In the last edition of the Vendée Globe, through the European
winter of 2012-13, the head to head match race around the world was
between François Gabart and Armel Le Cléac’h. Four years ago the South
Indian Ocean saw the top duo stretch away from their pursuers. In 2012
Gabart took the lead on December 6th, a resurgent Bernard Stamm led the next day, Le Cléac’h led on the 10th
before Gabart was back in front. For a short time Le Cléac’h on the
10th and on 11th, but it was race winner Gabart who was first to
Leeuwin.
For Le Cléac’h there
are certain shades of déjà vu, today engaged in close hand-to-hand
combat just over two days from solo round the world race’s second of
three Great Capes, Cape Leeuwin in the south west of Australia. When he
was at sea for his son’s second birthday in 2012 Le Cléac’h was fighting
Gabart, and then only just winning. Today on the 0800hrs TU ranking the
French skipper regained the race lead from Alex Thomson delivering a
sixth birthday present which, he told the Vendée Live programme this
morning, he had promised his young son. By 1400hrs UTC Le Cléac’h had
extended his margin to nearly nine miles.
The lead has changed three times since
the pair led across the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. Thomson, the
solo British skipper in this eighth edition of the race, gains
consistently when his speed edge is evident on starboard gybe when his
fully functioning port foil is working. But it seems Thomson continues
to suffer a speed deficit on the opposite gybe, when compromised by his
broken foil.
Four years ago the duel was between
sailors schooled on the same pathway to solo ocean racing’s pinnacle
event. Gabart and Le Cléac’h had honed their skills racing hard miles in
la Solitaire du Figaro one design offshore class before moving to the
IMOCA. And Le Cléac’h and Gabart knew each other’s strengths and
weaknesses through training together at the Port-la-Forêt Pôle Finistère
training school. In contrast, Anglo Saxon Thomson has dedicated himself
solely to the IMOCA since he started out seventeen years ago as a fresh
faced youngster racing the 1999 Transat Jacques Vabre with Josh Hall.
This time he has pushed the design envelope as hard as he and his team
dared and continues to press relentlessly to compensate for his damaged
foil. “Armel is very clever. He is very good at assessing the strengths
and weaknesses of his rival and waiting,” Charles Caudrelier, the Volvo
Ocean Race skipper and past Solitaire du Figaro and Transat Jacques
Vabre winner commented today at Race HQ in Paris.
In 2012 French skipper Thomas Coville
maintained: "Le Cléac'h’s approach is different. He is calculating and
analyses what his opponent is up to. There’s a reason why he is known as
The Jackal. Armel knows his strengths and weaknesses very well. He
waits for his rival until he is in a good position himself to pounce.”
Thomson is hardly behaving like wounded prey. “When you consider that
when Alex lost his foil fifteen days ago we were ‘what do we do now?’
back then. If I had said to Alex ‘You’ll be leading the race again in a
few days’ then we’d have thought each other mad. But here we are. Alex
accepts that in certain conditions he has a two knots speed deficit but
on the other gybe he still has an edge. I’d say he is good spirits,”
Ross Daniel, the technical director of Alex Thomson racing commented
this afternoon. Daniel says he cannot foresee any imminent opportunity –
or pressing need – to stop the boat and cut away the jagged stump of
the foil.
At nearly one month into the Vendée
Globe, Hugo Boss and Banque Populaire were half a mile apart at one
point when they traded gybes yesterday. Thomson made nine between
0500hrs and 1700hrs yesterday to Le Cléac’h’s seven as they made a dual
slalom along the ice wall, the Antarctic exclusion zone which protects
the Vendée Globe skippers from floating ice to the south. Thomson had
prepared himself well for the zig-zagging course along the wall, banking
as much sleep as he could so he would not have to nap between each
manoeuvre. Le Cléac’h came away with a slightly better angle from the
last gybe and made a small gain against his British rival. But with
24-36 hours on starboard gybe from tomorrow it seems likely that the
leadership yo-yo will continue to play out. The duo were 800 miles from
Cape Leeuwin this morning and are approximately six days ahead of
Gabart’s record pace already.
