Vendée Globe: The field is being picked apart

Just a few hours after Kito de Pavant's retirement, Sébastien Josse and his "Edmond de Rothschild" have finally been hit. He had been limping through the stormy Indian Ocean for two days with a badly damaged port foil and has now announced his retirement. Initially, he had announced that he would try to repair it. But this obviously seems hopeless.

After the task, Josse reported once again on how the damage occurred:

I wasn't really sailing the boat hard when the accident happened, but the conditions were rough. It was blowing at 35 knots and the sea had risen to a good four metres. Then I surfed down a wave at 30 knots; the bow drilled into the next wave and slowed down to 10 knots. It only lasted a few seconds. When the boat accelerated again, I realised something was wrong. The port foil was in the water, even though I had picked it up because of the swell. So I opened the cover of the centreboard box and discovered that the inner end of the foil, to which the ropes for hauling in and out are attached, was broken and only hanging on two screws. This poses the risk of the centreboard slipping out, becoming wedged by the pressure and levering the centreboard box out, which would lead to a severe water ingress. So I jibed quickly to take the pressure off the foil. Unfortunately, this didn't go well with the weather: To save the centreboard, I should have continued sailing on a north-easterly course, but that's exactly where the worst of the storm was. So I had to turn south-west and load the foil. It was complicated...

While the Frenchman carefully sailed his "Edmond de Rothschild" through the storm under the third reef, the team feverishly tried to work out a repair option. The suggestions were passed on to him. "When you do the Vendée, you know that there are repairs to be done every day. But we're talking about minor 'plasters' here, I'm just a nurse so to speak, not a surgeon!"

The team, skipper and team owners therefore decided that all the options were too complicated to carry out alone on the open sea and make the boat fit for the 15,000 or so nautical miles home. They therefore decided to give up. Josse is now heading for the west coast of Australia.

Rowing damage for Eric Bellion

Almost at the same time, Eric Bellion reported damage to the rudder of his Open 60 "Comme un seul homme". His yacht was brutally tossed on its side in a gust of more than 50 knots and the rudder stock was twisted to such an extent that the rudder blade was no longer properly connected to it. However, the 40-year-old has a spare rudder on board and has turned off to the north-east in order to attempt a replacement in calmer waters. Whether this is possible despite the damage to the shaft remains to be seen. Bellion was sailing in 17th place when the accident happened.

Water in the ship

And the chain of bad news continues: Thomas Ruyant reported heavy water ingress after an inlet valve of his water ballast system broke and the water shot unchecked into his "Le Souffle du Nord pour le Projet Imagine". He immediately jibed to get the hole in the hull out of the water and stuffed it with anything he could grab. In the meantime, he managed to get the water ingress under control and pump most of it off the ship. His team is working with him on a solution and the necessary spare parts should be on board.

The damage is bitter for the 35-year-old Vendée rookie, who has sailed an excellent race so far in 8th place. He is travelling on Kito de Pavant's old "Groupe Bel", a 2008 VPLP design, which he very successfully kept at the upper limit of its capabilities. The Mini-Transat and Route du Rhum winner in Class 40 is regarded as a huge talent and has impressively confirmed this impression so far.

Now the top gets wind

Armel Le Cléac'h ("Banque Populaire VIII") and Alex Thomson ("Hugo Boss") are still battling for the lead at the front of the field. The Frenchman was faster recently, at times putting 137 nautical miles between himself and his rival, but now the tide could be turning again: The two have recently started sailing on port bow again. On this side, "Hugo Boss" still has an intact foil and Thomson's speeds are increasing again, slightly above le Cléac'h's speed. It will be interesting to see how close he can get again or whether it will even be enough to regain the lead. But both skippers need to be careful: By tomorrow at the latest, they will be approached by a strong depression that is strengthening over Tasmania and is expected to bring 30 to 40 knots of wind, or even more in gusts.

Paul Meilhat, the only non-foiler in the front field, follows in third place with a gap of around 1200 nautical miles and delivers a very strong performance. His boat is the old "Macif", François Gabart's winning boat from the last Vendée. Hot on his heels again is the retrofitted foiler "Maitre Coq". Jérémie Beyou was apparently able to solve the problems with his mainsail a few days ago and is now catching up again. Both have been sailing in gale-force winds for days and are likely to have some pretty rough weather in the near future.