Michel Desjoyeaux takes over Vendee Globe lead

by Event media on 17 Dec 2008
Mike Golding plans to set a jury rig and head to an Australian port within 24-48 hours once the next storm has passed. Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) now leads, completing his remarkable recovery from last place to the head of the fleet in 35 days. At one point he had a deficit of 670 miles to the leaders.

After leading the Vendée Globe for just around six hours, one vicious squall of nearly 50 knots took down Mike Golding’s mast Tuesday morning. In less than two short minutes the British skipper’s seemingly cursed luck had struck again and the race which he has spent four years preparing for was over.

Golding is the latest to be forced out of the race since last Wednesday when Loïck Peyron lost his mast. Since then Dominique Wavre, SUI (Temenos II) had his his keel head snap off then Bernard Stamm, SUI, (Cheminées Poujoulat) suffered rudder bearings failure before being holed overnight whilst trying to moor in the Kerguelen Islands.

Yesterday it was Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), leader for more than a week, who confirmed he had hit something and had damaged his rudder head mechanisms.

This morning’s shock news that Golding’s rig had been brought down was followed by Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty’s decision to abandon, heading north with Groupe Maisoneuve suffering from a compound series of problems.

After sailing in 40 knot winds with two reefs and a staysail, Golding had been in settled 20-25 knots winds for a matter of hours before he decided to set his large reaching headsail. He had been sailing for over two hours with this sail configuration and said later that he had never been overpowered.

He was down below at his nav station checking the meteorology files when a combination of a sudden, unexpected squall and a big wave which dragged the stern off the boat off course, knocked the boat nearly flat. Golding had no time to regain control and the strain of accelerating down the wave at over 30 knots, fully powered up was too much for the mast which gave way.

'It was knocked by a wave, not knocked flat so it was still powered up. The first thing you do with a gust is dial the pilot down while you work out if you have to do something about it or you can sit it out. There are very awkward seas and a big sea just pushed the stern round, so the boat was probably at 120-130 degrees and so the boat was very powered up at that point.'

Explained a devastated Golding later, 'The rig gave way very quickly so it was over in seconds. On the data feed you can see the wind gear stops at 49 knots and the boat speed was 30 knots. So it is just an overload on the rig. I wasn’t expecting the squall.'

'The boat took off down the wave. I was at the nav station doing some met. The boat took off and I hit the pilot button, dialled down a bit, the boat swung round on the sea, I grabbed my jacket, opened the hatch and Bang. You can see it on the data chart it is just an amazing progression of the line and then just goes off the chart. The wind speed is 49 knots and the boat speed is 30 knots. It is pretty crazy.'

'The time span of the acceleration from the gust starting to the rig going is two minutes, from the original gust.'

A numb, devastated Golding admitted later that though he had finally made it back into the lead of the race, as he did twice in 2004 before broken halyards robbed him of his chances of winning, he at no time had thought he had buried his Vendée Globe ghosts this time. It is the third time he has been dismasted in four consecutive solo round the world races.

And just as Golding had profited from the misfortune of Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2), so Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) seized the lead on the 10:00hrs standings this morning.

Completing his own remarkable last-to-first recovery with a blazing 24 hr run of 466.6 miles which took him to within 2.1 miles of Alex Thomson’s 2003 24h record set in on the Le Défi Transatlantic race. Desjoyeaux is 14 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement), with Seb Josse (BT) 43.3 miles behind the leader.

Mike Golding, GBR (Ecover 3):

'It is not a rig problem, there as too much sail up in too much wind. I did not even have time to get to the sheet to the winch to ease the sheet. Just looking at it after, the runner was pulled so hard that it stretched itself around the winch, and pulled the mark which is usually at the winch two feet. It is not a rig or a mast issue, it is just a simple case of force majeur.'

Asked if he thought that the pace of the race had contributed to his rig failure he said:

Did he think the pace contributed?

'It would be nice to think so, but no. But there was no sign of any backing off. To be honest the fleet was fairly conservative until Mich (Michel Desjoyeaux) arrived. Mich has pushed the gears up, without a question.'

Vendee Globe ranking - 15:00 HRS GMT. (FRA, unless stated)

1. Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) at + 13680 miles
2. Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) at 14 miles
3. Seb Josse (BT) at + 43.3 miles
4. Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) at + 61.9 miles
5. Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2) at + 92.4 miles

Selected International

10. Sam Davies, GBR, (ROXY) at + 900.3 miles
11. Brian Thompson, GBR, (Bahrain Team Pindar) at + 1003.4 miles
12. Dee Caffari, GBR, (AVIVA) at + 1330 miles
14. Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) at + 1863.3 miles
15. Johnny Malbon, GBR, (Artemis) at + 2209.9 miles
16. Rich Wilson, USA, (Great American III) at + 2316 miles
17. Derek Hatfield, CAN, (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) at + 2623 miles
19. Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, (Nauticsport.Kapsch) + 3142 miles