Regatta: Vendée Globe: Preliminary decision in the Herrmann thriller today?

Some try to sail closer to Cape Finisterre, others further out to sea with a run into the Bay of Biscay from a north-westerly direction. For Charlie Dalin ("Apivia"), the leading skipper of the "Finisterre Group", it was less than 500 nautical miles to the finish on Tuesday morning. The winner of the night in this top group was Boris Herrmann ("Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco"), who moved up to second place in the tracking and thus fuelled his fans' dreams of victory once again. Almost equal in the ranking, third-placed Louis Burton - like Herrmann, 85 nautical miles behind Dalin - also had the redeeming line from the Finisterre perspective in his sights, but in the end orientated himself further north. Around 400 nautical miles north-west of Dalin and with a gap of 297 and 343 nautical miles to the leader, the chasing group that had broken away struggled to catch up. Although Thomas Ruyant and Yannick Bestaven initially suffered losses here, they hope to make gains from their investment over the course of the day in increasing winds. This 26 January could be the day of the preliminary decision.

Towards the end of the 79th day at sea, Boris Herrmann took further miles off Louis Burton, who was just ahead of him. In the "North Group", however, Thomas Ruyant ("LinkedOut") achieved the fastest etmal with 411 nautical miles in 24 hours. When the 80th day at sea begins in the afternoon, the final chapter of this breathless final sprint will also have begun - the showdown is approaching and the intensity of the battle will only increase until the end. And this is also against the backdrop that the Bay of Biscay could still offer slightly lighter winds at the finish, which could offer the chasing boats opportunities to reduce their gap to the boats in front, which may then slow down.

This was Boris Herrmann's outlook on Monday afternoon. In the meantime, his outlook has actually improved...

On Monday, ZDF reported on the Vendée Globe and the dwindling supplies

In France, the daily newspaper "Libération" ran the headline on Tuesday morning: "Vendée Globe: Herrmann, the final German coup". In the home country of the Vendée Globe, the "danger" that a German could stop the three-decade winning streak of the French Vendée Globe heroes and is good for at least a podium place has long been perceived as real. Boris Herrmann is sailing towards the finish with a time credit of six hours as a result of his involvement in the rescue operation for Kevin Escoffier on the night of 30 November to 1 December. His pursuers Yannick Bestaven ("Maître Coq IV") in fifth place and Jean Le Cam ("Yes We Cam") in eighth place are allowed to deduct 10 hours and 15 minutes (Bestaven) and even 16 hours and 15 minutes (Le Cam) from their total sailing time at the finish. Fans can now also do this in the Vendée Globe app and in the position reports on the Homepage when they switch from tracking mode to placement mode (small pedestal) on the left-hand side of the map. If you click on the skippers sailing with a time credit, this information will appear. However, the times are only subtracted after the finish. Also good to know: as soon as the leading boat is only 200 nautical miles away from the finish line, the position reports on the Vendée Globe homepage are updated every 30 minutes. If the leader is only 60 nautical miles from the line, the updates are posted every five minutes.

The race organisers have now extended the finish line from 0.3 to 1.9 nautical miles, in accordance with Article 9.1 of the Sailing Instructions, to counter the possibility of several boats crossing the finish line at the same time. According to the latest forecasts, the first Imocas are expected to cross the finish line off Les Sables-d'Olonne from Wednesday afternoon. According to various routings and calculations, the battle for victory could still come down to a duel between Boris Herrmann and Yannick Bestaven, whose time credits will weigh heavily at the finish.

Boris Herrmann said in the final phase: "I'm in black and white mode, vacillating between putting myself under pressure and enjoying it. All my friends and my wife tell me that I shouldn't let the pressure get to me like this. That it's all good. It was an incredible race and I should just do my best and enjoy it. Then we'll see..." The fans will also see, as NDR will be broadcasting the final live with presenter Peter Carstens and co-commentator Tim Kröger. It will be available online here at YACHT - see also our teaser! We will inform you about the exact times on Wednesday morning.