Friday 20 November: A top trio battles it out
The top trio - Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss), Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) and Charlie Dalin (Apivia) - are still in a fierce duel. They have dug a gap with Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!), who is 240.7 miles behind in the 6 p.m. rankings.
Sébastien Simon (Arkéa-Paprec) has moved up the fleet to leave behind the daggerboard IMOCA boats of Benjamin Dutreux and Damien Seguin and is now chasing after Samantha Davies (Initiatives-C?ur), Yannick Bestaven (Maitre-Coq IV) and Boris Herrmann (Seaxplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco).
L'Occitane en Provence has also got back into the swing of things, after the various mast climbs carried out by her skipper Armel Tripon, which caused her to lose many places. She is now preparing to cross the Doldrums.
Finally, Fabrice Amédéo (Newrest - Art et Fenêtres) is 180 miles behind and has joined the last group. He had had to turn back to carry out repairs to his rigging. Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG Mori) was reinstalling his mainsail, after having repaired it.
Saturday, November 21: Thomas Ruyant leads the way
Thomas Ruyant has been leading the fleet since Friday evening and is 32.43 miles ahead of Alex Thomson, the leader since last Sunday. Charlie Dalin completes the trio at 67.79 miles. Thomas Ruyant averaged 511.4 miles over 24 hours yesterday, at an average of 21.2 knots. A performance close to the record set by Alex Thomson of 536.81 miles in 24 hours.
The trio are still benefiting from a moderate NE'ly wind of around fifteen knots, which is enabling them to maintain high speeds at around a hundred degrees of breeze. Subsequently, they will be sailing downwind in a narrow corridor, forcing them to gybe regularly.
The gap is widening between the three leaders and the rest of the fleet. Jean Le Cam, 4th is 308.64 miles behind. 6th in the fleet, Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée 2) is 364.83 miles behind. Sam Davies is in ninth position, further north of the group of followers. With an average of 18.9 knots in 24 hours, she may not have to sail around St. Helena from the south. Sébastien Simon is hoping to follow the same strategy, although he is still tinkering with his weather vane, which has let go of him.
Isabelle Joschke saw her gennaker sheet pulley torn off, which ripped off the aft pulpit system and its lines. While waiting to make the best possible repairs, she set up a makeshift repair. And carried out a two-hour penalty following an accidental break in the lead of her shaft propeller.
Kojiro Shiraishi has finally left the coast of the Cape Verde archipelago after a week of repairs to his mainsail.
Sunday 22 November: Structural problems for Hugo Boss
Hugo Boss is facing important structural problems on Hugo Boss. While checking his boat before entering the Southern Ocean, the Britishman spotted a longitudinal crack (structural reinforcement). While he was in second position 40 miles from Thomas Ruyant yesterday, he slowed down considerably and let his rivals get away, falling 200 miles behind. A sanding, gluing and laminating workshop is on the programme for repairs.
Deprived of a halyard since the start of the Vendée Globe and using a spare halyard, Thomas Ruyant had to climb to the top of the mast to carry out repairs, as the latter had dropped him. However, he didn't let go of anything, battling side by side ten miles from Charlie Dalin.
The Vendée Globe fleet is now stretched out over 3000 miles, with Jérémie Beyou, 32nd sailing in the southern Canaries. All of them have their daily DIY jobs to do: weather vane for Sébastien Simon, layering on a piece of foils well for Armel Tripon in a box, and a complete overhaul of the mainsail for Kojiro Shiraishi.
Monday 23 November: Change of leader
Thanks to his small shift to leeward of LinkedOut as close as possible to the cold front, Charlie Dalin took the lead of the rankings at 9am this morning. The two sailors are making a series of adjustments, gybes and fine-tuning the trajectories. Behind them, they also have to manage their route choices to avoid getting stuck in the Saint Helena High.
