Målfoto i Vendee Globe
Vi kan konstatera att det här är den tajtaste målgången någonsin, och olika modeller pekar på olika vinnare. Dessutom har några av seglarna tidsavdrag att räkna med efter räddningen av Kevin Escoffier: Boris Herrmann har 6 timmar och Yannick Bestaven har 10 timmar och 10 minuter.
Boris Herrmann är cool. Jag har följt honom vid nästan varje uppdatering, och det har ofta känts som han har kört på 80% strax bakom täten – och varit nöjd med det. Nu är han extremt väl positionerad.
Bara att bänka sig framför trackern i morgon.
Vad tippar ni?
Everyone’s a Winner
- Title will be decided between the Famous Five
- Dalin ETA late afternoon early evening Wednesday
With something less than 24 hours until the first solo sailor finishes the Vendée Globe off Les Sables d’Olonne Wednesday night, even the most advanced modern weather routing programmes operated by some of the finest minds in ocean racing cannot seem to agree who the winner of a truly epic ninth edition of the non-stop solo round the world race will be.
The margin of victory looks set to be down to tiny minutes after 80 days and 24,350 miles of racing. With five skippers harbouring realistic hopes of winning, the reality is that any one of Charlie Dalin, Boris Herrmann, Louis Burton, Thomas Ruyant and Yannick Bestaven have delivered performances equally worthy of overall victory.
Over 80 days and nights, 24/7, always on, they have engaged millions of spectators like never seen before since this race was founded in 1989.
Each of these top protagonists – as have all the 20 still racing – have revealed their characters day by day, ocean by ocean. By the hour, their modus operandi, their strengths and their weaknesses, have seeped out these heard earned miles.
With less than 400 miles to the finish this evening Charlie Dalin (Apivia), 36, leads by over 85 miles heading into his long, dark final full night at sea, from 39 year old Boris Herrmann (SeaExplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco) who will become the first German to finish the race.
Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée 2), 35 from Saint Malo is third at 57 miles behind Herrmann. Fourth placed Thomas Ruyant, 39 from Dunkirk has with Dalin and Bestaven been one of the occupants of the podium positions all the way round the globe, while Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ IV) celebrated his 48th birthday leading the race just west of Point Nemo and is fifth at 295 miles behind Dalin.
Pre race favourite Dalin has raced surgically precise courses with metronomic consistency on the newest and most proven boat. He has led for 36 days and at two of the three great capes.
Herrmann has paced his attack perfectly, quietly and efficiently preserving himself and his equipment, like a grand tour cyclist, in readiness to ratchet up his attack when the final miles chime perfectly with the sweet spot of his slightly older – but perfectly prepped and optimised boat. He has never led the race but – with a time compensation of 6 hours – may well become the first ever non-French winner.
Burton the maverick from Saint Malo collected three time penalties over the duration of his course and some would say pressed his boat closest to its limits, suffering numerous pilot and sail problems but prepared to dare harder, faster and deeper in the south. Remarkably he recovered more than 800 miles on the leader and 400 miles on the peloton after he had to repair at the remote Macqaurie island.
Ruyant has been in the top three for 72 per cent of the race despite losing his port foil before the Cape of Good Hope and has the race’s best 24 hours run of 518 nautical miles. And Bestaven has been the revelation, sailing the perfect combination of fast and smart on a well optimised boat, sailing a good boat excellently.
The outcome seems set to be decided by tiny fractions of the race’s overall duration. Almost certainly time compensations allotted to skippers for their role in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier will decide one or even two of the podium positions. Herrmann at six hours has to finish four hours and 15 minutes ahead of Bestaven who has 10 hrs and 15 minutes.
The Bay of Biscay is the arena for the ultimate showdown. In the south, Charlie Dalin and Boris Herrmann work the shortest and most direct route close to Cape Finisterre, with Burton, Ruyant and Bestaven on the longer, faster route from the north. Bestaven had made 100 miles back on Dalin in the 24 hours before 1700hrs UTC this evening but was still 266 miles behind doing 19.6kts compared to Dalin’s 15.1kts.
