Vendée Globe: Dalin in the "Vulnerable" sandwich, Boris Herrmann catches up
Tatjana Pokorny
· 12.11.2024
Boris Herrmann came through the second night of his second Vendée Globe strong. After an initial minor repair to the autopilot and a not entirely fortunate first night, the "Malizia - Seaexplorer" fired up the turbo. It has now moved up to ninth place and thus into the top ten of the fleet of 40 starters. And the trend is rising. Boris Herrmann is following the leading trio of Sam Goodchild ("Vulnerable"), Charlie Dalin ("Macif Santé Prévoyance") and Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable") on their course, which leads closer to the Portuguese coast.
Vendée Globe: Nico Lunven on a blatant westerly course
Fourth-placed Yoann Richomme made a different decision, sailing straight west on Tuesday morning. In his wake, Jérémie Beyou ("Charal", 5th) and Sebastien Simon ("Groupe Debreuil", 6th) were also travelling on a more southerly course. Nico "The Brain" Lunven on "Holcim - PRB" has chosen a very extreme course. Boris Herrmann's former Ocean Race navigator is sailing on the western outer motorway for his Vendée Globe premiere.
Around 290 nautical miles north-west of leader Sam Goodchild, Nico Lunven was only 38th in the field on Tuesday morning as he sailed towards the Azores, which were still more than 600 nautical miles away at the time. At least Yoann Richomme didn't seem to be completely averse to the idea of "best in the west". There were also reports of initial damage at sea. Fabrice Amedeo, for example, is said to have suffered a brief "blackout". Smaller "UFO" collisions without serious consequences are also said to have occurred.
All Vendée Globe challengers are currently aiming for good, high average speeds. The third day at sea, which has just begun on Tuesday lunchtime, offers the first opportunities to achieve this. On the other hand, not only the top skippers will remember at this early stage of the race that this is not an eleven-day transatlantic regatta to the Caribbean, but the ultra-marathon of sailing. Any self-discipline they apply now will pay off in eight or nine weeks' time.
Eventful Vendée Globe opening phase
The current strategies are to stay in the stronger breeze, jibe regularly and recover after each manoeuvre, which requires re-stacking the unused, heavy sails and hundreds of kilos of moving supplies. These are used to trim the boat for speed. "It's been an eventful last 24 hours. They've been exhausting, but I'm focussing on my race," reported Charlie Dalin from the sea.
The most successful non-foiler on Tuesday morning was Benjamin Ferré on "Monnoyeur - Duo fpr a Job". His intensively optimised boat won the Vendée Globe 2012/2013 with skipper François Gabart. While Ferré came to ocean sailing after an early career as an adventurer, French skipper Sébastien Marsset ("Foussier") is a three-time circumnavigator who has always travelled with a crew or on record-breaking voyages. He reported on Tuesday morning: "As for Cape Finisterre, I thought it would be very easy to pass the south of the TSS, but it turned out to be more complicated than I thought!"
Sébastien Marsset continued: "There were calm areas and very gusty areas, but above all calm areas that were not necessarily where we expected them to be! And with the strong winds, I was right on the edge of the TSS zone, but I couldn't get too close to it. The sea is a bit rough, it's not easy to find the right speed for the boat and above all to have a stable speed. We have between 26 and 36 knots!"
Vendée Globe: the best current links and clips
The positions of the boats can be easily tracked via the race tracker, even if it is only updated every four hours. Click here to go directly to the interim results.
NEW The special feature of this Vendée Globe is that Boris Herrmann's Malizia team broadcasts its own current affairs programme every Tuesday of the race. The "Malizia Vendée Show" will take place for the first time today on 12 November from 6pm. Here is the link.
