The tenth Vendée Globe presents its challengers with the toughest tests from fourth place onwards in these final days. This is especially true for those where heavy material breakage and heavy weather come together - now or soon. At the head of the remaining fleet, "Charal" skipper Jérémie Beyou fought his way towards the finish line, which was "only" less than 900 nautical miles away, in winds of around 30 knots on the morning of 21 January.
Vendée Globe: Goodchild fights and repairs
As expected, Sam Goodchild fell behind after his mainsail "exploded" the day before as a result of a patent jibe, tearing completely through once. Just under 100 nautical miles behind his fiercest rival Beyou, the British "Vulnerable" skipper was travelling a handful of knots slower than Beyou under two set headsails. Both sailed one after the other on the ideal line to Les Sables-d'Olonne on the 72nd race day of the Vendée Globe on Tuesday morning.
There was no further news until the early morning about how far Sam Goodchild had progressed with possible mainsail repairs. Behind him, "Holcim - PRB" skipper Nico Lunven and "Biotherm" skipper Paul Meilhat have swapped places. Both have closed the gap to Goodchild's "Vulnerable" to less than 15 nautical miles and are likely to overtake their rival, who has lost his mainsail power, during the day.
Behind them, Justine Mettraux ("TeamWork - Team Snef") and Goodchild's team colleague Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable"), who were separated by around 100 nautical miles in eighth and ninth place, also made up ground in winds of more than 25 knots. The group of boats in tenth to 13th place sailing around 800 nautical miles south-west of "Charal", which Boris Herrmann is holding with a broken port foil, are experiencing milder conditions.
Brutal Vendée Globe final ahead
Benjamin Dutreux ("Guyot Environnement - Water Family"), Clarisse Crémer ("L'Occitane en Provence") and Samantha Davies ("Initiatives - Cœur") made good progress in 16 to 20 knots on day 72 of the Vendée Globe. Dutreux in tenth place with a speed of just under 20 knots in the increasing winds from the north was faster than Clarisse Crémer with around 17 knots. Sam Davies only just got going again after the recent lighter winds with around eleven knots.
Ben Dutreux said: "At the moment the wind is building, so it's cool! We should have 15 to 25 knots over the next few days. With our group we are trying to link up with the next low pressure area - sailing from low pressure area to low pressure area. That should allow us to climb northwards during some transitional phases."
The former Ocean Race co-skipper of Robert Stanjek knew: "We still have to keep at it! The whole course to the finish will not be easy. We have to get there before the last low, because the low behind it is really big! I hope that my small group gets to the finish before then, because normally the low should still overtake us. But we know that there is often a big difference between prediction and reality."
I'm in front of Boris now. I felt like I was shooting at a wounded animal." Benjamin Dutreux
Ben Dutreux did not take much joy from the fact that he had now overtaken Boris Herrmann and "Malizia - Seaexplorer" with their broken port foil. "It's part of the game, but I didn't do much to overtake him because he was slow with his foil." He is enjoying the current duel with Clarisse Crémer more: "It's always good to fight with Clarisse because she never gives up. Just as little as I do. So we fight well and sometimes have a laugh at the same time. That helps us to move forward together."
70, 80 knots of wind next weekend?
Dutreux's expressed hope of finishing before the last big low also emphasised the forecasts that Boris Herrmann's co-skipper Will Harris had declared the previous evening on the Malizia Vendée Show: "According to current forecasts, it is not out of the question that some kind of 'monster low' could hit the boats in tenth to 13th place as they approach the finish." Will Harris said: "We could get 70 to 80 knots of wind next weekend."
Will Harris continued: "It's going to be really challenging. It's still a week away and everything can change. At the moment the routings (ed.: for Boris Herrmann) point to another six to eight days. But that's difficult to calculate with the new boat speed. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the storm doesn't get too big."