The harsh reality is that with the time bonuses Thomas Ruyant might lose out most, left out in the cold in fourth or fifth after an excellent race. On the English Live show today his team manager Marcus Hutchinson looked at the bigger picture,
“The reality in this race now is that if we had told Thomas before the start that he was going to finish within four or five or six hours of the first boat crossing the finish line he would have taken that. And that is what he will get, but here we have three or maybe four boats in between him and the first to finish and that is secondary. But we have to contextualise these things. All of these guys and girls to get to the start line is an achievement, to get to the finish is even more special. But here we are 24 hours or a bit more from the finish and we just don’t know how this is going to pan out. So thank you to all of these skippers they have made this an incredible sporting spectacle like we have never seen on this race.”
Rooting for Dalin, and with whom he won the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2019, Yann Eliès concluded sagely,
“Here we are. We just need to be patient, to wait and see what happens right up until the first crossing of the line.”
“ Let sport do its magic!”
Jan 26, 2021 @ 22:48
Apivia med Charlie Dalin förtjänar att bli först i mål, efter snygg segling och ha lett stora delar av racet. Vinnaren kan vara vem som av de fem, välförtjänt!
Jan 27, 2021 @ 07:01
Tror på målgång enligt placeringarna nu, kanske Bestaven som kan köra om Ruyant…
Sen: Bestaven 1a, Boris H. 2a, Dalin 3a, Burton 4a, Le cam 5a
Jan 27, 2021 @ 07:07
Bestaven har kört en otroligt bra race, väldigt få misstag. Att han blev omkörd på sydatlanten hade jag alldrig tänkt att det skulle vara möjligt. Tydligen fick han ju en skada på sin J2a just då.
Bästa racet står nog Damian Seguin för. Helt otroligt vad bra han seglade sin 2008 båt…
De nya verdier båtarna är sjuk snabba i vissa förhållanden, dvs. ganska platt vatten och reaching. Men ska det inte gå att göra de mera allround? I vmg läns var de ju knapp snabbare än alla andra… Sen hade det varit bra om båtarna höll ;)
Jan 27, 2021 @ 09:14
Idag är trackern uppe på stora skärmen på kontoret: https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map
Jan 27, 2021 @ 14:02
Ljudet ombord är ju helt sjukt…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrpSojYh9Jg
Jan 28, 2021 @ 08:32
Vilken rysare!!!
Vilken regissör slänger in “kollision med fiskebåt” mit i en livesändning😃
–
Tannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV) Wins Ninth Vendée Globe
Yannick Bestaven, the 48 year old French skipper of Maître Coq IV, is the overall winner of the ninth edition of the Vendée Globe. Although he actually took the gun for third place off Les Sables d’Olonne, France at 03hrs 19mins 46 secs early this Thursday morning, because he carried a time compensation of 10 hours and 15 minutes, awarded by an international jury for his role in the search and rescue of fellow competitor Kevin Escoffier, Bestaven takes victory 2hrs 31mins 01secs ahead of Charlie Dalin and 6hrs 40mins 26secs of Louis Burton who both finished ahead of him and take second and third respectively.
The skipper of Maître CoQ IV was one of the two skippers who led the fleet for the longest time: 26 days, or 32% of the time an excellent result for the skipper who grew up in Arcachon and has Yves Parlier as his mentor.
Bestaven finished in Biscay drizzle on a two metre swell in 20 knots of westerly wind before being warmly welcomed back to Les Sables d’Olonne’s channel where well wishers lined their balconies and streets to acclaim the new winner of the Vendée Globe.
‘My main quality? “Stubbornness”. My main flaw “Stubbornness”. “I also am very resilient ” admitted Bestaven before the start.
Although he was not tipped among the fancied, possible winners of the race, Bestaven revealed himself as an outstanding performer on his first time in the southern oceans where he was at his best in the Indian Ocean, passing Australia’s Cape Leeuwin in third place and then in the Pacific, emerging first at Cape Horn with a 15 hour lead.
After then building the biggest margin of the race, 440 hard earned miles thanks to a smart climb up the South Atlantic, Bestaven must have thought his chances of winning this Vendée Globe were over, when during three frustrating days all but becalmed south of Rio, he saw his margin evaporate like snow in the hot Brazilian sun.
But the skipper from La Rochelle on the west coast of France, an engineer as well as professional skipper, proved his race winning credentials as he fought back into contention by the Azores. His final, key move proved to be choosing to head north on the Bay of Biscay which allowed him to arrive on the heels of a low pressure system and accelerate faster on a long, direct track into Les Sables d’Olonne over the last 24 hours, chasing Dalin and Burton across the line to hold his time to win outright.
