A problematic day for many skippers

Richomme slows down, Dalin advances

At 0630UTC this morning Yoann Richomme told the race management that his J0 headsail halyard lock (hook) had broken and that the sail had fallen into the water. The skipper had to work to bring the sail back on board before realising that it was torn and unusable. This damage comes at a bad time, less than five days before the finish, especially when he will have to navigate along the Breton coast to the finish in light airs. Charlie Dalin (Macif Santé Prévoyance, 1st) is still expected at the finish on Tuesday, with Yoann between two and twelve hours later.

Relief at last for the chasing group

For Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil, 3rd), the high pressure ridge is rising and could slightly block his path. However, his third place continues to look solid, with his arrival in Les Sables d’Olonne estimated between Thursday 16 and Friday 17 January.

The chasing group around 2,500 miles further south has been enduring one of the most intense matches of this Vendée Globe for the past few weeks and the seven boats are still only 200 miles apart on the leaderboard. They are now finally starting to escape the clutches of the semi-permanent cold front off Cabo Frio, a chaotic zone of squalls, storms and very unstable winds. Those who routed to the west gained a slight advantage, including Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE, 4th), who’s sailing the leading older generation boat, and Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 5th).

Paul Meilhat (Biotherm, 6th) also gained, while Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB, 9th) dropped back having taken a more easterly route. Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 5th) does not hide his pleasure, but first has a word for Nicolas Lunven:

Another breakdown for Boris Herrman

A broken halyard lock (hook) for his J2 headsail means Boris Herrmann (Malizia - Seaexplorer, 7th) making it impossible to use this sail for the moment. That’s a serious set back, as Boris points out: "more than 70% of the remaining route is normally done with this sail.” In IMOCA, the J2 forestay is structural and remains constantly in place. The German skipper had a different set up to the other boats, allowing him to lower the sail if necessary. He is currently working with his shore team to find a technical solution and hopes to continue to be able to fight to stay in the top 10 until the finish.

Another 500 miles further south, Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence, 11th), Samantha Davies(Initiatives-Cœur, 13th) and Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement – Water Family, 12th) are next to face the Cabo Frio cold front, with very unstable winds and thunder storms. Although the two sailors have gained a slight advantage over Benjamin, who is further west, everything is still to play for:

Nevertheless, she’s very upbeat and says this edition of the race is very different to her first Vendée Globe in 2020-21. “Of course, the boat is different, I have had more competitors around me for the whole race and my mindset is very different. It was hard to give goals and to say exactly what my objectives were for this Vendée Globe. 

"People asked me about the ranking I wanted, but what I had in mind was really about the way I was going to go through the race and the way I was going to push. That's why I'm super happy now – it's because I managed to achieve those goals, to be way more calm and to enjoy. It feels like I've grown up a lot between the two races and that's really what I was looking forward to. I'm super happy about that.”

Compression in the next group

Pushed by the strong winds of a depression, Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian, 18th), Yannick Bestaven (Maitre CoQ V, retired but still sailing solo to Les Sables d’Olonne), Isabelle Joschke (MACSF, 19th) and Benjamin Ferré (Monnoyeur – DUO for a JOB, 20th) continue to gain miles on the quartet ahead of them.

Damien Seguin (Groupe APICIL, 14th), Jean Le Cam (Tout Commence en Finistère – Armur Lux, 15th), Romain Attanasio (Fortinet - Best Western, 16th) and Alan Roura (Hublot, 17th) are currently less than 500 miles behind. “They are stuck in the high pressure ridge,” explains Vendée Globe weather consultant Basile Rochut. “They will catch wind again on Saturday evening, but will be blocked again by the semi-permanent cold front from Sunday.”

A shuffling of the rankings is therefore underway, but it’s difficult to know how many sailors will be part of it. Indeed, an anticyclone is shifting towards the east and could block the others. Will Conrad Colman (MS Amlin, 22nd) and Sébastien Marsset (FOUSSIER, 23rd) manage to sneak in? Sébastien is circumspect:

The depression and the ice are over

On the other hand, Sébastien assures us that the passage of the depression yesterday, which worried him a lot, went well. The race management was not informed of any damage or breakdown during the crossing of this strong gale which also concerned Louis Duc (Fives group – Lantana Environnement, 23rd), Guirec Soudée (Freelance.com, 25th) and Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG Mori Global One, 26th).

Éric Bellion (STAND AS ONE – Altavia, 27th), Violette Dorange (DeVenir, 28th) and Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline, 29th), were behind the worst of the storm. Nevertheless, the wind will gradually strengthen for them, with gusts of 50 knots as they advance close hauled. Meanwhile back in the Pacific, Oliver Heer (Tut Gut., 30th), Antoine Cornic (HUMAN Immobilier, 31st) and Jingkun Xu (Singchain Team Haikou, 32nd) have left the ice warning zone and can continue their towards Cape Horn with one less thing to worry about.