Fuente info Oktopod for Vendée Globe
Day 95, Leader on the water: 203miles from the finish
Breathless, down to a whisper for Davies, 80mph storm for Sedlacek
1500hrs GMT. Rankings, Thursday 12th February 2009
(FRA unless stated)
1 . Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) finished after 84 days 3 hours, 9 minutes
2 . Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air) finished after 89 days 9 hours 39 minutes
3 . Sam Davies (Roxy) at 203 miles to finish
4 . Marc Guillemot (Safran) at 466 miles to finish
5 . Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pindar) 656 miles to finish
6 . Dee Caffari (Aviva) at 778 miles to finish
7 . Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) at 1807 miles to finish
8 . Steve White (Toe in the Water) 2407 miles to finish
9 . Rich Wilson (Great American III) at 3970 miles to finish
10 . Raphaël Dinelli (Fondation Océan Vital) at 5139 miles to finish
11 . Norbert Sedlacek (Nauticsport - Kapsch) at 5498 miles to finish
RDG . Vincent Riou (PRB). 3rd equal. 30 boats started
Current ETA for Sam Davies based on noon projection:
Saturday between 2 AM French Time ( 1 AM GMT) to noon French Time (11 AM GMT)
ETA’s will be updated tomorrow, for more information please go to www.vendeeglobe.org
Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) has less than 203 miles to complete to finish her remarkable Vendée Globe but has slowed to less than five knots as the high pressure system finally catches up with her. She leads Marc Guillemot, (Safran) by 263 miles but the skipper from La Trinité is holding his own this afternoon making 7.1 knots.
Bathed in sunshine with very little wind, Les Sables d’Olonne prepares for several hectic days of activity, starting with the arrival of Sam Davies, GBR, (Roxy) who is expected to break the finish line to complete her Vendée Globe some time late on Friday evening, or early Saturday morning.
Davies set out on November 9th from the Vendée start line suffused with ambition. Her main aims were to be first ‘old’ boat and to break the boat’s race record from 2004-5 of 87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and to have felt she had sailed a good race. Finishing behind the 2007 launched Foncia and Brit Air, she may indeed finish as first new boat, but the odds do look to be in her favour at the moment that she may yet land third place overall in the race. As she said in today’s radio broadcast, all she can do now is sail her fastest to get in and then it is down to the weather.
Sounding quite down and disheartened Guillemot said he considers third place may be beyond him now. He is not only 263 miles behind Davies, but is facing a long, slow beat to the finish with no keel and a very limited mainsail area. Indeed Guillemot reckoned today that he may finish after Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrian Team Pindar) and Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA).
While the breezes may be only light Guillemot had a warning he cannot push too hard. He said today that he had removed some ballast in an effort to make Safran slightly quicker and more responsive in the modest conditions and only just managed to keep his Open 60 on her feet when a relatively benign 9-10 knots puff hit, so he must simply keep plodding on with what little power he has to simply finish.
Roxy, the Quiksilver active women’s brand are delighted with all that Davies has given back from her race.
Quiksilver have a heritage in the race going back to giving clothes to Titouan Lamazou in 1996 and also still support Marc Guillemot.
They supported Anne Liardet in the 2004-5 race with a last minute decision to help her. Liardet considered the brand a great fit for her and literally sailed her vintage Briand-Lombard design (formerly Fleury Michon X, UUnet, Votre nom autour di monde, and Aquarelle.com) to their doorstep near Biarritz and pled her case until they said ‘yes’. T
he company shrewdly secured the former PRB when it came on the market.
Sam was already a Roxy chick over the four years she raced her Figaro in 2003-6 and only took over the helm of the Open 60 for the first time in spring 2007 for the crewed Round Britain Race.
“As soon as we met Sam we just knew she was perfect for us, she represents everything we are about as a brand and a lot more. We said to her only to be safe and have some fun. We talked about a place in the top 10 maybe, but the way she has handled everything has been so good. Now we want to let her finish and enjoy it, but we would like to help her go forward and win a big race. That will take a bigger investment but we definitely want it and will need to find other partnerships, but we need to make it happen.” Said Maritxu Darrigrand, Marketing Director of Roxy Europe.
