Vendée Globe update: The final frontier in the North Atlantic
by Vendée Globe media 21 Jan 17:52 UTC
20 January 2025
View from Biotherm in the Vendée Globe © Paul Meilhat
Storms and damage in the final days, close to the finish of the Vendée Globe, are not uncommon.
Tired boats and brutally fatigued sailors are a combination doubly challenged by winter gales in the North Atlantic.
Race fans will recall that in 2016-17, Conrad Colman dismasted between the Azores and Portugal, 750 miles from the finish (he finished under jury rig 12 days later). In 2013, the Spanish solo skipper Javier Sanso capsized in the southern Azores after losing his keel. The same year, Jean Pierre Dick anchored for three days in the north of Spain to avoid a big gale after sailing his boat without a keel from Cape Verde (he finished fourth).
In 2008, it was another keel failure just before the Azores that prevented Roland Jourdain from finishing the race at all. Four years earlier, the same concern for Brit Mike Golding, whose keel broke off 90 miles from the finish (he nevertheless finished 3rd). Catherine Chabaud dismasted at 250 miles from Vigo (Spain) during the 2000-2001 edition and even in the second edition Philippe Poupon lost his mast a few days from the finish line and lost second to Jean Luc Van Den Heede but became the first skipper to finish under jury rig like Colman did eight years ago.
Fighting to effect a repair to his torn mainsail Briton Sam Goodchild has glued the two parts of his sail together and this morning was adding the strong carbon patches on both sides of the sail which will give the mainsail strength. He was waiting for the glue to cure before moving on to try and repair or replace his broken battens which are essential for the sail to hold a rigid shape.
Goodchild is down to seventh this afternoon, Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB) and Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) trading fifth and sixth back and forwards twice today.
Meilhat recalls, "We had up to eight metres of waves. I had reduced the sails a lot to be on the safe side. It was quite impressive but fortunately, the waves weren't breaking too much. These are the kind of seas that we are more used to observing from land, like with the family when we go to admire the storms. These images reminded me of England, where, when I was sailing a 49er, our weeks in Weymouth were often interrupted by bad weather. When races were cancelled, we would go and watch the raging ocean from the beach. Looking back, it was a bit like that: that moment when you look out at an impassable sea, except that this time, we were out there in the absolute thick of it. We really feel like we're going through a Stations of the Cross until the finish line.
"We are facing a fairly unstable weather situation. It's a rather atypical context, with a depression located quite far to the south, almost stationary, which we call a cut-off, and which is gradually filling in over Portugal. Behind, the models struggling to agree, which complicates the forecasts. We have to juggle with the center of the system, which is never easy, especially with a crossed sea in all directions. We're going to try to stay cautious, make the best possible progress and, above all, reach Les Sables-d'Olonne. I have no idea when I'm going to arrive." says Paul Meilhat.
The ETAs are constantly slipping and the technical problems encountered by some and others - damaged foil, missing sails, autopilot issues, etc. - are further complicating the establishment of reliable routings", confirmed Christian Dumard, the weather consultant for the event who reckons all this group from Jérémie Beyou to Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE), should cross the finish line between Thursday evening and Saturday evening.
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