Over an ocean racing career spanning nearly 20 year Bestaven has tasted success in the Mini class – winning the Mini Transat in 2001 – and then in Class 40 where he twice won the Transat Jacques Vabre. But, after he was one of the first to be forced out of the epic 2008 Vendée Globe when he was dismasted on the Bay of Biscay less than 24 hours into the race, he has taken his time to return to the Vendée Globe with a well appointed programme which saw him put together a small, hand picked team of specialists from all fields including the America’s Cup. He is also a successful entrepreneur who owns and runs Watt & Sea, a company which develops hydrogenerators fitted to most of the competing IMOCAs.
Although, in the 2015 VPLP-Verdier designed Maitre Coq IV which was built as Safran, his boat is not one of the latest generation foilers, he was able to maintain high average speeds in the south and remained competitive in more moderate conditions.
The ninth edition of the race saw a record entry of 33 skippers and has been marked by complicated weather patterns for both the descent down and the ascent back up the South Atlantic, including regrouping of the leading pack in persistent period of light winds early in the Pacific, and again off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Difficult, short, crossed sea conditions in the Indian Ocean meant the newest, most powerful latest generation foilers could not sail to their full speed potential. And two of them, Thomas Ruyant’s LinkedOut and Charlie Dalin’s Apivia both suffered different damage to their foil systems which compromised their speed potential on starboard tack.
The most dramatic moments of the race came on the 22nd day of racing, November 30th when PRB, the IMOCA of third placed Kevin Escoffier broke up suddenly 640 miles SW of Cape Town.
Escoffier was forced to abandon into his liferaft in minutes. Four skippers were requested to reroute help locate and rescue Escoffier. Although 61 year old veteran Jean Le Cam was first on the scene and got close to Escoffier it was 11 ½ hours later when Le Cam was finally able to rescue the stricken skipper from his liferaft.
The international jury announced their time compensations on December 16th at six hours for Germany’s Boris Herrmann, 10hrs and 15 mins for Bestaven and 16hrs and 15 mins for Le Cam. Little then did race watchers realise that this redress would ultimately decide the final winner after the closest, most competitive race finish in history, the first three skippers crossing the line in less than eight hours.
Germany’s Boris Herrman was in contention for a podium position until he struck a fishing boat at 90 miles from the finish line. He is bringing his Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco to the finish at reduced speed.
Podium of the ninth Vendée Globe:
1 – Maître Coq IV (Yannick Bestaven), finished 28/01/2021 03:19:46 UTC.
Elapsed time 80d 13h 59min 46s.
Time compensation : -10h 15min 00s,
Offical corrected time : 80dj 03h 44min 46s.
Average speed on the theoretical course: 24 365.74 nm / 12.60 kts.
Miles sailed 28 583.80 nm at an average of 14.78 nds
2 – APIVIA (Charlie Dalin) finished 27/01/2021 19:35:47 UTC.
Elapsed time 80d 06h 15min 47s
No time compensation.
Time difference to first 02h 31min 01s
Average speed on the theoretical course: 24 365.74 nm / 12.65 nds
Miles sailed 29 135.01 nm at an average of 15.13 nds
3 – Bureau Vallée 2 (Louis Burton) finished 27/01/2021 23:45:12 UTC
Elapsed time 80d10h 25min 12s,
No compensation.
Time difference to first 06h 40min 26s,
Time difference to APIVIA 04h 09min 25s
Average speed on the theoretical course: 24 365.74 nm / 12.62 nds
Miles sailed 28 649.99 nms at an average of 14.84 nds
Feb 1, 2021 @ 10:46
Blir ännu bättre när man ser att båten Boris Herrmann krockade med heter “Hermanos Busto” ;)
Tyska tidninge pratade med skepparen, han tycket att de hade AIS:en på och var väl synligt.. märkligt.
Feb 1, 2021 @ 11:41
Strålande! Boris & co hade båten ute till försäljning (3,7 M euro) innan det inträffade. Noterade att han uttryckte sig på ett intressant sätt. Finns en del annat att säga om olyckan som var onödig men tyvärr hände det. För övrigt har fiskebåten ifråga har AIS på som de brukar… marinetraffic.com
Feb 3, 2021 @ 09:20
Sälj inte skinnet förrän björnen är fälld.
(PS. Hur blir det med MSC?)
Feb 4, 2021 @ 13:03
Hemsidan är uppdaterad nu och anmälningen öppnar nästa fredag 12:e februari klockan 18 :-)
Feb 3, 2021 @ 16:54
Congratulations Boris – first to the Fishing line!