Back to the future
Yannick Bestaven leads the Vendée Globe, extending his position to 120 nautical miles over second-placed Charlie Dalin.
21 December 2020
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Of the mental milestones that the Vendée Globe skippers tick off along the 24,410-nautical-mile solo race round the world, the Antimeridian – or 180th Meridian – is a significant boost to morale.
It is there that they see their longitude start to drop from 180, and emotionally, each degree feels closer to home and to the Les Sables d’Olonne finish line at 1.799 W.
Bestaven has had the advantage of staying in the better breeze than Dalin and third-placed Thomas Ruyant, but this looks set to be a complicated week ahead for the leaders as a high pressure will block their path midweek, which could require something of a detour north to find better wind and, in fact, they might find themselves sailing upwind for a period just before Christmas.
The second part of this ninth edition of the Vendée Globe looks set to offer even more tension and excitement with the prospect of the top 11 skippers being within 800 nautical miles of each other at Cape Horn around 31 December or the first day of 2021.
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Consider that the last two editions have seen either the leader or pair of leaders more than that distance ahead of the third-placed boat and the climb up the Atlantic in January promises to be a sporting spectacular.
And on his new scow-bowed Manuard-design, Armel Tripon – currently 14th on the standings – is on the hunt, seemingly always in a beneficial wind regime that is allowing him to consistently pull back miles on those immediately in front of him.
“It’s a different phase (for the leaders) now until Cape Horn. Tthe cards can still be redistributed, but of course, there will be opportunities until the end.”
After arriving in the lee of the remote mist-shrouded Macquarie Island, 840 miles south-east of Tasmania, this morning (European time) Louis Burton climbed the 28-metre mast of Bureau Vallée 2 as it drifted gently offshore. He went up at 11.18 hours UTC and returned to the deck after two very hard, chilly hours during which he accomplished a partial repair to the mast track damage that had been preventing him from using his mainsail to its full hoist since early in the Indian Ocean.
He reported to his team that as he drifted offshore, the seas had become too rough to continue his work to finish the repair and deal with the electronics problem he had there too. And so the skipper from Saint-Malo was considering anchoring in Lusitania Bay, which is much more protected but always involves more risk anchoring and retrieving an anchor unassisted.
With less than 100 miles to go, the young Swiss skipper Alan Roura will be the next to pass Cape Leeuwin in 15th place. Britain’s Pip Hare is having a fantastic race right now, profiting in the stronger winds on her first time ever in the Southern Ocean. She has closed miles on Les Sables d’Olonne’s Arnaud Boissières who is on a newer boat and is on his fourth consecutive Vendée Globe. She has also moved more than 60 miles clear of Didac Costa, who is on his second consecutive Vendée Globe and third round-the-world race in five years – as is Jean Le Cam who has been a mentor to the Catalan skipper as he has also to Damien Seguin and Benjamin Dutreux.
While Hare may be a newcomer to the south, her Medallia – a 20-year-old Pierre Rolland design – knows its own way as this is its fifth racing circumnavigation, the last time in the hands of Roura, who is only 453 nautical miles ahead.
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