Many skippers watched the news from on board yesterday with great concern about this passage of a storm front, which exposes their boats to great stresses so early in the race and carries the risk of minor damage that could lead to breakage later on.
And so it came to pass, at least for Armel Tripon with his "L'Occitane" - the halyard latch of his J 3 broke. "The sail fell onto the deck, but I was able to salvage it," the skipper told the team. He is now sailing around 250 nautical miles back to A Coruña and wants to anchor there to repair the damage on his own and get back into the race. After Fabrice Amedeo and Arnaud Boissier, this is the third skipper to have problems with the headsail halyards. These defects are extremely dangerous, as they usually mean that either the sail is jammed on the mast and cannot be recovered, which can lead to damage to the sail or rig in an approaching storm, or, in the worst case, it falls into the water and is dragged behind, often rendering it unusable. To retrieve and repair the halyard swivel, the skipper almost always has to go into the mast, which is only possible in very calm seas.
As Boris Herrmann said in an interview with YACHT before the race, he also fears such defects and therefore has replacement latch locks on board - each for the price of a small new car.
Frenchman Kevin Escoffier also has problems, with water in the ship due to a defective valve in the centreboard box of his "PRB". In a video from on board, the water sloshes through the ship. However, he wants to solve the problem today after the turnaround.
The French-German Isabelle Joschke ("MACSF") reacted most consistently, but also surprisingly, to the challenge yesterday. She was the only one to decide to avoid the worst of the weather on the front and turned off in the direction of the Portuguese coast.
"I said beforehand that I would be careful and only sail into conditions that are manageable. If that means we have to sail a different route to the others, then that's what I'll do," Joschke announced yesterday and has now stuck to it. A nautically consistent step, which is otherwise rather rare in the Vendée and also demands respect. In return, she will have to sort herself at the back of the field.
The rest of the field, on the other hand, is pushing hard, divided into a group of three in the north, whose leader Thomas Ruyant on "Linked Out" is already through the front, at least his wind indicator in the tracker already shows significantly less wind from north-westerly directions, and he has already been able to turn south. Meanwhile, most of the other boats still have wind from the south-west. Hot on his heels are Sébastien Simon ("Arkéa Paprec") and Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée 2").
Boris Herrmann follows directly behind to the south-east in a group of four with Alex Thomson's "Hugo Boss", Charlie Dalin's "Apivia" and Kevin Escoffier's "PRB". This puts him in an excellent position, keeping pace with the brand new foilers.
Things will get exciting later today when it becomes clear where the southern group will pass through the front, which is currently ahead in the rankings due to its more southerly position. Only one of the top foiling boats, Nicolas Troussel's "Corum L'Épargne", has followed this tactical variant, which relies on passing the front in a slightly weaker area. The 46-year-old Frenchman, who comes from the Figaro series, is regarded as a tactically skilful sailor who repeatedly sails away from the field alone with astonishing course variations and then suddenly reappears at the front with a lead. In French regatta circles, there is even a catchphrase for this: "doing a troussel". Tonight or tomorrow morning, when the two groups head south, we will know whether he has managed to do the same this time.
