8th Vendée Globe - Day 3: Small Decisions, Big Consequences?
by Andi Robertson 8 Nov 2016 18:54 GMT
7 November 2016
Small Decisions, Big Consequences?
Hugo Boss retains lead since midday but Alex Thomson has concerns about his strategy
As the trio leading the Vendée Globe passed the latitude of Lisbon, Portugal heading south-west and looking to escape from the clutches of a zone of lighter winds, British skipper Alex Thomson holds a slender lead. After a relatively quick passage across the Bay of Biscay Sunday night and Monday then dealing with the stress of the confluence of shipping traffic at Cape Finisterre, the lighter airs down the Portuguese coast have allowed the top skippers to try and catch a few naps and find a more optimum routine.
The leadership of the race has swapped between five different skippers since Sunday's start. Midday Thomson realised the gain from his choice to work east, closer to the coast. That gain increased slightly in the day, but he admitted that his choice – executed partly in light of pre-start strategy - may not be as beneficial in the long term. "I am not too sure about my positioning now," Thomson told Vendée Globe Live at midday (UTC). "Initially I thought it was a good idea and part of the strategy at the beginning, I am not too sure it is going to pay off that well in the next day or so."
Armel Le Cléac'h, runner up in the last two Vendée Globes, has – typically for him - sailed a more conservative line on Banque Populaire VIII, sticking closer to the direct route, looking further ahead. "The strategy has changed somewhat since the start," Le Cléac'h said." The high is blocking us and the choice down the Portuguese coast isn't as interesting as we initially thought. We're keeping out to the west to pick up the next lot of wind. When you're dealing with strategy it's for the long term, in particular how to deal with Madeira and the Canaries. We need to choose our position in the coming hours."
The top trio have earned themselves a small cushion – around 12 nautical miles – on fourth placed Vincent Riou on PRB. That may grow as they sail free of the high pressure ridge which has enveloped the fleet with lighter airs. Sparring partners are pairing off, albeit temporarily perhaps. Riou on the non foiling PRB is tussling at identical speeds with the foiler Edmond de Rothschild of Sébastien Josse two miles apart. So too, long time Figaro adversaries, Yann Elies and Jéremie Beyou, were scrapping over early bragging rights. The pair – both three times winners of La Solitaire du Figaro – were close to colliding last night but are at the same latitude – separated 20 miles laterally.
In Les Sables d'Olonne, Didac Costa was close to being ready to restart with his One Planet One Ocean but the Barcelona skipper, who had to return to the start town within one hour of the start when his boat partly flooded due to a ballast pipe leak, must wait for a weather window to open. His water damaged alternator was being replaced this afternoon and all of his damaged electrics have been repaired and checked. The Bay of Biscay is due to take a battering from 40kts winds and so the Catalan soloist will wait for a prudent moment to leave and give chase.
American skipper Rich Wilson said that he did not feel too disconnected from today's US elections, despite being at sea in his second Vendée Globe. He was lying 23rd in the fleet, 120 miles SW of Cape Finisterre, chasing Hungary's Nandor Fa who was nine miles ahead of him. A noted Democrat, Wilson said: "I am for her. I hope things go well today. I will sail better for sure. We are certainly not connected to it by normal means and I feel quite strongly, I have followed it intensely over the last 18 months as the American elections always seem so long. I was involved back in 1988 in the Dukakis campaign, a long time ago, but I have followed it very closely ever since. And we all should. It is how our society represents itself to each other. So I feel quite connected to it even though I am our here."
Quotes:
Alex Thomson (GBR) Hugo Boss:
"There is a long way to go. But it is a good start for me. It was a very fickle night for me but once the breeze kicked in then I think we showed the boat speed, the boat speed we built it for and thought it would have in those conditions, at least. I am not too sure about my positioning now. Initially I thought it was a good idea and part of the strategy at the beginning, I am not too sure it is going to pay off that well in the next day or so. I am not too worried. I will still be in the hunt."
"Although I look forward to the start I have to say I hate the first few days, there is very little sleep to be had. It is very hard to manage these boats when you are not sleep deprived, so I find the first few days hard. I am working hard now trying to get some sleep in the bank, to get myself into good condition and try and get into a routine. It is going to take five, six or seven days to get a routine. That is what I am looking for now."