The race between Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari remains equally poised, with both the Juan K designed Bahrain Team Pindar and the Owen Clarke designed Aviva very evenly matched in the fast reaching conditions they have had, heading north east in a brisk southerly airstream where the stronger westerly winds from the Atlantic are bounced north again by the blocking anticyclone. The British pair have been locked 120 miles apart at consistently similar speeds. Thompson said today that he feels sure he will be first to slow when Bahrain Team Pindar has to cut east across the high, but there are no obvious reasons why he cannot stay ahead of Caffari to the finish. With less than 700 miles to go he sounded pleased to be on the verge of that mythical 635 miles, the offshore sailors final milestone – ‘just a Fastnet, Bermuda Race or a Sydney-Hobart Race to go’ noted Thompson. He re-iterated again today that in sharp contrast to Davies, he had almost lost count of the ‘show stopping’ times during the race that he had to fight to make repairs, structural and mechanical, to keep his untried and untested boat in the race.
Norbert Sedlacek, the Austrian skipper of Nauticsport-Kapsch, said today that he had been through the worst winds and seas of his Vendée Globe so far just yesterday and earlier today, violent gusts to 80-90 mph, the sea just a whiteout maelstrom of spindrift and huge waves. After breaking an oil bottle inside the boat which made the entire working area of the boat a highly dangerous skating rink, he confined himself to stay outside through the worst of the storm, hand steering for a lot of the time.
Marc Guillemot, (Safran) “ It’s calm. The night was very calm. It feels like I’m moving along with the centre of the high and it’s difficult to get to the other side. That means my speeds are down and the ETA is getting increasingly difficult to predict. A couple of days ago I was sailing downwind in between 12 and 17 knots of wind and the boat was coping well. But when you’re doing 5-6 knots, you are ready to take more risks. During the night, I didn’t have a lot of wind, so I had to lighten the boat and emptied my forward ballast tanks. The wind then got up to 9-10 knots and the boat started to heel over. I tried to ease out the sheet, and fell out of my bunk knocking my head. I really thought that was it, but I managed to grab the sheet. What I mean is in light winds, it’s a bit misleading, as you tend to think it’s safer. So after that, I filled the ballast again as that means it is safer. Sailing upwind is not going to help either. I’ll deal with it somehow, but I don’t know how. I certainly won’t be sailing under code 0. Then there’s a tack that is a bit tricky for me. When I collided with the sea mammal, I changed the port daggerboard and the replacement is smaller, so that tack will be more difficult. I’m no longer certain about anything. I can forget third place. The two behind will be finishing before me. I tended to think I was still racing, trying to get ahead in the rankings, but in the end the most important thing is bringing the boat home safely. I have to learn to accept that. I just need to learn how to sail the boat better like this. During the night I slept five hours in all during the night, keeping the sheet in my hand to try to get some rest. Downwind I’m coping, but upwind, it’s going to be harder.”
Arnaud Boissières, (Akena Vérandas): “The night was a bit unusual, but I now have some steadier winds. During the night there were some strong winds, then nothing… My wind generator packed up and is no longer supplying me with power. There’s a bit more wind this morning, but it’s going to ease off again later on. I’m hoping it will be steadier late in the day tomorrow. Until then, I’m just going to have to be patient. It’s not easy and not much fun with a headsail missing when I want to sail upwind. I hope in 24 hours, things will be clearer and I’ll be able to make headway towards the north-north-east. I’m not even thinking of the finish yet, as I have so many things to take care of with the weather. It’s all part of the game, but is a bit frustrating. It’s not exactly glorious to sail 150 days in 24 hours! Since Uruguay, I haven’t had many occasions, where I could say that I had really decent conditions. And now the wind is easing off again. I’m laughing about it for now, but last night, it wasn’t easy. The weather charts this morning are not the same as yesterday. This morning’s looks right or at least doesn’t look as bad.”
Raphael Dinelli, (Fondation Océan Vital): “ I was at the heart of the low during the night with 40-knot winds and 50-knot gusts and a sudden wind shift with some heavy rain. The boat got a good wash. There’s a low developing to the south of Cape Frio, so it will be two or three days before I pick up the trade winds. This is a very complicated place with changeable conditions. You can go from a high to a low and winds from zero to 40 knots in 24 hours. It’s been like that since the Falklands so I want to get away from this area, as it’s not very stable. The boat was really slamming during the night as after the wind came around, I was heading into the swell with the wind astern. I’m pleased to see some sunshine this morning, as solar panels are my main source of energy. So after a few days with the batteries down to 50%, and everything wet, that helps a lot. I count on this supply of energy as without it my race would be over. I’ve been limiting the Fleet 77 to 4 or 5 minutes a day. When I gybe, the sails partly cover the solar panels, so they are not as efficient as they could be or as they were on the way down. I had time to check through my food reserves and organised them and there are no problems on that score.”
New English Audio on www.vendeeglobe.org Brian Thompson and Norbert Sedlacek
