Day 27 Four weeks at sea: In the Indian Ocean west of Prince Edward Islands
Jean-Pierre Dick leads, Basurko retires.
1500 HRS GMT. Rankings, (FRA, unless stated)
1 - Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at 16947 miles to finish
2- Seb Josse (BT) at + 25.2 miles
3 -Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at +38.3 miles
4- Loïck Peyron, (Gitana Eighty) at + 50.8 miles
5 - Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3) at + 56.5 miles
Selected International
12- Dominique Wavre, SUI, (Temenos 2) at + 280 miles
13- Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 510.6 miles
14- Sam Davies, GBR,(ROXY) at + 560.8 miles
15- Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) at + 625.6 miles
16- Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 707.5 miles
18 - Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 796.5 miles
19 - Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 912.9 miles
20- Rich Wilson, USA, (Great America III) at + 1056 miles
22- Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 1433.3 miles
24- Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport-Kapsch) + 1883.1 miles
IN SHORT WORDS
The Basque skipper Unai Basurko formally announced his retirement from the Vendée Globe today, he is the sixth skipper to retire.
The intensity of the battle at the front of the fleet, after the second ice gate, has not relented. Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac) took the lead this morning and is 25.2 miles ahead of Sébastien Josse (BT).
Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover 3) moves from fourth to fifth this afternoon as the fleet leaders move south east.
Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) is back at the front of the Vendée Globe, 25 days after he last held the lead. The Farr design with the Nicois skipper, a Vet/CEO turned pro sailor, gained the lead on the 1000hrs GMT standings, gybing through the west extremity of the second ice gate before plunging south again, seeking to magnify the gains he made in previous days by working the southern extremity of the course.
“It is really pleasing and motivating,” said Dick, “ but I need to remain focused and not get too excited. What is really positive is that I took a clear option and it worked out. Three days ago, I was 1.7 miles from Sébastien Josse. I could have stuck with Seb, but I thought things looked good in the south. It was a calculated risk. That gives me confidence.”
Not long after Dick took the lead there was the unfortunate confirmation that Unai Basurko will try to continue back home to Spain with his damaged Pakea Bizkaia.
Basurko has been limping north-east since he notified Race Direction early on the morning of 4/12 that he had sustained damage to the cassette stock that holds the blade on his starboard rudder. The Basque skipper had hoped to be able to repair the damage but his shore team confirmed this morning that this will not be possible.
Britain’s Mike Golding gained in the south as well, from seventh last night at 1830hrs to fourth this morning, dropping to fifth this afternoon. It is the Ecover 3 skipper’s third Vendee Globe and he remarked to today’s radio vacations, live to the Paris Boat Show, that he was not ‘holding his breath’ as places have changed so often on the leaderboard over the first month at sea.
When Dick took the lead this morning it was the 22nd change of lead since the start of the race. Golding said that Loïck Peyron on Gitana Eighty had crossed less than half a mile ahead of him this morning.
Speeds are on the ascent among the leading pack. Seb Josse has chosen to stay north of his closest adversaries for the moment. Roland Jourdain, in third place on Veolia Environnement, was making 20.1 knots average over the hour prior to the 15h standings, 19.3 knots average between the two standings. Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) has now overhauled his former protégé and 2004 winner Vincent Riou (PRB) as well as former race leader Yann Eliès (Generali) to lie seventh.
Canadian Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) reported that he had lost the use of two of his three auto-pilots but has slowed in lighter winds, making just less than 10 knots and now lying in 22nd place.
Voices at sea (MP3 audio files available in the online media server)
Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2): "It's great to be in the lead. Since the start, this is the second time I have been the leader in the Vendée Globe. It's really pleasing and motivating, but I need to remain focussed and not get too excited. What is really positive is that I took a clear option and it worked out. Three days ago, I was 1.7 miles from Sébastien Josse. I could have stuck with Seb, but I thought things looked good in the south. It was a calculated risk. That gives me confidence. At the moment, the wind is reaching 40 knots. I reduced the sail, as the forecasts are showing strong winds until 17h."
Mike Golding, GBR, (Ecover ):“It is really good news, (being fourth) I am very happy about that but it does seem to be changing on a daily basis, and so I am not holding my breath, it paid off very well (to go south) we had the right (best) angle going up to the gate and it really did pay off
“I am pleased with how well it has worked out. It has been pretty wild, 25-30 knots, the occasional reef in, reef out. Just before the gybe Gitana just crossed ahead of me, on the ‘non-making’ gybe, we must have been half a mile apart, I called to try call Loïck but he was not responding, and as soon as I gybed then it got more breezy, quite quickly and I have had up to 40 knots already. So I have changed down a bit, trying not to break anything because the boat is really firing along on some big, rolling seas.
Half an hour ago the boat was under reacher and fully under water, and every three or four minutes the boat would fully bury up to the mast, and a surge of water would rush past and completely drench everything in the cockpit. Right now I have a much more stable set up.”
Golding spoke at the Radio Vacs with North Sails France’s Bruno Dubois, his co-skipper on the last Transat Jacques Vabre:
“ I have one spinnaker twisted in the bow, it is one of these jobs that I will need to get round to, it is not damaged but is just one of these jobs from hell. I don’t need it right now. The R2 (Reacher) has been good these last few days, but it is a bit fruity now.”
Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water): “ I am a Southern Ocean ‘virgin’ yes, and I have been thinking a lot about that. And when you read what people write about being down here, about them being conservative and what sails they have had up I think ‘wow that really is conservative, what are they doing?’ and now I am down here it is unlike anywhere else I have ever been. The swell is relentless, driving swell which is very, very much in charge, and it does things to the boat handling if you slow down and it drives your boat speed up and up and up. You just have to keep a handle on it, because anything that does go wrong could go very, very wrong. Hence the reason I am not really getting into bed very much, I am just always on standby ready to go on deck to reduce sail, and also to make sure that whatever is going through has gone before you put more sail up.”“The thing that is nerve racking is drawing that balance between preserving the boat and racing, that is the nerve racking thing.”
“If you had said before the start that I would be in 18th – or whatever it is – and such and such would have been ahead and so and so behind – I would probably have been quite happy, but the thing with human nature is once you are in a position is you want to do better, and I have been stuck in 18th since Bernard overtook me and you get a bit itchy and want to start to overtake people and that is when it gets dangerous. We will get a bit nearer to the end and then push.”
