The tactically daring detour by Alex Thomson ("Hugo Boss") and Jean-Pierre Dick ("St. Michel-Virbac") has not paid off so far, they are falling behind the leading "Banque Populaire". Only for a very short period of time did the two boats that broke out to the east under the coast of Portugal have better conditions and were faster. At the moment, however, it is Armel le Cléac'h in the west who is setting the pace. Alex Thomson had already said in an on-board video yesterday that the extreme beat may not have been a good idea after all (click here for the video here ).
Jean-Pierre Dick obviously recognised the risk earlier and returned to his old course to the southwest. The foothills of the Azores High reached the field earlier than expected and were larger than predicted. Now all boats have to pass the light wind band. Today will be very exciting.
The wind should only pick up again after passing Madeira. Whether the island is passed on its western or eastern side is definitely important: the large group around "PRB" in the west must pass Madeira with enough distance to avoid the effect of the wind congestion in front of it. The boats in the east must avoid the cover, which according to the Vendée weather forecast can be a good 50 nautical miles.
The latest tracker plot on the Vendée website, on which the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Dick is only travelling at a speed of three knots and has deviated from the direct course, is causing some uncertainty. There are still no reports of problems on board. Sometimes it can also be tracker errors at the time of positioning, but until the all-clear is given, fans of the smart vet will have to tremble.
Good pictures of the start of the race and the first miles can be seen in the organiser's first weekly update video:
One mystery that was solved yesterday, however, was the relatively weak performance of "Safran" skipper Morgan Lagraviére. The skipper of the brand new VPLP foiler was rather midfield and seemed surprisingly slow. Last night he reported from on board that electronic problems had held him up, but that the boat was now back to 100 per cent performance.
Armel Le Cléac'h has fully lived up to his role as top favourite so far. He seems to be able to maintain excellent speed at all times and has now built up a good lead of just under 27 miles. If he manages to be the first to escape the light winds and reach the trade winds, his lead is likely to increase significantly.
Behind them, the field is close together again after Thomson and Dick were practically caught up by the pack. A group of four in the west with the two non-foilers "PRB" of Vincent Riou and Paul Meilhat's "SMA" are sailing very strongly. The two very light boats are holding their own against the highly rated "Edmond de Rothschild" of Sébastien Josse and the retrofitted foiler "Maitre Coq" of Jérémie Beyou. It will be interesting to see how well they succeed when the boats reach the stronger trade winds. The foilers are predicted to have a significant advantage here.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
