Well done Mike Golding

by Vendee Globe Event Media on 24 Jan 2005 On the seventy eighth day of the race, Vincent Riou (PRB) has a 128.4 mile lead over Jean Le Cam (Bondelle). Mike Golding (Ecover) is in third place, 167.9 miles from the leader.

Mike Golding broke his mainsail halyard for the third time, forcing him to climb back up his mast for the sixth time in this Vendée Globe. Anne Liardet (Roxy) was the fastest in the fleet. Anne is now two days away from Cape Horn.

‘As I’m a gambler, I’m willing to bet ten Euros that he has some sort of problem with his solent stay’ said Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) surprised by the performance of Ecover in moderate winds. Looking at the rankings, not a lot of people would have noticed anything odd, except for Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle), who was slightly surprised to be maintaining his lead over the powerful Ecover without a struggle.

But for the sixth time in this Vendée Globe, Mike had had to climb his mast to replace his mainsail halyard, which broke for the third time in 12 days. ‘It happened early on Friday night. I only had the sail down for two hours, but altogether, the repair took me 22 hours.’ Using his gennaker halyard to hoist his mainsail from the first reef in order to avoid losing too many miles, Mike tried to work out the cause of these repeated incidents with his shore team. ‘I don’t think it was a problem with the boat, but rather with the rope. So this time I put a stronger halyard in place, which should hold. It can hold a strain of four tonnes more (editor’s note:12 tonnes instead of eight). Now, I’m feeling more confident and I trust this new halyard.’

Coaxed on by his shore team, Mike once again found the energy to climb back up in choppy seas. We can now understand better why he was unwilling to take part in yesterday’s radio session, especially seeing he hates climbing the 26-m high mast. In the rankings, it’s very clear. Mike was only 39.5 miles astern of Bonduelle in the 3 pm. rankings, 167.9 miles astern of PRB, so this recent damage went almost unnoticed. Well done, Mike!

Vincent Riou serene: -
‘I’m the first to draw near to the high-pressure area, so it’s only logical that Bonduelle and Ecover are grabbing back some miles from me. That is likely to continue for another 24 hours.’ 173.4 miles ahead of Jean Le Cam in the rankings at 3 pm. yesterday and 128.4 miles today. Things are starting to slow down at the front and Vincent is the first to fall under the influence of this mass of hot air that he will be rounding on the western side trying to look for favourable winds. ‘We’ve two highs to deal with. There’s no room for any error. Firstly, we’ll be sailing on the edge of a high, then we’ll have to cross another via the south. It’s true that the high is dominating, but in theory there’s always a pressure difference. It doesn’t look like there’s any solution to the east, and the west isn’t too extreme, so there’s nothing really unusual.’ The situation appears to be under control for the sailor from Loctudy.
We should add that this is a situation, exactly like he was forecasting yesterday. ‘Once we have rounded the western side of this first high-pressure area, we’ll be heading up towards a second high, currently centred over Ireland. The wind will be coming towards us and we’ll have to sail upwind and then with the wind on the beam to get back to Les Sables d’Olonne.’

While it all sounds so simple, it’s not over yet. If in the end, the tactical choices seem limited, it all could be played out now by exploiting the full potential of the boats and the physical capacity of the competitors, giving their all after 78 days at sea. The final run for home will be very exciting, especially as Mike Golding has found his strength again.

Anne Liardet was the fastest in the fleet. Sébastien Josse (VMI) has been gliding along slowly in the Northern Hemisphere since the middle of the day and Dominique Wavre (Temenos) will be following him later today. Meanwhile, Anne Liardet (Roxy) is fast approaching her second Cape Horn. Having covered 277 miles in 24 hours at an average speed of 11.5 knots, Anne was the fastest sailor of the fourteen still left in the race. Less than 700 miles from the legendary rock, she should be rounding it during the day on Tuesday. ‘The seas were very heavy yesterday, but it’s calmed down now. I had seven to eight metre troughs with some waves up to ten metres high in the 45-knot squalls. It was nerve-racking. Roxy is behaving very well. She’s quite astonishing.’

Some fine sailing for Anne, as for Raphaël Dinelli (Akena Vérandas) and Karen Leibovici (Benefic), who are also getting close to the Horn. While Raphaël should be reaching it on Wednesday, Karen can only hope to say a few words in Spanish to the lighthouse keeper at the end of the world towards the end of the week.

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