Vendée Globe
Race time: 12 days, 3 hours.
Position: 3,140 miles to the Cape of Good Hope.
Javier Sansó and the Return of the Flying Spaniard
News Flash:
Sansó makes up 350 miles in two days
Gutek arrives in Tenerife
Fleet News:
Thomson opens Atlantic Workshop again
Golding crosses equator for 22nd time
News Flash:
Javier ‘Bubi’ Sansó (Acciona 100% EcoPowered) has scorched down the north Atlantic and through the Doldrums as if they were a myth and now has the top of the fleet in his sights. He has made up 350 miles in the last two days.
On Thursday morning, still averaging 12 knots in the dreaded Doldrums, he caught Bertrand De Broc (Votre nom autour du monde) and poor Arnaud Bossières (Akena Verandas), who has been averaging around five knots for the last day and a half.
Both lie further to the west and whilst that proved successful for Mike Golding’s group of three, it has stalled Bossières even more completely than the way the top six were stalled in the east two days ago. One of the sayings of the Doldrums is that ‘west is best’, but Sansó, the 43-year-old from Majorca, has prospered even further east than the lead group. In his second Vendée Globe after being forced to retire from the 2000-01 edition, is making full use of having one of the six new boats – and the only new British one, by Owen-Clarke design – in the race.
Sansó has been flying south like swallow since he lost two days last week. He had to go up his mast last Saturday to retrieve his main halyard and fix the damage after taking shelter off the coast of Tenerife when his mainsail came down.
“It’s been pretty fast, everything in the Doldrums has been OK so far, I’m in the middle of a squall right now, but it’s a nice one from an easterly direction, so I’m going pretty fast again.” Sansó said live to Vendée Globe TV in a message to make Boissières chew his mainsail.
“I am hoping it will continue to the other side. It looks like I’ve been a bit lucky this time. I saw at the beginning it look very good (east), I saw Akena was getting stuck and I downloaded some more (weather) models and it was showing a few different things, the European model was showing that this was the right option.
He is banking miles every hour and with the top six facing a potentially complex route east past the Cape of Good Hope, has the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and strike from the back again.
“Coming from the back is sometime a little bit easier, so I think I had a bit of luck and east was a little bit better. We’ll see. When I’m through I will be east of the Mike Golding group. It should be good.
“It’s great to be catching up and maybe I can catch up a bit with the guys in the front. The weather is looking good to gain a few more miles. This is a very fast boat, my position should be a bit more in the front but the problem with the mainsail made me lose a lot of time and miles.”
On Thursday Sansó explained his sleep strategy here.
The only thing that may temporarily halt Sansó is the two-hour penalty he is supposed to take before midnight on Thursday.
Bernard Bonneau explained why the protests and penalties are necessaryhere.
Meanwhile, back on Tenerife, Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski (ENERGA) arrived at around 0130hrs (French time) yesterday after becoming the sixth boat of 20 who started to retire ENERGA is moored in Santa Cruz marina on Tenerife. Gutek and his boat captain, Maciek Marczewski, are inspecting his boat and assessing the reasons for the electronics failure.
“I am very happy to be safe here,” he said. “I’m still very tired after the last
days of continuous efforts and stress.” Read more here.
Fleet news:
As they head south with steady easterlies, the leading group of six have the chance to get their boats ready for the sling shot into the Southern Ocean.Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) had reopened his Atlantic workshop to fix his hydrogenerator, so he will be able to charge his batteries on both tacks.
“Last night I laminated the brackets and dry fitted with the new bolts,” Thomson said. “It’s a bit rough and ready as a repair – Alex style!”
Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) retained a 53-mile lead at the 1500hrs ranking over Francois Gabart (Macif), who was giving meteorology lessons, in second. Thomson, in sixth, was just 33 miles behind Thomson. Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) is still showing as fourth, but he is significantly north-east of the other four chasing Le Cléac’h and the reality is that he is sixth. The boats must slant south now for around four days before looking for the ride east. There is nothing unusual in the current weather models for the race, but it does not look simple and will need skilful routing and a bit of luck to catch the first train.
Earlier Mike Golding (Gamesa) crossed the Equator for the 22nd time, at 2 o’clock (British time) on Thursday November 22 – that’s a lot of twos – as he chased the six leading boats in front of him south to the coast of Brazil.
Times to the equator are here.
Meanwhile out of the race, but still at sea, Sam Davies was slamming on her way to delivering her wounded boat, Savéol to Cascais.
