Vendée Globe Day 82: Multiple Blessings, All Winners
by Vendée Globe 28 Jan 2021 09:33 PST
28 January 2021
"There are two winners in this Vendée Globe" smiled Yannick Bestaven sportingly as he warmly greeted Charlie Dalin, the French skipper who hours earlier had broken the finish line of the solo round the world race in first place.
Granted a 10 hrs 15 mins time allowance for his role in the search and rescue of Kevin Escoffier, Bestaven displaced the pre-race favourite Dalin to win the Vendée Globe by 2hrs 31secs, the narrowest margin ever in the history of the race, earned by the oldest ever winner.
"I am happy to have finished the race in the lead. The English talk about Line 'Honours' and I am happy with that." Dalin, 36, said in his press conference. "What I'm going to remember is that I was first over the line - no one can take it away from me. It's normal for boats that stop to help others to have time compensation and that's out of my control. But whatever the outcome I'm here in front of you now and I'm happy that I've done a good job."
To another man, among the top skippers, there was neither a gripe nor a groan about the time allowances made by the international jury.
"For me the matter is closed and I won't be talking about it again. A human life was saved. End of story." said Louis Burton who slipped from second across the finish to third.
And one of the most heartwarming exchanges was on the gangway to the ponton d'honneur when Escoffier greeted and thanked Bestaven. The two sailors embraced for 30 seconds, the unspoken message being that roles might as easily have been reversed.
But, recalling the time he spent searching for Escoffier in the dark of night 650 miles south of Cape Town, Bestaven recalled, "It was a nightmare, standing on the deck all night looking for someone. I really thought we might not find him."
Germany's Boris Herrmann, who was involved in the search too and was allocated six hours, still managed to bring Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco across the finish line despite damage to his boat sustained from a cruel collision with a fishing boat. The incident happened at 1926hrs CET Wednesday night while Herrmann was 90 miles from the finish and on course for a podium place.
When he reached the finish line in fifth place, his starboard foil slightly crumpled, the side of his hull badly scored and standing rigging damaged, Herrmann's mood was equal measures of relief and contentment to have completed his race.
"I am happy with the result, definitely," remarked Herrmann.
Jean Le Cam is due to finish this evening. With his 16hrs 15mins of time allowance if Le Cam passes the line before 20:34hrs UTC he will take fourth from Herrmann and if he passes only before 20:57hrs he will displace Thomas Ruyant (Linked Out) from fourth.
Rankings at 17H00 UTC:
Pos | Sail No | Skipper / Boat Name | Finish Date & Time |
1
ARV |
FRA 17 | Yannick Bestaven / Maître Coq IV | 28/01/2021 05:19:46 FR |
2
ARV |
FRA 79 | Charlie Dalin / APIVIA | 27/01/2021 21:35:47 FR |
3
ARV |
FRA 18 | Louis Burton / Bureau Vallée 2 | 28/01/2021 01:45:12 FR |
4
ARV |
MON 10 | Boris Herrmann / Seaexplorer ‑ Yacht Club De Monaco | 28/01/2021 12:19:45 FR |
5
ARV |
FRA 59 | Thomas Ruyant / LinkedOut | 28/01/2021 06:42:01 FR |
6
ARV |
FRA 1000 | Damien Seguin / Groupe APICIL | 28/01/2021 13:18:20 FR |
7
ARV |
ITA 34 | Giancarlo Pedote / Prysmian Group | 28/01/2021 14:02:20 FR |
Pos | Sail No | Skipper / Boat Name | DTF (nm) | DTL (nm) |
8 |
FRA 01 | Jean Le Cam / Yes we Cam ! | 45.3 | 0 |
9 |
FRA 09 | Benjamin Dutreux / OMIA ‑ Water Family | 213.5 | 168.2 |
10 |
FRA 53 | Maxime Sorel / V And B Mayenne | 465 | 419.7 |
11 |
FRA 02 | Armel Tripon / L'Occitane en Provence | 649.9 | 604.6 |
12 |
FRA 30 | Clarisse Cremer / Banque Populaire X | 1591.1 | 1545.8 |
13 |
FRA 49 | Romain Attanasio / Pure ‑ Best Western Hotels and Resorts | 2309.5 | 2264.2 |
14 |
FRA 8 | Jérémie Beyou / Charal | 2494.1 | 2448.8 |
15 |
FRA 14 | Arnaud Boissieres / La Mie Câline ‑ Artisans Artipôle | 2934.4 | 2889.1 |
16 |
SUI 7 | Alan Roura / La Fabrique | 3057.7 | 3012.4 |
17 |
JPN 11 | Kojiro Shiraishi / DMG MORI Global One | 3080.1 | 3034.8 |
18 |
FRA 92 | Stéphane Le Diraison / Time For Oceans | 3116.8 | 3071.5 |
19 |
GBR 777 | Pip Hare / Medallia | 3176.4 | 3131.1 |
20 |
ESP 33 | Didac Costa / One Planet One Ocean | 3315 | 3269.7 |
21 |
FRA 71 | Manuel Cousin / Groupe Sétin | 4339.8 | 4294.5 |
22 |
FRA 50 | Miranda Merron / Campagne de France | 4433.8 | 4388.5 |
23 |
FRA 83 | Clément Giraud / Compagnie du lit ‑ Jiliti | 4519.9 | 4474.6 |
24 |
FRA 72 | Alexia Barrier / TSE ‑ 4myplanet | 6088.6 | 6043.3 |
25 |
FIN 222 | Ari Huusela / Stark | 6135.1 | 6089.8 |
RET |
FRA 69 | Sébastien Destremau / Merci | | |
RET |
FRA 27 | Isabelle Joschke / MACSF | | |
RET |
FRA 56 | Fabrice Amedeo / Newrest ‑ Art et Fenetres | | |
RET |
FRA 109 | Samantha Davies / Initiatives ‑ Coeur | | |
RET |
FRA 4 | Sébastien Simon / ARKEA PAPREC | | |
RET |
GBR 99 | Alex Thomson / HUGO BOSS | | |
RET |
FRA 85 | Kevin Escoffier / PRB | | |
RET |
FRA 6 | Nicolas Troussel / CORUM L'Épargne | | |
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