Three's company...

Few expected it to be a three sided battle. Even harder to find would be a race fan who would have envisioned Seb Simon to be taking on the highly fancied duo on an boat now with no starboard foil. 

But that is the remarkable scenario this afternoon. On Day 37, half way to the 2016 74 day race record, the top three skippers are within five miles of each other (in terms of distance to finish). And, racing in a fitful, freezing 15 knots Southerly breeze at 57 degrees S, today’s new leader Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) are only two or three miles apart laterally. Les Sables d’Olonne’s Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) is about 70 miles to their north. 

Same, same 

And behind them the group of fourth placed Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB) to Briton Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) in tenth are now much more compacted. Germany’s Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer) has launched himself back into contention, recovering to where many people would think he belongs - given his recent track record – in among this highly competitive group of top skippers. 

Off the back 

On the other hand in 12th Clarisse Cremer (L’Occitane en Provence) who was plagued by technical problems and 13th placed Brit Sam Davies (Initiatives Cœur) have dropped off the back of the fast moving low pressure and for the meantime have been left behind by their direct competitors, not least Herrmann who is now over 400 miles ahead of Cremer. 

"The leaders are going to be able to continue to sail along the Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ) and the short-term trend is more towards a regrouping between the three", analyses Basile Rochut, the Vendée Globe weather consultant. 

"What's interesting is that we will likely see that chasing group remaining quite far away", predicts Richomme. "According to the weather files this gap could also be identical all the way to Cape Horn!"

There remains a large ridge of high pressure as a buffer protecting the top trio. Almost mirroring the leading trio who ware more than 600 miles to the good, to their East, the posse of chasers is super tight too.  Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB, 4th), Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE, 5th) and Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 6th) are completely neck and neck. 

Nothing comes easily 

“It’s not easy, the wind is super unstable, it goes from 17 to 25 knots, you have work to be on the right settings at all times,” assures Nico Lunven (Holcim-PRB), on the Vendée Live. This trio is less than 120 miles ahead of Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V, 7th), Paul Meilhat (Biotherm, 8th), Herrmann and Goodchild who are trying to stay ahead of the front. Reached on the vacation calls this morning, Meilhat summed up the situation:

“We're getting shaken up a lot by being in the group in front of the front. The advantage is that even if the sea is short, there's little maneuvering to do. We're going to get a little closer to the Nicolas Lunven - Thomas Ruyant - Jérémie Beyou group. If we manage to hang on to this front, it's going to propel across almost one third of the Pacific in favorable conditions. And that allows us to have fairly quick routings to Cape Horn."

Meilhat, Goodchild and co need to stay with the system to avoid the same fate as Clarisse Crémer (L'Occitane en Provence, 12th) and Davies (Initiatives Cœur, 13th). 

"They were overtaken by the front and therefore dropped a weather system compared to the others," explains Basile Rochut. 

It's frustrating for Crémer who has also had to deal with a series of problems, "I'm so annoyed! I fought for hours to be at the front of the front. And now, I have a little line that breaks, a backstay that gets stuck, a sail that gets stuck, a mainsail hook that won't unhook... It took me three hours to change it, in five meters of waves. My mainsail hook, a J2 block and a batten broke... And I missed the front... I gave it so much, I'm so frustrated. It's driving me crazy!"

Fighting on all levels

And behind the race is as intense. Isabelle Joschke (MACSF, 17th), Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère - Armor-lux, 18th), Alan Roura (Hublot, 19th) and Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian, 21st) are stepping up their game. Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline, 28th) is also part of this group. 

Boissières reports his injured knee is not as a bad, observing, “Our level here is very sustained We are always in contact with each other,”  he says in winds of around thirty knots. At the entrance to the Indian Ocean, I was a little ahead, now I’m a little behind… But it’s great, we’re really pushing each other together”. 

And Swiss skipper Alan Roura explains:

“I have a very serious frontal passage waiting for me. Now, I’m just ahead, which allows us to move forward better. The sea isn’t very even and it’s not very fast, but we’re moving forward! After that, we’re going to have a very long 1,300-mile leg before entering a transition zone. But we don’t know yet what we’re going to get”.

Among today’s problems are Seb Marsset (FOUSSIER, 23rd) detailing a new hydrogenerator problem, only three days after his hydraulic keel ram failure. Guirec Soudée (Freelance.com) also continues to battle in strong winds within a low pressure system. 

"I spent more than 20 hours locked in the cockpit," explained the adventurer. These conditions also affect Japan’s Kojrio Shiraishi (DMG Mori Global One, 30th) and Switzerland’s Oliver Heer (Tut gut., 31st).