As he seeks to take avoiding action to miss the worst of a deep
low pressure system which threatens violent storm force winds, in excess
of 65kts, and huge seas, Jean-Pierre Dick may become the first sailor
in the history of the Vendée Globe to race continuously through the Bass
Strait, between Tasmania and Australia. The French skipper of StMichel-Virbac
indicated today that his current routing set to escape the worst of the
storm would require a significant detour. Whether he actually passes
through the strait, north of Tasmania, will ultimately depend on the
speed that the low travels east and the resulting wind speed and
direction.
Since the race started in 1989-90, it was only during that
first edition that a skipper raced into this area. Guy Bernardin sailed
into Hobart in the first edition suffering from severe tooth problems.
He continued after treatment and finished unclassified.
Dick said today: "I shall be going
through the Bass Strait. There are too many uncertainties via the south.
In the next few hours, we’re going to have to forget the rankings and
try to be reasonable. The safety of the boat and the sailor comes before
the race. This is a very powerful low and will last for three days from
tomorrow with winds above 45 knots reaching 60 or even 70 at times. The
seas will be huge with waves in excess of ten metres. There’s no way we
are going into that as the situation is dangerous.” The skipper of
StMichel-Virbac added, “There are two major options. Either we slow down
before the low staying close to the exclusion zone, but the risk is
that the seas will be very heavy, if the direction of the low changes.
Or you go through the Bass Strait, which means more sailing, but less
wind and calmer seas.”
Solo skippers placed fifth to seventh,
Yann Eliès, Dick and veteran Jean Le Cam are all severely threatened by
the depression, but JP Dick’s timing relative to the system is the worst
possible. Eliès is a further 120 miles to the east but is already also
racing north east to try to miss the worst of the winds, closest to the
centre of the low. And Jean Le Cam (Finistère Mer Vent) has made the
decision to route south east, being more than 200 miles further west. He
will take this second option and slow right down as he approaches the
Antarctic Exclusion Zone. Close to the centre of the system there are
60kts on the GRIB files which usually means more than 70kts in reality.
If Jean-Pierre Dick’s timing is as unfortunate as it can be, some 500
miles or so to their east, and now racing in the Pacific, third placed
Paul Meilhat (SMA) and Jérémie Beyou (Maitre CoQ) will still have to
work hard to outrun the system but their luck is in.
Gabart v2.O?
Gabart v2.O?
Meilhat, the 34 year old Vendée Globe first timer remains on impeccable form. Only one year ago, on 15th
December, he was airlifted off his IMOCA near the Azores after
suffering injured ribs and pelvis during the B2B transatlantic race back
from Saint Barth to Lorient. He races the former MACIF, François
Gabart’s 2012-13 race winner, which remains largely unchanged. “Only the
paintjob is different,” Marcus Hutchinson, Project Director, comments.
“We thought long and hard about whether to fit foils and have no
regrets,” he said today during the Vendée LIVE programme before speaking
to Meilhat. The relative simplicity and straightforward, easily driven
set up of the boat, as it was for Gabart, is Meilhat’s favourite aspect.
“I think this boat is easy to manage. I am happy with it. It is a good
boat for the Vendée Globe. I know the boat as well as anyone. It does
not have foils but I am happy and use this boat at 100 per cent and full
speed. I have all my sails, the boat is good,” Meilhat confirmed in
today’s video conference in English, “Every day I have small problems to
fix. I think after half way of the Vendée Globe I’ll try to keep the
boat like this. The most difficult thing is that the boat is always
moving and moving a lot. It is a bit stressful. It is hard to sleep. You
are just beginning to sleep and then you take a big, big wave and the
speed increases so much. Then you are at 30kts and you hit the wave in
front and the boat stops. So sometimes it is hard. But I think tonight
it will be a good night.” Talking about what the race record holder
Gabart passed on to the young skipper, Meilhat – a former 49er Skiff and
Figaro sailor, said: “François told me, most of all, to take pleasure,
to enjoy it. I think that was good advice.” Quiet, understated but
clearly blessed with the same solid constitution, stamina and comfort at
high speeds over long periods as his winning predecessor, Meilhat has a
bright future ahead of him.
Low Pressure Negotiations
Negotiating the light wind centre of a
depression has seen Alex Thomson, the skipper who came within a
hairbreadth of the WSSRC stipulation for the 24-hour record last month,
has suffered a short interlude with the slowest speeds of his race so
far, making around two knots between five and nine this morning. Hugo
Boss has been going northwards around the centre of the low and should
emerge into downwind conditions while Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Polulaire
VIII) has remained quicker again, today winning back on the roundabouts
what he lost yesterday on the swings.
No Way Out
The last few days have tested Dutch skipper Pieter Heerema’s patience close to its limits. Lying in 19th
place the skipper of No Way Back has routed north as he struggles with
ongoing problems with his autopilots. He admitted today that had he been
closer to Cape Town or Australia the temptation to throw in the towel
might have been too much. “Yesterday was a down day,” Heerema told
Vendée LIVE. “Everything, everything, everything was working against me.
Cape Town is a hell of a way back up the course so that is no option
and Australia is long way too and is no option, but if I had been close
to a port I would probably have thrown in the towel because everything
was going wrong. Today I hope is better. I have repaired a lot of things
and will be testing them. If that all works then I will be happy. I
have been struggling for days now with the autopilot which went
completely crazy, super dangerous, steering into gybes and tacks at high
speeds. It was really, really dangerous. I had a list of things I had
to do in the light winds. Those were mainly about seven holes or patches
in the mainsail. I don’t know where they have come from. It is falling
apart as if the moths have been at it. Hopefully the autopilot is now
back to where it should be and is working. I know you get an issue a day
but this is four or five issues every day. And some of them like
electronics, man I have no clue. I don’t know what I am doing. I hate
the stuff. To me it is black box. If it is mechanical I can understand
it, I can look at it, I can follow it, and if that does it work you give
it a mighty kick and usually that solves the problem.”
Quotes
Paul Meilhat (SMA):
“The boat is still fast but things are better because the sea is flat
and so now I can get some good sleep. The depression is really bad, the
wind is going to be 50-60kts, so for us it is good to be in front of it
and to avoid it. After this situation, maybe two or three days after New
Zealand, it gets complicated with this Antarctic Exclusion Zone. We go
to the south but there is a big, big high pressure and so we will just
have to see how it goes.”
Nandor Fa (HUN) Spirit of Hungary: “I have been going fast for a couple of days. At the moment I have some sunshine which is much nicer. The last few days have been cloudy, rainy and cold and it was really negative conditions. Behind us there is a huge front which we are running in front of, with NNW winds and right now we have 28kts of wind speed and making 21kts of boat speed. We have been running like this for two days. We are running at the same speed as the front and so we can stay with it. Before that we had 35-40kts but as soon as it is lighter, I miss my A7 gennaker which I lost earlier in the race.”
Nandor Fa (HUN) Spirit of Hungary: “I have been going fast for a couple of days. At the moment I have some sunshine which is much nicer. The last few days have been cloudy, rainy and cold and it was really negative conditions. Behind us there is a huge front which we are running in front of, with NNW winds and right now we have 28kts of wind speed and making 21kts of boat speed. We have been running like this for two days. We are running at the same speed as the front and so we can stay with it. Before that we had 35-40kts but as soon as it is lighter, I miss my A7 gennaker which I lost earlier in the race.”
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
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