The weekend was difficult for the German, as he explains in a video message from on board. He has problems sailing the boat fast in an uncomfortable, still relatively short swell, "the bow keeps getting stuck in a wave". He also remains true to his approach of sailing his boat safely and defensively, which leads to painful, ever-increasing gaps to boats around him whose skippers push harder. At the weekend, Sébastien Simson's "Arkéa Paprec" passed by, logging very consistently high average speeds and is now 40 miles ahead of Boris Herrmann. The Frenchman is having a very good race, slowly but steadily working his way forwards. A strong performance, as his new boat had been struggling with the third foil breakage until shortly before the start, whereupon its shape was changed again (C-shape instead of L-shape).
Boris Herrmann from the Southern Ocean
The duo of Yannick Bestaven ("Maître Coq") and Kevin Escoffier ("PRB"), with whom Herrmann was sailing on a par just a few days ago, are also pulling further and further away. The only ray of hope: "Grandpa" Jean Le Cam, who sailed his "Yes we Cam" as the best non-foiler in fourth place, is now slowly but surely catching up with the group thanks to the higher speed of the foilers. If things continue like this, Herrmann could have caught up with the 61-year-old in a few days.
The retired Briton Alex Thomson also sent an explanation of how his rudder damage came about:
I was sailing at an average of 21 knots with a small gennaker and first reef. I was below deck when there was a loud bang and the boat immediately started to luff heavily. The rudder was locked and all I could do was furl the sails. When I was on deck, I could see that the rudder blade was broken and swinging around, with a large piece of fishing gear wedged in it. So I must have hit something. Now I have to sail the boat fairly upright to Cape Town with only one rudder. It's a big disaster. I still had the feeling after the repair that I could win. I'm devastated."
Things are also exciting further back in the field. The German-French sailor Isabelle Joschke has been sailing pretty fast for a few days now. She has worked her way forwards with her "MACSF", is now in 13th place and is getting closer and closer to Sam Davies, who is the best woman in the field with her "Initiatives-Cœur", sailing just 50 nautical miles ahead of her. The Brit experienced her first "wipe out" in a 40-knot gust, as she wrote from on board: "I jibed just off Gough Islands, just after the front in 25 knots of wind. But the wind picked up again quickly, so I rolled the big A 7 away. Just in time, then came the first big gust of 40 knots. So the boat was thrown flat on its side and a nice high, ice-cold wave broke over us. All the sheets were loosened a little to get the boat up and down again, but not too far so that it didn't become a patent jibe!
The 3rd weekly update from the race organisers
The difficult part is then finding a trim and sail set-up that is suitable for 22 and 42 knots of wind! That's not so easy when you're sailing alone, you need some sleep. It's a frustrating compromise between sailing too slowly a lot of the time and then having moments when your heart is racing because your boat is accelerating down the wave in a gust and you're actually going too fast.
But the night is over, nothing has broken and the wind will drop a little today. Later it should be possible to set the big gennaker and sail a bit faster. Until then, I'll go below deck and put on thicker socks, my feet are blocks of ice!"
Davies had sailed almost on a par with Louis Burton's "Bureau Vallée 2" for a long time, but the latter was significantly faster over the weekend. He has the most southerly position in the field, just before the ice limit defined by the regatta organisers. The Breton is sailing extremely strongly and could even push past the group of chasers around Thomas Ruyant's "LinkedOut" down there. Ruyant is now only sailing with a foil and is significantly slower on port tack, meaning that Kevin Escoffier on "PRB" is slowly catching up with him.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