This 15 e the day of the race is also the day of a big clean-up aboard the IMOCA boats, and the entry into the Doldrums for six skippers: Fabrice Amédéo, Miranda Merron, Clément Giraud, Ari Huusela, Alexia Barrier and Sébastien Destremau.
Hugo Boss managed to repair after a 36-hour stop in the middle of the South Atlantic. He is now 300 miles behind the leader but there is still a long way to go. Jérémie Beyou is racing along the Mauritanian coast to make up his 9-day deficit.
Tuesday 24 November: A long descent into the South Atlantic
The position of the St. Helena High completely blurs the track to reach the Deep South. Everyone is trying their best to get out of the light airs, and it is no better in the Doldrums, where 7 IMOCA boats are battling it out. The frontrunners in the fleet should hit the flow of 40 e Roaring in 48 hours, after constant sail changes, manoeuvres and adjustments, before rounding the Cape of South Africa on Sunday night. For the next group it will be almost two days later.
The Dalin/Ruyant tandem is nearly 200 miles behind the 3rd Jean Le Cam, who manages to maintain the distance with the foilers. Alex Thomson has chosen to round the high via the south with Louis Burton and Sam Davies. He is 500 miles behind the head of the fleet and should finish his repairs this evening.
The Roura/Attanasio/Crémer trio is sailing 1,000 miles behind the frontrunners. L'Occitane en Provence is 2,000 miles ahead of Apivia when Jérémie Beyou starts to slow down in the Doldrums, 3,000 miles behind the others.
Wednesday 25 November: Damage to foils for Thomas Ruyant
19 IMOCA boats out of the 32 in the 9th Vendée Globe fleet are still struggling with the St. Helena high, which is moving gently eastwards. This morning, Thomas Ruyant announced a port foil damage on his IMOCA LinketOut. Of the eight new flying IMOCA boats at the start of the race, there is only one left which has not yet been slowed down: Charlie Dalin on Apivia, who has been at the head of the fleet for the past two days.
On this 17th day of racing, the battle is becoming very intense in each of the groups in the fleet, which is stretched out over a little over 3,000 miles. 1.5 miles between Boris Herrmann and Yannick Bestaven, 6 between Sam Davies and Louis Burton, 12 between Manu Cousin and Pip Hare along the Horn of Brazil and 2 miles between Fabrice Amedeo and Clément Giraud who are finally emerging from the Doldrums?
Apivia and LinkedOut are the first to feel the cold of the deep South. Already lower than the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, at latitude 38 South, 160 miles west of the volcanic islands Tristan da Cunha, the two skippers will probably already be donning fleeces and under layers as soon as night falls.
Thursday, November 26: Soon the 40th Roaring Soon
Soon freed from the zone of soft and erratic winds, the skippers will switch to attack mode, pushed by a good westerly flow for 25-30 knots. If they stay in the front, they will finally be able to make the powder talk and slide down to the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, the Kerguelen Islands.
Charlie Dalin, still the leader, will be the first to enter the Roaring Forties. He will double the latitude 40° South tonight, after a final day of struggle in light airs. Louis Burton and Sam Davies - 8th and 9th respectively - positioned furthest west have achieved their goal, positioning themselves to take advantage of the westerly flow as quickly as possible.
Alex Thomson is back in the race with double-digit speed. In 10th position, the Briton took four days to repair the cracks on the structural parts of the front of his boat. He is back in the chasing pack between Initiatives-C?ur and Arkéa-Paprec.
Thomas Ruyant is digesting his damaged port foils and is trying to reduce the 100 mile gap with Charlie Dalin. He knows that statistically, the starboard foil is the most frequently used on a Vendée Globe.
Stéphane Le Diraison managed to cover 160 miles on La Fabrique (Alan Roura). Isabelle Joschke (MACSF) has managed to stay in the right tempo at an average of over 16 knots over the past 4 hours despite her repairs. Armel Tripon is racing along the Brazilian coast. There are now only two boats left in the northern hemisphere, DMG Mori Global and Charal, which is entering the Doldrums.
