Sébastian Simon is the first soloist of the 10th Vendée Globe who has had to sail with a broken starboard foil since the evening of 7 December at around 5pm. His boat had got out of control in winds of around 25 knots. The Frenchman was only startled out of his sleep by the wild movements of the ship. After he had brought the "Groupe Dubreuil", which had been knocked on its side, back under control, the 34-year-old realised that his starboard foil was broken at the "elbow" and had lost its most important part.
Vendée Globe: Foil broken, but not the skipper
The first night-time pictures taken by Sébastien Simon showed the torn foil remnant on Sunday. However, Simon soon announced that his boat was still in good condition - apart from that. The Frenchman also announced that he wanted to continue the race with the same determination with which he had started it. This was immediately apparent last night.
While leader Charlie Dalin slowed down considerably under the influence of a high pressure area, Seb Simon was able to make up more than 50 nautical miles on Dalin within about eight hours until Monday morning. Seb Simon was able to do this because he was able to maintain his high average speeds even with a broken wing. He also had significantly more wind than Charlie Dalin, who was listed as the leader in one of the position reports updated every four hours for the hundredth time in the early morning.
Charlie Dalin was recently caught in the sphere of influence of a large area of high pressure that is advancing from the north-west. This in turn is under pressure from an area of low pressure moving eastwards, which influences Dalin's hunters. This allowed the unfortunate "truncated" Seb Simon to catch up considerably with Charlie Dalin and gain new motivation.
Jérémie Beyou and Nico Lunven suffer
The latest winners also include Yoann Richomme ("Paprec Arkéa") and Thomas Ruyant ("Vulnerable") in third and fourth place. They had recently been able to significantly reduce their gap to Dalin to around 370 and 490 nautical miles respectively. They were able to make up more than 100 nautical miles on Dalin, whose lead of just under 180 nautical miles was still comfortable for the time being.
The conditions were particularly tough for the other hunters to the north and west of them. Nico Lunven ("Holcim-PRB") and Jérémie Beyou ("Charal"), who only a few days ago briefly had to complain of a lack of wind, are now finding it rather too much: they are more than 800 nautical miles behind the front man with the low-pressure system in choppy seas and gusts of up to 40 knots. Both Beyou and Lunven are struggling in fifth and sixth place.
Beyou, who is not only anxiously watching the good progress of Dalin and Simon, for whom he thinks the weather is better, was in the same mood as the sky above him on Monday morning: grey! The "Charal" driver was obviously regretting his decision to take the escape route northwards because of the last low.
Remorse after circumnavigating the trough
"The first month always goes by very quickly, we manage two oceans in the first month," summarised the "Charal" skipper briefly towards the end of the 29th day of racing at the 10th Vendée Globe. He continued: "The conditions hadn't been easy for about ten days, sailing around this big low completely changed my race, it threw me completely out of the battle at the front that I was in."
Beyou's brief description of the past few days: "The riders in front sped off directly in front of the low pressure area, the group of hunters had to take the diversions to the north, and the group behind them could continue straight on, so that they had a kind of motorway."
The "motorway group" also referred to the quartet around Boris Herrmann, who had been able to continue their course eastwards after the mogul track in the Agulhas river without escaping a huge low and the Nordschleife, which was so costly for Lunven, Beyou and others. "But we were really trapped," said Jérémie Beyou, summarising the self-imposed setback scenario for himself and Nico Lunven. "Now the weather phenomenon is dictating my entire race, which is really annoying," said Beyou, describing his predicament.
Vendée Globe beaters for the hunters
Even the hard-nosed Beyou felt it was extra-hard that he was given a 45-knot beating for this last night. "Then I think we're really on the wrong track. Last night the little low pressure area hit me right in the face, so I had a night with an average of 45 knots!"
Beyou said: "The sea is very rough there (editor's note: around the 45th parallel south and around 800 nautical miles west of Charlie Dalin). Conditions have been dangerous for boats for about ten days - not easy."
I think I'm the only one who got through it like that with Nico." Jérémie Beyou
Beyou's outlook is hardly more conciliatory: "The challenge for the next few days is not to break the boat in these conditions. The sea is very choppy. We have a swell from the south-west and a choppy wave from the north. As soon as we try to sail the boat at more than 20 knots, it naturally becomes very difficult for the boat. And it's also very exhausting for the man!"
Difficult pattern for the pursuers
Jérémie Beyou's interim assessment: "I wasn't in the right pattern at the start of the race. The race didn't open up for me. I have the impression that things are moving forward for the first two. And also for the group behind us. We, on the other hand, are in a difficult pattern. The goal for the next few days would be for things to change a little. That the patterns become a little more natural, including the route, and that the conditions between the leading boats become a little fairer."
Physically, Beyou says, he is doing well. The same applies to his morale. He knows that "the race is long" and said: "I believe that things will turn around at some point, that there will be an opportunity to come back. I have to seize it!" The other hunters are also inspired by a similar mindset. Boris Herrmann was one of them at the start of the fifth week of racing, having recently reduced the gap to the very front to 1235 nautical miles. 24 hours earlier it was around 115 nautical miles more.
Watch Boris Herrmann's latest video clip here - including a pancake fun factor:
Here is the clip of Sébastien Simon's foil break:
