Vendee Globe Sail Race Finalists Cluster Closer To France

Of 33 boats that began the Vendée Globe solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the planet race on November 8^th from the French port city of Les Sables-d’Olonne, 25 remain in the contest. It is projected that six will complete this race either on, or close to, this coming Wednesday, January 27^th.

On a map, the lineup of boats resembles an inverted ‘L,’ with the long arm being a vertical array of racers sprinting up the Atlantic Ocean, while the shorter horizontal arm comprises finalists on a wobbly beeline eastward toward the west coast of France.

The final miles across the Bay of Biscay can be downwind in 30 knots, and the three current finalists in the race are French racer Louis Burton (in the boat Bureau Vallee 2), French skipper Charlie Dalin (Apivia), and Boris Herrmann from Germany (Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco).

Of these three leaders, as of today Louis Burton—in first place—holds a northernmost position off the coast of the Azores islands, where he may gain potential advantage to tap into an extremely narrow, local corridor of southern wind.

This ninth edition of the race—which takes place every four years—includes boats clustered closer to each other than during any previous edition. Skipper Burton summarized the situation.

‘It’s rare to have so many boats so tight four days before the finish. That’s crazy enough, and it’s difficult to make predictions.’

This is race day 76; the previous 2016-2017 edition included more favorable climactic conditions that allowed more rapid advancement; in 2017 skipper Armel Le Cléac’h finished the race after 74 days, three hours and 35 minutes.

Boris Herrmann of Seaexplorer – Yacht Club de Monaco (now in third place) spoke of small but precious joys during these final race days in his 60-foot IMOCA class boat.

‘There are big lulls, it’s quite stressful. I just passed [a container ship heading for Guadeloupe] … They approached to say hello—that was cool. They turned on their searchlights and greeted me from the bridge! It was pitch black, the moon only present in the first part of the night. Currently we have 12 hours of darkness daily, unlike in the southern hemisphere, where you can sail all the time in light except for a few hours.’

Skipper Armel Tripon is on the boat L’Occitane en Provence, which is currently placed 11^th. He spoke of his travails, as well as the balm of entertainment technology.

‘I’m upwind. It’s really not a very pleasant situation. The boat taps permanently, everything is shaking, it’s a bit violent. There are risks of breakage. It’s nerve-racking for the boat. Normally I go out during the day. Every minute is painful. I have headphones, I play music, I listen to podcasts. It dampens the noise a bit. I listen to everything—classical, rock, reggae, jazz. I just finished ‘Les Misérables’ as an audio book. It was cool.’

For those boats about to pass (or having just passed) Cape Horn at the tip of South America, the sweetness of traversing that final ‘cape’ milestone (the other two capes being the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa, and Cape Leeuwin off Australia) is tempered by memories of challenge.

French skipper Alexia Barrier, in the boat TSE-4MYPLANET, commented on conditions days before reaching Cape Horn.

‘I’ve had my fill in the last two weeks with fronts up to 50 knots and swells. For hours, a ball is in my stomach. On board…little glitches accumulate: the port hydrogenator torn off, a satellite antenna problem, a leak from the [fresh] water maker. I would not be against stopping for a week in Patagonia to fix everything!’

The motto of this hard-core race around the planet is: ‘solo, non-stop, without assistance.’  Challenges along the route are unexpected and relentless. French skipper Clarisse Crémer in the boat Banque Populaire X (12^th place) has recently been dealing with Sargasso seaweed sticking in her rudder, while Romain Attanasio in the boat Pure – Best Western (13th place)—frustrated at his boat becalmed in windless conditions—poured beer in the water to beseech Neptune, god of the ocean, to stir up a favorable breeze.

For many, just completing the race—which only 89 humans have ever finished—is itself a huge reward.

Japanese racer Kojiro Shiraishi, in the boat DMG MORI Global One, was forced to retire from the 2016 Vendée due to a snapped mast. On this edition he has proudly taken videos of his onboard sushi meals, and he recently shared only bliss regarding this event, irrespective of his race position (19^th).

‘Every day at sea, I am the happiest man in the world.”