"We are all trying to get past this ridge of high pressure and once we get through it we will be hightailing it to the equator. I have given up some westing which I am not sure was a great idea. Hopefully I can keep some south and make up some westing later on. I am not 100% positive that I made the right decision to gybe over. The boat is good. There are no problems, yet. Nothing yet but I am sure it will come (laughs)."
Rich Wilson (USA) Great American 4:
"I'm fine. The boat is going along just fine. We have fairly stable conditions here and the boat is going along just fine. That first afternoon and night we had a lot of wind, some squalls in the Bay of Biscay but it's calmed down. Through the first night I went from genoa and full main to the Solent and then one reef, then staysail, then two reefs in the mainsail. We were hitting speeds over 20kts and had sudden squalls, with the wind going from 15 to 25 kts and a couple over 30 to 35kts for maybe 45 minutes and then it would drop off again to five knots. It was very hard to keep the right sail combination. The big squalls would generate some waves and then in 5-8kts. But we got through it all. We had one problem. We discovered a batten car pulled out and so we replaced that. We lost several hours, a bunch of time."
"I am in favour of Hillary Clinton, she is very intelligent, has experience of government. I am for her. I hope things go well today. I will sail better for sure. We are certainly not connected to it by normal means and I feel quite strongly, I have followed it intensely over the last 18 months as the American elections always seem so long. I was involved back in 1988 in the Dukakis campaign, a long time ago, but I have followed it very closely ever since. And we all should. It is how our society represents itself to each other. So I feel quite connected to it even though I am our here. I am all good. I did not get much sleep through the first bit, but I got a couple of naps after we got past the traffic separation zone. In fact I am just writing an essay for our Sites Alive schools programme about marine transportation and that marine traffic separation zone for week two of our curriculum."
Sébastien Josse (Edmond de Rothschild):
"It's very different now from the start, where we were kept busy. During the first night, we really had to stay out on deck in very variable winds. It's more relaxing now and we're able to trim more precisely. I managed to get a meal and have started to take naps. Looking at the conditions at lunchtime today, it's more favourable for PRB than us. Upwind in 8 knots, Vincent (Riou) has the best boat. We on foilers go fast when the wind is on the beam. You have to look at the bigger picture of the round the world voyage. A lot is going to happen with this high to get around. I hope we can get across this ridge of high pressure as quickly as possible, so we can sail on the port tack in the trade winds."
Armel Le Cléac'h (Banque Populaire VIII):
"Conditions have improved after 24 hours of lively weather. During the first night with the variable winds, we got a squall with 35 knot gusts. The boat sped away on her foils. I looked at the dials and it read 32 knots. It didn't last long though. But we must have averaged 28 knots over that 10 minute period. We had hoped to get around the area of high pressure, but it didn't work like that. The high moved faster than us. Whatever happens, it's better to be in front rather than behind. The strategy has changed somewhat since the start. The high is blocking us and the voyage down the Portuguese coast isn't as interesting as we initially thought. We're keeping out to the west to pick up the next lot of wind. When you're dealing with strategy it's for the long term, in particular how to deal with Madeira and the Canaries. We need to choose our position in the coming hours."
Rankings at 0300 UTC:
1 - HUGO BOSS (ALEX THOMSON) - 23774nm distance to finish
2 - BANQUE POPULIARE VIII (ARMEL LE CLEAC'H) - 7,11nm distance to leader
3 - SIMICHEL-VIRBAC (JEAN-PIERRE DICK) - 7,21nm distance to leader
www.vendeeglobe.org/en
"I am getting into the swing of my round the world race" (from Sébastien Josse, Mono60 Edmond de Rothschild)
They have not hung around! After two days at sea, the leading pack in the Vendée Globe is already closing in on the latitude of Lisbon. However, Sébastien Josse has stuck to his word for the start of the race. The skipper of the Mono60 Edmond de Rothschild was keen to set off on a 'marathon' rather than 'sprint' pace given the marathon distance of this round the world race. In this way, he has endeavoured not to put the boat bearing the celebrated five-arrow branding under too much pressure from the outset, especially amidst the lines of squalls that traversed the Bay of Biscay on Sunday night and through into Monday. With the wind oscillating between 10 and 25 knots, the solo sailor has opted to sail with his foils raised in a bid to manoeuvre well and calmly negotiate the tricky section off Cape Finisterre yesterday lunchtime.
