Around 400 nautical miles south-east of Rio de Janeiro, the leaders of the Vendée Globe are together again. Only six nautical miles separate Yoann Richomme ("Paprec Arkea") and Charlie Dalin ("MACIF Santé Prévoyance"), who are slowly fighting their way through a weak wind zone caused by a semi-stationary cold front. At the moment, they are only making progress at five to seven knots.
Seb Simon ("Groupe Dubreuil"), in third place, had the chance to make up some miles on the leaders and is now 319 miles behind Richomme, who was still well over 700 miles ahead at Cape Horn. He is also now over 1,100 miles ahead of fourth-placed Thomas Ruyant ("Vulneable").
Boris Herrmann thinks about moving on
Southeast of the Falkland Islands, Boris Herrmann was in eighth place in a chasing group this morning. He was only 14 miles behind Paul Meilhat (Biotherm), who was directly ahead in fifth place. In between, further to the south-east, Jérémie Beyou (Charal) in sixth place, four miles ahead of Herrmann, and Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB), two miles ahead of Boris. In ninth place is Sam Goodchild ("Vulnerable"), five miles behind Boris. So anything is still possible in this group.
Herrmann is currently mentally strong. He had the time and leisure to chat for half an hour with Robert Habeck, the candidate for chancellor of the Gründen party. They talked about comparisons between politicians and extreme athletes as well as climate change.
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Herrmann also wrote about his current situation and future plans in his current, exclusive blog on YACHT.DE. "I definitely have my sights set on an Ocean Race in the medium and long term. And maybe a Vendée Globe as well. And then maybe some expedition sailing trips to the Antarctic," says Herrmann.
Defending champion eliminated
Meanwhile, defending champion Yannick Bestaven had to give up his Vendée Globe dreams. He has been forced to make a stopover in Ushuaïa and has announced his withdrawal from the Vendée Globe. Following reports of major damage to the steering system of the IMOCA "Maître CoQ V" on Friday 27 December, which could not be repaired at sea, Yannick Bestaven has decided, in consultation with his technical team, to make a stopover in Ushuaïa to repair the various breakdowns of the last few days.
As he cannot carry out this work alone, Yannick Bestaven is now supported by part of his technical team in Argentina. His technical and sports manager Jean Marie Dauris, his skipper Stan Delbarre, his rigging master Yvan Joucla and his composite materials expert Ludo Bosser, as well as the engineer in charge of the on-board electronics, Arnaud Chaigne, will fly to him today, 30 December, to start the overhaul work as soon as possible.
This outside help means the withdrawal of Yannick Bestaven and "Maître CoQ V" from this 10th edition of the Vendée Globe.
Tough times for Isabelle Joschke
The weekend was particularly cruel and tough for Isabelle Joschke ("MACSF"), who suffered a whole series of problems, capped off by the loss of her starboard foil. "I had a big chain of events: my starboard foil broke, I had a problem on the keel that was solved because in the end it was just the sensor that was faulty, part of my mainsail traveller broke, my mainsail tore, the engine problem was only partially solved, and that made me feel like my time was up.... a nice little chain of events!"
The repairs were particularly physically demanding: "To be honest, it really tired me out, I often had to intervene, it took me a lot of time, and above all it cost me a lot of energy when the boat was travelling very fast and it was dangerous to move around in the boat to check things. It was very tiring, the vertebrae are compressed, you bump into things and you're not in a good position, it creates a lot of tension in the body! I've got a lot of tension in my upper back, I already had a loose rib, this has made it worse, I feel really exhausted."
Joschke wants to continue the race as best he can: "It will be a step-by-step race, it's really making me sweat, but I have no choice, I hope that all the other problems won't hinder me any further and that the weather will be mild after the Horn. There are indeed many ifs! But this is the Vendée Globe."
Problems with latch locks
Alan Roura ("Hublot"), in 20th place, reported damage to the halyard lock and the loss of his "jib top" - a small downwind sail attached to the bowsprit - on Sunday lunchtime. "As I write this message, my race is taking a completely different turn. The halyard latch has just broken, so the jib top, the heavy weather sail (super practical and versatile), has got caught in the foil and wrapped around it. And all this in 30 knots of wind and five metres of sea! The good news - if I can find any - is that I managed to salvage the halyard, the furler and my sheets. But the sail will unfortunately end its days at Point Nemo. I could decide not to talk about leaving the sail in the sea. But it annoys me. I tried to get it back on board, but it was impossible to manoeuvre the boat with 130 square metres hanging off the side. It was either the sail or lose my foil."
On Saturday, "Fortinet - Best Western" skipper Romain Attanasio reported a damaged main halyard lock. "I was reefing and the pull line for opening the lock broke off," explained the Frenchman.
Attansio had to recover the mainsail, then pull himself two metres into the mast and dismantle the lock for repairs. "In the end, I didn't lose too much ground, even though it took three to four hours. I managed the operation, but from now on I can only hook from the outside (editor: from on deck). It's a bit of a hassle, but at least it works!"
Other skippers apparently also had problems with halyard locks, as did Boris Herrmann. He writes in his blog: "Yes, they continue to cause difficulties. I also had problems with a mastlock. I haven't talked much about it, but when we're up there in the mast, I'm sure we'll be able to see why there was this problem. I don't know yet. All we can say for now is that something needs to happen with the mastlocks. Nobody seems to be immune to these problems. Not me either."
