An eventful weekend for the Vendée fleet: While the leading Breton Armel Le Cléac'h on his "Banque Populaire VII" and Alex Thomason on "Hugo Boss" continue to fight a thrilling Southern Ocean duel at the front of the field, in which the Frenchman once again led by around 50 nautical miles on the morning of the 2nd Advent around 300 nautical miles before passing Cape Leuwin, the chasing fleet has seen more breakages and small to medium-sized dramas than ever before in this edition within two days.
The sad highlight was the mast breakage on "Spirit of Yukoh" on the night of the 2nd Advent. The rig broke above the second spreader in winds of around 20 knots. The Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi will probably sail to Cape Town with an emergency rig after consultation with his Shore team and has already confirmed his withdrawal from the race.
Both Nandor Fa and Conrad Colman had to contend with electrical problems. On Fas "Spirit of Hungary", the problems caused the autopilot to cut out. The gennaker was damaged in an involuntary manoeuvre. New Zealander Conrad Colman had a similar experience. The autopilot on his "Foresight Natural Energy" also switched off. As a result, the Kiwi almost lost one of his sails.
The mainsail on "Maitre Coq" had already come down on Saturday evening at around 8pm German time. It is now secured on the boom of the boat. Skipper Jeremie Beyou is still trying to find out what led to the breakage. During the incident, the Frenchman was travelling in 30 knots of wind. He is currently only sailing under jib 3 and is considering his options.
While the sailors struggle to make progress, Vincent Riou, who has already retired after a collision with a so-called "UFO", has left his repair harbour in Cape Town. He brings his boat "PRB" back to the start and finish harbour of Les Sables D'Olonne by sea with members of the shore crew.
A mishap of the most annoying kind happened to Jean-Pierre Dick on 2 December. His "St Michel Virbac" had entered the forbidden ice zone for around two hours. The Frenchman immediately rectified his mishap by sailing back and restarting where he had entered the restricted zone.
Sébastien Josse was able to reduce his gap to the two leaders somewhat. With his "Edmond de Rothschild", the Frenchman is "only" 600 nautical miles behind Armel Le Cléac'h and Alex Thomson, who have now completed around 43 per cent of the non-stop single-handed circumnavigation. The number of cancelled boats has increased to five according to the Japanese sailor's mastrbook.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
