It's always like this in the big races of the sailing world: in the early stages you can hardly keep up, the rankings and positions of the boats change so quickly. At the Vendée Globe, the ranking is updated every four hours. In these first 24 hours, Boris Herrmann was already at the top and at the bottom. On Monday afternoon, he was sailing in midfield - almost on a par with "Guyot" skipper Benjamin Dutreux.
First technical problem for Boris Herrmann
Boris Herrmann had to deal with his first technical problem right at the start of his second solo around the world: he had to replace the hydraulic cylinder of the autopilot on Sunday and install the spare part he had brought with him. "The hydraulic cylinder was broken yesterday. But that wasn't a problem because Boris had a spare part on board. It wasn't quite the ideal start to the race, but he's back on course with fighting spirit," reported his co-skipper Will Harris on Monday.
"Everything is OK on board. I probably didn't sail optimally through the night. I'm not entirely sure, I think I wasn't so lucky with the wind shifts and the gusts. We're making our way through the classification a bit," Boris Herrmann himself had on board on Monday morning. He finished the first day at sea, the first 24 hours of racing, with a slight headache. "I didn't sleep much. I find it intense, but that was to be expected. I'm still finding my rhythm," he said with a smile.
On Monday morning, when Boris Herrmann sent a new video, he explained: "At the moment we only have eleven to 13 knots of wind. That's why we've headed south. We hope to find more wind there and the right-hand tack to get to the coast of Spain. Then we'll also switch to smaller sails. That's the plan for the next few hours." By Monday afternoon, Boris Herrmann was 90 nautical miles behind Charlie Dalin. He now wants to close the gap as quickly as possible.
Vendée Globe emotions move Boris Herrmann
At this early stage of the race, Boris Herrmann finds it "not so easy to get to sleep". He cited "a lot of emotions" as the reason. These had arisen on the spectacular start day with the many moving farewell scenes, tears, good wishes and the challenging light wind start. Many of the Vendée Globe challengers themselves also had tears running down their tanned faces on Sunday.
In a current Vendée Globe programme on Monday afternoon, presenter Andi Robertson also recorded a nice message: "In the first 24 hours after the starting signal, nobody had to return to Les Sables-d'Olonne with problems." Only Conrad Colman had to quickly remedy the situation with a sheet in the propeller shortly before the starting signal on Sunday.
The sheet had got caught in the propeller during a last-minute sail change around ten minutes before the start. However, Conrad Colamn was able to follow the fleet a short time later and even take the lead for a short time before falling back into the midfield.
The favourites in the top ten
On Monday afternoon, the first and last boats in the fleet - Charlie Dalin's "Macif Santé Prévoyance" and Jingkun Xu's "Singchain Team Haiku" - were already separated by 111 nautical miles at the start of day 2 of the Vendée Globe. "But there's nothing to worry about yet. Everyone is still close together," explained round-the-world sailor and race co-commentator Dee Caffari. Apart from Boris Herrmann, who will have to fight his way back up, the favourites are all in the top ten.
Leader Charlie Dalin is followed by Sebastien Simon ("Gourpe Debreuil"), Sam Goodchild ("Vulnerable"), defending champion Yannick Bestaven ("Maître Coq V"), Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable"), Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallé"), Nico Lunven ("Holcim - PRB"), Jérémie Beyou ("Charal"), Justine Mettraux ("Teamwork - Team Snef") and Yoann Richomme ("Paprec Arkéa"). Lurking behind them in eleventh place is the first non-foiler, Jean Le Cam ("Toute commence en Finistèrre - Armor-Lux").