In seventh place Jean Pierre Dick was
back on track today atoned and apologetic after straying yesterday
afternoon into the Antarctic Exclusion zone. The StMichel-Virbac skipper
admitted that he had not updated new coordinates for the forbidden area
which were sent several days ago because of ice reported near the
Kerguelen Islands. Dick lost about 140 miles to his rivals when he took
the option to about turn, sail a reciprocal course and resume his course
where he had inadvertently strayed south of the border.
Yann
Elies of Quéguiner – Leucémie Espoir, lying sixth 318 miles ahead of
Dick, was also back on a making course this afternoon after slowing to
avoid a nasty low pressure system generated in the notorious zone
between Madagascar and Mozambique. Eliès was making 12.5kts this
afternoon but still expecting winds to 35kts.
And in 24th place, the light
winds of the South Atlantic high remain something of a blessing for
Techno-First Face Ocean’s Sébastien Destremau who has disassembled most
of his engine over the last 24-36 hours looking for a solution to his
burned out starter motor. He has been attempting to use the technique
which worked in 2000-1 for Michel Desjoyeaux using the power of the
mainsheet to manually crank the engine to life. Destremau has said he
will not proceed into the Indian Ocean without being able to work his
engine.
“As you know, the starting motor burnt out, and the attempt
with the wiring failed, so we don’t have a starter. We’re in the
situation Mich’ Desj’ was in in 2001 when he had no starter. So we
called Mich who gave us a lot of advice. We did some tests and trial
runs to try to find a solution. We tied a line around the engine pulley
and attached it to the end of the boom and by releasing the mainsail,
that was supposed to start the engine, except it wasn’t as easy as that.
It worked once yesterday, but today there wasn’t enough wind. We are
staying in the Atlantic. We’re not going into the Indian Ocean until we
have a reliable solution. It would be leaving things to chance.”
Delight was evident for Nandor Fa on
Spirit of Hungary after the veteran skipper broke the 24 hours record
run for his IMOCA, making 406.3 nautical miles. Fa, who raced the last
Barcelona World Race with Conrad Colman reported: “I received a mail
from Conrad: “Looks like someone’s having fun with their A7! Great speeds Nandi! I hope you are enjoying it. THIS is what we came for!” I answered:
“Yes, I love my A7, works well. The race starts now. I think about you
quite a lot, your protection helps you to wash your teeth, no need to
brush. Take care my friend, and push!”
Quotes
Jean-Pierre Dick (StMichel Virbac):
“I’d like to offer my excuses to my team and sponsors. Such a mistake
is unacceptable at this level. I made a huge mistake. I was thinking
about the line, but I didn’t have the right data entered. I forgot to
take into account the amended version of the exclusion zone. I got mixed
up with the four updates. The race continues. I’m looking ahead. I
have 16,250 miles left to sail. I shall be sailing in an area of strong
winds close to the exclusion zone then to the north of the Kerguelens.
We’re going to have to remain cautious.”
Sébastien Destremau, TechnoFirst-faceOcean: “There
is no time limit for completing the Vendée Globe, so I’ll take whatever
time it takes. We’re going to go as far as we can. But it’s not right
to think about the Vendée Globe without any energy. We’ll get there
somehow. We don’t really have the choice.”
Romain Attanasio, Famille Mary-Etamine du Lys: “It’s
starting to get cold and I saw my first albatross. We had some
incredible weather in the South Atlantic with no wind, but no we’re into
the series of lows. This is the second with the front passing me this
morning. I can’t wait to get by the Cape of Good Hope. I’m trying to
hold onto the pack, but my boat is the oldest in the fleet – 18 years
old. My goal is to finish, so I don’t want to do anything silly. That’s
why I headed slightly further north.”
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
(www.vendeeglobe.org)
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