Vendee Globe summary - Dismastings, rescues and battling on to the end

by Vendee Globe media on 17 Mar 2009
From 9th November 2008 to the 15th March 2009 - here is a brief summary of the major events in this sixth Vendée Globe, which was won by Michel Desjoyeaux on Foncia on 1st February. The Austrian, Norbert Sedlacek brought the race to an end 42 days later by completing his round the world voyage yesterday.

9th November: The Race of the Century begins: 30 skippers, including 19 new boats and just as many favourites set out on the non-stop solo round the world voyage. The moderate south-westerly wind soon increased to a major storm in the Bay of Biscay. Four skippers returned to Les Sables d’Olonne after a few hours of racing to repair after suffering damage: Dominique Wavre, Bernard Stamm, Alex Thomson and… Michel Desjoyeaux.

11th November: The storm was a real blow and merciless: Groupe Bel, Aquarelle.com and DCNS were dismasted. A huge disappointment for Kito de Pavant, Yannick Bestaven and Marc Thiercelin. Two days later, it was Alex Thomson's turn to announce that he too was forced to retire… while Michel Desjoyeaux set sail again after some quick repairs. Then, Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty and Derek Hatfield had to return to carry out repairs. The fleet was led at that point by Loïck Peyron, Sébastien Josse and Jean-Pierre Dick…

21st November: In the lead for 8 days, Loïck Peyron was the first to cross the Equator. In the Doldrums, the gaps were still very small: the first five were within 30 miles of each other and the first twelve within 200 miles… and this close-contact racing would continue until the Indian Ocean. Apart from Loïck Peyron (Gitana Eighty), at the front we could find Sébastien Josse (BT), Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), Armel Le Cléac’h (Brit Air), Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux), Vincent Riou (PRB), Yann Eliès (Generali), Jérémie Beyou (Delta Dore) and Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement)… The St. Helena high was stretching out and forcing them to extend their route. Desjoyeaux had already made up half of his deficit, which was down to 330 miles.

26th November: Jérémie Beyou was forced to retire in Brazil with broken spreaders on his Delta Dore. Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty set sail again from Les Sables d’Olonne. Sébastien Josse grabbed the lead. Armel Le Cléac’h was in third place.

4th December: Michel Desjoyeaux was already back in the top ten. The speed was on in the Roaring Forties, with daily speeds above 18 knots.

6th December: Sébastien Josse became the first to enter the Indian Ocean, just as the first ice gate was moved because of the presence of icebergs. The race ended for the Basque, Unaï Basurko (Pakea Bizkaia) on 7th December after his starboard rudder broke. He was to be the sixth competitor to be forced out of the race. Desjoyeaux was back to within 100 miles of the leader.

10th December: Loïck Peyron's Gitana Eighty was dismasted and he retired five days later. Yet another favourite out of the race. Only 23 boats were left in the race. Jean-Pierre Dick took the lead in the Vendée Globe.

12th December: The keel head broke on Temenos II. Dominique Wavre headed for the Kerguelens, where he was joined by Bernard Stamm (damaged bowsprit and rudders on Cheminées Poujoulat). A horrible pit stop for Bernard Stamm: in the storm his boat was washed onto the rocks and smashed. The two Swiss sailors were forced out. Mike Golding took the lead… but just for a few hours, as Ecover was also dismasted.

16th December: Mike Golding also out. At the rear, the youngest entrant Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty was also forced to retire (various damage) and there were only 19 boats left out of the 30 after a month and a half of racing. Michel Desjoyeaux took the lead… and would never relinquish it right up to the finish line. Meanwhile, the rudder on Paprec-Virbac 2 suffered damage and Jean-Pierre Dick headed north to carry out some complicated repairs, which were however successful.

18th to 20th December: The race took a dramatic turn. Yann Eliès was seriously injured in a manoeuvre on the bow and was suffering horribly on his Generali, 800 miles to the south of Australia. Marc Guillemot was diverted, Samantha Davies too, but only 'Marco' would reach Yann before the Australian rescue team. After 48 hours of suffering the frigate Arunta took off Yann and transported him to hospital where his broken femur was operated on. It was then realised that he also had a fractured pelvis and ribs. A wave of emotion swept around the world when Marc Guillemot told everyone what was going on and filmed the rescue of his friend. And then there were eighteen.

23rd December: 44th day of the race. Halfway through the race. Michel Desjoyeaux was the first to cross the International Date Line to the south of New Zealand. As they entered the Pacific, Jourdain, Josse and Le Cam tried to follow the pace set by Desjoyeaux, followed by two duos: Riou/Le Cléac’h and Davies/Guillemot. The latter was to stop on Christmas Day in the Auckland Islands to try to repair his damaged mast track.

27th December: Another of the leaders was forced out! Sébastien Josse's boat was knocked down by a huge wave and sustained damage to the steering. 'Jojo' was unable to carry out repairs. He signalled his retirement on 29th December… He was followed an hour and a half later by the Canadian, Derek Hatfield, whose spreaders had broken. They were down to sixteen. Michel Desjoyeaux, still at the front, increased his lead in each rankings. Only Roland Jourdain and Jean Le Cam managed to keep up. Winds in excess of 45 knots were common.

1st January: Yet another incident. Jean-Pierre Dick was forced to retire from the race. The day before, he had hit a growler and this time it was to be definitive. On the 53rd day of the race, only half of the fleet that had started out – 15 boats – were still racing. The leading seven were Michel Desjoyeaux, Roland Jourdain, Jean Le Cam, Armel Le Cléac’h, Vincent Riou, Marc Guillemot and Samantha Davies – the English sailor, who had astonished everyone since the start with her humour and sheer joy of racing. The future winner was of course among them and we had already worked out it would be someone from the three at the front.

5th January: At 3h10, Foncia rounded the Horn after 56 days and 15 hours, so two hours less than Jean Le Cam in 2005. A superb performance, as the Ice Gates extended the race course by more than 1150 miles this year. Roland Jourdain followed Desjoyeaux 8 hours and 50 minutes later. The day before, Jonny Malbon (Artemis) retired with a damaged mainsail. 14 sailors were still racing.

6th January: No answer from Jean Le Cam. 200 miles from the Horn, VM Matériaux lost her keel bulb and capsized. An oil tanker was diverted and marked the position. Armel le Cléac’h and Vincent Riou headed to the zone. Vincent Riou managed to recover Jean twenty hours later … but an outrigger broke during the manoeuvre… and PRB was dismasted as the two skippers headed for Chile. Another couple of favourites out of the running. The episode gave rise to an unprecedented decision from the International Jury: Vincent Riou was to be ranked third - redress granted, without that having any impact on the rankings for the other participants. This Vendée Globe will therefore have two boats ranked third. There were only twelve boats left in the race.

9th January: Veolia Environnement collided with a whale. Cracks appeared at the foot of the mast and around the keel box. In second place, 178 miles from the leader, Roland Jourdain was the only one left with a real hope of challenging Michel Desjoyeaux. The duel took place in the climb back up the South Atlantic, but from a distance, in spite of the repairs, which appeared to be satisfactory initially.

11th January: Samantha Davies rounded the Horn in 4th place after Desjoyeaux, Jourdain and Le Cléac’h. We knew then that we would need to take out our calculators at the finish, as with the redress given for the rescue of Yann Eli