The Frenchman is trying with all his might to finish his Vendée Globe. With his keel torn off and a heavy storm approaching, he decided yesterday to drop anchor in a harbour bay on the Portuguese coast to wait out the worst of the weather. What only became known today and is becoming more explosive in view of the controversial disqualification of Bernard Stamm: Jean-Pierre Dick used the engine to perform the Muring manoeuvre at a buoy - the seal with which the shaft is sealed was broken. Strictly speaking, he must therefore be disqualified. However, he emphasised that he had only actually used the motor for the last few metres to the buoy.
Anyone who has ever sailed on an Open 60 knows how difficult it is to steer the boat single-handed for such a manoeuvre. If there is just a touch too much sail area at the top, the boat goes off like crazy, but with too little speed it is also difficult to manoeuvre. The almost five metre wide monsters are also confusing and the distances to the bow or side deck are long - especially when travelling single-handed. But can the Frenchman hope to be treated more leniently than Bernard Stamm a few weeks ago, when he was disqualified for going alongside a Russian research vessel after his anchor slipped in the wind and he drifted towards the ship? It will be interesting to see.
While "Virbac Paprec 3" lies at anchor, the two chasers Jean Le Cam and Mike Golding are roughly level with the Azores. They will cross a light wind belt there today and then have to fight their way to Les Sables d'Olonne with upwind courses. A rather favourable development for Jean-Pierre Dick. At the moment, his lead over "Synerciel" is still around 700 nautical miles, i.e. not quite two days. However, the storm is likely to keep him on the Portuguese coast for at least another day. So it will definitely be pretty close for him if he stays in the rankings.
