia) and producing 35 to 40 knot NNW’ly winds are forecast from tonight gusting to 50-55 knots with waves up to 4 to 6 metres. The gales will reach the leaders on Thursday afternoon and the end of the week looks like being very stormy. A common phenomenon around these Southern Ocean waters south of the Cape of Good Hope, this South American low filled with hot air will combine with a cold front circulating around the Fifties.
The seas will become high and gusts will reach 65 knots.
The fierce south will be baring its teeth
Voices of the sea (MP3 audio files available for download in the online media server)
Mike Golding, GBR,(ECOVER 3): “It is just difficult to find the right level. It does look like there might be some choices to be made probably as you get to the gate, the two models differ in the solutions, but I think that is going to be an interesting chance for the boats behind, but I think so long as you are in the 100 miles group, there is a good chance to catch up.
I am trying to find my pace lately, last night – early evening – I probably pushed it a little too hard and then I ended up with a little too much sail up than I wanted in such a strong wind, and I frightened myself stupid, and ended up running completely the wrong way, and then ran perhaps with a little too little sail in the early hours of the morning, so it is just finding your level.”
“ The fastest solution is often backed off, with the boat eased off a little bit where the boat is just easily eating up the miles. That is kind of where I was last night. I had a horrible déjà vu, losing the rig in the Velux 5 Oceans, when it was a very similar set up, a lot of breeze came in very quickly and I was caught with a lot of sail and that kind of spooked me a little bit and so I am just settling back in.”
Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar): “The time penalty I took, the four hour stop I took, has turned into a 240 miles gap on Temenos who I was next to, and that is because the cold front overtook me yesterday morning and from then I was gybing in fairly light airs, while the others were going fast, ahead of the cold front in the north westerly wind, while I was in the westerly wind. That means they have stretched things.
The good thing now is that the wind is picking up now and conditions will will be ideal for me to go fast to the mark, so hopefully I will be able to make up a few miles – maybe not quite as many as I lost – but there is a long way to go.”
“But it is over now. It was difficult at the time, because I only had a few hours warning that I had to take the penalty before the first ice gate, and elected to do it just as we were leaving the high pressure, because I needed to do some work on the sails, in relatively light airs seemed to make sense at the time, but my preference would have been to do the time penalty much later in the race.”