Vendée Globe – Day 89 – Same but different

by Vendée Globe on 2 Feb 2017 After conquering the southern oceans for his first time, sailing a smart, assured race on his trusted, reliable IMOCA Bureau Vallée which he has had since 2011, the youngest skipper so far to finish this eighth edition of the Vendée Globe, Louis Burton, confirmed today ‘I am a different person.'

Seventh placed Burton told of how he and his team had exceeded his expectations, his huge smiles radiating out to a warm hearted, appreciative press and public reception which was packed with the extended Burton and Escoffier families, sailing friends and supporters. Burton explained how he and his team had reached the high level of reliability which has underpinned his race. He had no major breakdowns at all and returns with all his sails intact.

“We worked on the reliability of the boat for five seasons. We completed all our transatlantic races. We never thought about going too far with the equipment or increasing her power. The important thing was getting 100% out of her first and gaining experience. There was a lot to learn. I don't come from the Figaro circuit. So we were aiming for a solid boat that could withstand being battered for weeks on end.” Burton will take all his experience forwards to 2020. He is already the first skipper to be signed up and Bureau Vallée 2, the boat which has just won this Vendée Globe, awaits him.

If Burton is changed for the experience, it is doubtful the make up, the hard wiring of Nandor Fa will not be changed much by his second Vendée Globe. His life will be so much more enriched and satisfied for completing his race, but the tough 62 year old has southern ocean salt water in his veins. He is on course to take a remarkable eighth place on Tuesday afternoon on the Spirit of Hungary IMOCA he designed and gave birth to himself. After the youngest skipper to finish he will be the oldest yet. Frustrated by light winds in the Azores anticyclone, slowed for three long days, at midday today he was not too pleased to be climbing NW, still unable to point towards Les Sables d'Olonne. But Fa should emerge into brisker conditions tonight, 25-30kts from the west.

“But it is very difficult. The winds are not blowing from where the weather chart shows it should be coming. Theoretically I will get some W'ly winds from this low pressure system which is to the north of me. So I will be in the lower part, in the W'ly winds and I will move and in five days, theoretically on the seventh in the afternoon I will arrive. But I can't necessarily believe that. That is my weather situation. But now it is as complex for me to read the wind as at any time in my life. In this situation it is just very difficult for me to even think about the finish. There is a finishing line in Les Sables d'Olonne but it is feeling so difficult to reach at the moment I cannot think about it. I am feeling my way here,” Fa told the Les Sables d'Olonne audience today.

Extracts from today's radio sessions

Nandor Fa (Spirit of Hungary):
“I am sitting here and making the routing, downloading the latest GRIB files and looking to Les Sables d'Olonne. It is still very frustrating, very light and hard to stay moving. I have been trying to escape from this high pressure system for three days. I am fighting for every single mile. I had time enough to check everything on the boat. I have done all the last checks and took out the water in the different compartments, a few unnecessary litres of water. I checked all the screws. There was one screw (bolt) in the rudder which was loose and I fixed it. Now I cant wait to get back and see my wife and my beautiful girls.”

Eric Bellion (CommeUnSeulHomme):
“I've just had a tricky period sailing in the strong trade winds blowing at 28-35 knots. For several days I haven't seen the sun. It wasn't very comfortable reaching like that and was particularly bad for the boat. It's hard to stand up and you easily get injured. Each movement is hard. I wasn't expecting it to be so hard in this part. This third part is the hardest. The wind eased a bit during the night. It's now down to 20-25 knots and the seas are smoother and the sun is out. The idea is still the same – to sail cautiously, take care of the boat and see how far how I can go. I'm not interested in the rankings. The boat is so exceptional that it doesn't take much for her to be fast. I still have the Doldrums to deal with and then the Atlantic lows and am beginning to feel tired as you have to keep at it all the time. The routing is indicating the tenth, but I think it is more likely to be the weekend of the eleventh or twelfth.”

Sébastien Destremau (TechnoFirst–faceOcean):
“We have had a lot of good downwind sailing since the Horn, but now for a few hours we have been upwind, but it shouldn't last too long before 900 miles or so of downwind sailing to get to the Equator, which is good, as sailing upwind in these boats is not that pleasant. I have to get my engine started to recharge my batteries and to move the ballast and to do that I have to pull on a cord like a lawnmower. It takes a lot of work with the sails and then adjusting the engine. It takes between 30 minutes and 90 minutes to get it started. With the solar panels and the hydrogenerators, I'm more or less self-sufficient, but I need the engine to adjust my ballast. So I don't have to deal with that problem that often. And we're heading north and progressing well and the boat is in good condition.”