Today in the early afternoon, Sébastien Josse was in fifth place some 20.4 miles behind Alex Thomson, who yesterday opted to position himself over to the East with the aim of holding onto more pressure along the coast of Portugal. On the approach to a ridge of high pressure, which is barring the fleet's way to the South, the average speeds have dropped below 8 knots and the big question now is how this zone of light winds will evolve.
The powerful images of the boats exiting the canal out of Les Sables d'Olonne and the great emotion of the start are now behind them, as is the biting cold, which has since given way to Portuguese sunshine. In more manageable conditions, Sébastien Josse was able to send his first images of the open ocean this morning and he also took the time to contact his shore crew: "Right now, the conditions are still fairly irregular and the wind is rather light. It's set to stay that way throughout the day as the ridge of high pressure sprawls over us. It's doing us good as the start of the race was rather tough. It was a boisterous exit from Biscay in the squalls and I've spared no effort. Conditions are such that you sleep little and eat little," he explains. At the Vendée Globe radio link-up at midday, the skipper admitted that he'd managed to rack up just two hours' sleep last night.
Whoever wants to go far spares his steed
This adage was seemingly written for the demanding Vendée Globe, the longest marathon in the history of offshore racing. "It was my idea to sail a prudent race at the start and that's what I've done. The Vendée Globe is long and it isn't won in the Bay of Biscay, though it can be lost there!" Sébastien pointed out. "I've been sailing with the foils raised and clearly the three boats that have made their escape at the front of the pack have not done the same. I have absolutely no regrets about that because today I'm just twenty miles or so behind that group. To my mind there was too much risk involved and not enough gain."
Sailing down the middle
Next up, the entire fleet, with the exception of the Japanese skipper Kojiro Shiraishi and the Dutch skipper Pieter Heerema, opted to pass between the TSS (Traffic Separation System, through which it is prohibited for the Vendée Globe competitors to sail) and the cliffs of La Coruña. Though this course is shorter, the sailor always approaches the zone with a certain apprehension, both in terms of the significant undertow there and the dense maritime shipping, which calls for the utmost vigilance on deck.
Aboard Edmond de Rothschild, Sébastien treated himself to two stellar pirouettes in this zone: "On exiting the TSS at Cape Finisterre, under the gaze of Morgan (Lagravière), the automatic pilot malfunctioned and I crash gybed. Morgan called me up to check I hadn't hurt myself, but no, no injuries, just a stanchion that didn't appreciate the freestyling," explained Sébastien.
In the top trio level with Porto, Alex Thomson and Jean-Pierre Dick chose to gybe in a bid to hunt down more breeze near the coast. "I considered gybing along the coast of Portugal like St Michel and Hugo Boss, but there weren't any real gains to be had. At the start, you could hold onto more pressure but, ultimately, you still have to get in some westing. I've just run the routing on Jean-Pierre's course and our routes are very similar," he continues. The wind is due to kick back in soon and tomorrow the zone of high pressure should have retracted over to the West, opening the door to the tradewinds. In view of the long term strategy, the competitors are already beginning to position themselves for the section encompassing Madeira and the Canaries, which is one of the reasons why a westerly trajectory is appealing.
Close-contact racing
In his video today, the skipper of Edmond de Rothschild offers us a panorama of the skippers within his vicinity. Like us, Sébastien is watching which sails his close rivals are carrying whenever he gets the chance. This source of interrogation will doubtless colour the coming weeks of close-contact racing given how different the forms and the possible sail combinations are from one boat to the next. "Right now, we're bunched together with Vincent (Riou) and Yann (Eliès), within sight of one another, and it's pretty funny because not one of us has the same headsail configuration... We're now going to have to shake off the ridge of high pressure and it'll be essential to get the timing right! For now, I'm gradually getting into the swing of things as a 'round the world sailor' and it's rather enjoyable!" concluded Sébastien Josse.