'Yo Yo' and the yo yo effect

On the 1400hrs UTC ranking today only 140.8 miles separates the two, but the question now is whether the French ace nicknamed Yo Yo can continue to yo-yo or whether the momentum will reverse agan in the leader’s favour. 

In the rest of the fleet Briton Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) continues with his head-to-head against Jérémie Beyou (Charal) racing for fourth and fifth. Germany’s Boris Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer, 9th) climbed the mast last night and lashed his J2 to the head of its forestay after his hook system broke. Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère – Armor Lux, 14th) has made a nice gain, breaking away from the pack chasing him while Éric Bellion (STAND AS ONE – Altavia, 28th) has decided to take shelter in the lee of the Falklands after his J2 attachment repair gave way.

ALL EYES ON THE HIGH..... AND THE PRIZE 

With their respective teams now assembling in Les Sables d’Olonne the eyes of the MACIF Santé Prévoyance PAPREC ARKÉA supporters are monitoring the anticyclone which is protecting the Vendée and Brittany coasts with a ring of very light winds. Indeed this calm zone is requiring Charlie Dalin and Yoann Richomme to go up to the tip of Brittany before tacking south along the coast to get back to Les Sables-d'Olonne. However, this anticyclone is moving away slightly according to Basile Rochut, the Vendée Globe weather consultant. And so in the end they might have more wind towards the finish. Charlie Dalin's estimated arrival time has been advanced to between midnight and Tuesday morning 0600hrs UTC.

The management of the anticyclone may yet determine the gap between the two men. Since last night Richomme has had the advantage. His shift to the West has given him more wind and that has meat a gain of about fifty miles during the night and the gap is now 140.8 miles on the 1400hrs UTC ranking this afternoon. 

"Yoann benefits from a slightly stronger wind. But in the end, it's Charlie who will get more wind first. Even if, in the short term, Yoann comes back, the elastic effect will continue". 

Yo Yo was on the call this Saturday morning:

In third Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) might have to watch out for a zone of light wind after the Azores but there's no weather features lying in wait to trap the Vendéen, expected back home between Thursday and Friday.

Behind, the chasing group is finally finding stable speeds. From Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE, 4th) to Justine Mettraux (Teamwork-Team Snef, 10th), they are starting to head straight north, benefiting from the south-easterly trade winds.

Goodchild V Beyou

Goodchild has been racing alongside Beyou but noted on the Vendée LIVE! show today: “Initially when Jérémie came up on the AIS (automatic identification system) I was checking every half an hour but it was just too much and stressing me out. And so I’ve stopped looking and am going just as fast!”

Germany’s  Herrmann (Malizia Seaexplorer, 9th), who is part of this group, has had a hectic last few hours. Yesterday Herrmann was ruing the breakage of his J2 hook. He is the only one with such a lock system which means he can normally lower the sail. But after the hook broke he had to climb the mast to lash the head of the sail to the stay a process which took him three hours, finishing up in the dark.

Herrmann said, 

Jean Le Cam, stop me if you can

A little further on, the balance of power changes for the trio Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane en Provence, 11th), Samantha Davies (Initiatives Cœur, 13th) and Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement – ​​Water Family, 12th).

"It's more complicated than it looks on the race tracker” says Basile Rochut, confirming what Clarisse said yesterday at the media sessions. “In the west the two sailors further west, Crémer and Davies, remain in a very unstable wind zone. Dutreux, offshore to the east benefits from a more stable more consistent breeze which could see him overtake the two women.

Jean Le Cam (Tout commence en Finistère – Armor Lux, 14th) has been the surprise package of the day. In the light air on his David Raison designed daggerboard boat he has taken off.

"The trend is always for those behind to come back thanks to the wind associated with the depression and the anticyclone below," says the race’s weather consultant. And so Le Cam’s gains could be short lived.

Meantime Kiwi Conrad Colman (MS Amlin, 22nd) is escaping along the ZEA. After his steering system failure yesterday Sébastien Marsset (FOUSSIER, 24th) now has to repair his gennaker which has been torn over more than two meters. Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG Mori Global One, 26th), is taking advantage of the high pressure to observe his penalty. The Japanese skipper had broken his engine seal on December 31 and was given the statutory 120-minute penalty.