Hatfield restarts, Wilson moves up - Vendee Globe

by Vendee Globe media on 15 Nov 2008
Experience is telling at the front of the Vendee Globe pack on, and among those chasing too. Over five days in and if the young guns are not exactly wilting under the pressure, there were a few prepared to at least pay their respects to the old hands.

Loick Peyron, 48, whose extensive honours include three Transat wins and the 2007 TJV with Jean-Pierre Dick, and Le Cam, 49, lie first and second. Mike Golding, 47, GBR, is still gaining and is up to ninth again – recording the highest 24h mileage and top VMG in the fleet.

With the Canaries astern and sighting 500 miles down the track to the Cape Verde Islands, Peyron’s lead on Gitana Eighty is 26.4 miles tonight with Le Cam (VM Matériaux), who was the only one of the leading five to go east of Madeira, still holding in there in second, but the new standings show Peyron speeding up again.

Ecover 3 rises to ninth and is still gaining on Brian Thompson, GBR, on Bahrain Team Pindar, making a further 16.4 miles on this sched.

To the east, inshore, Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III), the elder statesman of this race is moving up through the gears too, advancing on Unai Basurko, ESP, (Pakea Bizkaia) who remains closest to the Moroccan coast. They are 21st and 22nd respectively and both reported today that they are enjoying good sailing.

Wilson reported: 'I found that I couldn't carry the sail that I thought I should be able to carry, because the pilot couldn't hold the boat if it started to broach. Thus we were giving away speed. After much reading in the manual, and a consultation with our electronics advisor ashore, I made two adjustments. Both seemed improvements, and I went back into the program and changed the two settings again. We have more speed now, and more potential speed, so we'll see in the next day or so if I can catch up a bit. The hoisting of the main is very painful for my back, so I have to be very careful'

Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) has had a solid first day back on the race track, making 170 miles since he started very early this morning, on the early tide in Les Sables d’Olonne.