Both Josse and Hatfield officially retire from Vendee Globe

by Vendee Globe on 30 Dec 2008
After suffering damage which they cannot repair at sea Sébastien Josse and Derek Hatfield, CAN, confirmed today that that have retired from the Vendée Globe. Josse sustained rudder damage as well as cracking to the coachroof and a bulkhead on BT when he was capsized on Boxing Day. Hatfield is heading towards Tasmania with broken spreaders, also the victim of a capsize by huge seas.

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) grows his lead to 93.6 miles over Roland Jourdain.

Given the damage that both had sustained it was not a surprise when both Sebastien Josse and Derek Hatfield, CAN retired from the Vendée Globe today, but that in no way lessens the blow.

Their preparations, pre-Vendee Globe experiences and budgets may have been worlds apart but both skippers sustained their damage in the same way, toppled by huge waves 3000 miles apart in different oceans, Hatfield in the Indian Ocean and Josse in the Pacific.

Both contributed equally and enormously to what has already proven an immensely challenging sixth edition of this race, now with 16 of the 30 entrants who started in Les Sables d’Olonne 50 days ago, still racing.

Josse lead the race for eight days, has been one of the pace-makers since he moved into second place on the second day of the race and last lead on the 10th December on the approach to the Kerguelen Islands.

His Farr designed boat was built in-house in Cowes by Offshore Challenges and had been worked up over tens of thousands of ocean miles and had proven her reliability before falling victim to one huge wave.

Hatfield’s race was financed by small individual ‘shareholders’ in his dream, donors and sponsors, thousands of whom shared his vision and put their name on the hull of his Owen Clarke design which he built himself to a tight budget. He was forced to return to Les Sables d’Olonne with electrical problems as well as a damaged mast track. There he had to rely on the goodwill of other teams to get the Canadian skipper back in the race, starting some four and a half days after the race started officially.

Josse’s twisted rudder needs a specialist high-tech boat-builders’ attention, while the two broken spreaders which Hatefield sustained mean he must nurse his mast to Australia.

Tonight their anguish and pain is the same, both with over 1000 miles to sail at very reduced speeds – Josse approaching New Zealand from the east, Hatfield approaching Tasmania from the West.

For those on the race course now, there is perhaps a time for consolidation and a chance to modify or re-state their ambitions. Those at the back of the fleet have some respite from the horrendous conditions they have suffered, with depression after depression not just huge waves but confused, cross sea-ways which have made it particularly grueling, while those at the front got off no lighter over Christmas and Boxing Day with infernal conditions.

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia) remains in control at the front of the pack, 93.6 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) in second place, Jean Le Cam (VM Matériaux) in third is 280 miles behind. Desjoyeaux has about 2300 miles to sail to Cape Horn, 740 miles to the SE Pacific security gate.

Sam Davies, GBR (Roxy), now seventh as of today, reported today that she has set Roxy’s speed controls to ‘Kick-Ass’ mode as she seeks to elicit as much speed as she can while the condition remain favourable.

Her British female counterpart Dee Caffari, (Aviva) may have fallen to Arnaud Boissières (Akena Verandas), dropping three miles behind the French skipper this afternoon, but her mood was buoyed susbstantially when a group of friends flew over Aviva from nearby South Island, New Zealand to give her a big surprise.

Caffari, Brian Thompson, GBR (Bahrain Team Pindar) and Boissieres should all pass the International Date line tonight. Thompson is now more than seventy miles ahead of Caffari and is in ninth place. Steve White, GBR, (Toe in the Water) is 310 miles SW of South Island New Zealand, in 13th place and admitted that he is now finding time to learn French from the popular audio lessons of Michel Thomas, while Jonny Malbon sounded upbeat and delighted to have ridden out the recent storms on Artemis II, now looking to get back to sailing the Simon Rogers design at speed, rather than simply surviving the weather.

Seb Josse: 'The project has been worked on for a long time. We worked to get a boat in the best of shape. I didn't take too many risks and push too hard. Ironically I played it safe and a huge wave got the better of me. It doesn't take much to upset your plans in these extreme conditions. Some have got through in spite of being knocked down.'

'Not having the total control of the boat means there is no way I can back south and head for Cape Horn without gambling with my safety and that of the boat. If the boat starts to surf and I cannot prevent a wipeout because of the failed steering system, it can lead to a dismasting in a matter of seconds, not forgetting the coachroof is still quite weak and could easily be completely broken in such circumstances. Abandoning the race and heading for New Zealand is of course a huge disappointment not only for me.'

'Now I try to to look forward, and to winning the IMOCA races in 2009. I will plot my course to New Zealand now, and try to look forward.'

Roland Jourdain (Veolia Environnement) must be telling himself that there rare two ways of looking at what is happening as he pursues Michel Desjoyeaux: on the one hand, they are setting the pace and increasing their lead with each rankings, but on the other hand, he must be wondering if this might lead to compromising his own equipment and performance and maybe there is scope to consolidate a little

Jean Le Cam, flying solo now in third place, since he lost his running mate Sébastien Josse, can only work hard in his role as distant spectator.

Annoyed and frustrated, he can see the two frontrunners getting away in a different weather system. While the two leaders are benefiting from strong NW'ly winds enabling them to reach the East pacific Gate, the skipper of VM Matériaux is having to deal with a west to SW'ly wind that is slackening off.

While the Gate being moved northwards from 52° to 44° south initially looks favourable for the two leaders, it could well be different as they sail south east the Horn. A NW'ly wind would force the sailors with the wind from astern to see tactical downwind race. And we all know a gybe that goes wrong can easily lead to broken battens, causing hours of extra work lowering the sail, replacing the battens and hoisting the mainsail again.

Desjoyeaux is 706 miles to the gate, with Roland Jourdain quickest tonight, some 40 miles to the south of Foncia’s track. The latest estimates are for the leaders to round the Horn on 4th or 5th January.

Meantime Marc Guillemot has Safran on song this evening making 16.9 knots in pursuit of Sam Davies who is 470 miles ahead of him. Safran has been third quickest in the fleet between the two polls.

Brian Thompson has will hit the date line at 180 degrees within the next couple of hours where east meets west, and his W’ly longitude starts falling, a much surer reminder that he is on the long homeward half, than passing any theoretically computed and re-computed mid point.

Norbert Sedlacek has still 170 miles to run to pass Cape Leeuwin.

Jean-Pierre Dick (Paprec-Virbac 2): 'Night has fallen and I'm trying to make headway as best I can. I'm a little skeptical still about it, but for the moment it's OK. I'm still worried about the rudder stock. Some pieces of carbon have broken off, but it's still holding. I have to keep monitoring it. A day and a half ago, it broke. I had to get the tools out. Tomorrow I should be able to carry out better repairs with the ruder out of the water for 12 h. I can't hide the fact that I'm annoyed, but my goal is to complete