Christopher Pratt: A perfect Vendée Globe so far and a fascinating design race at the front
by Ed Gorman / IMOCA Globe Series 28 Nov 2024 07:01 AEDT
Sébastien Simon on Groupe Dubreuil - Vendée Globe 2024 © Sébastien Simon
Like everyone else who has been gripped by what has been an extraordinary 10th edition of the Vendée Globe so far, the French sailor Christopher Pratt has been glued to the action as the leading boats have boarded the powertrain to the Cape of Good Hope.
Pratt, aged 43 and originally from Marseille, has raced extensively with Team Holcim-PRB, Team V and B-Monbana-Mayenne and was part of the Malizia-Seaexplorer Ocean Race crew in 2023. In 2021, he also sailed with the Charal skipper Jérémie Beyou (currently in fifth place). He says conditions in the South Atlantic have been absolutely perfect.
"They have had the perfect wind angle and the perfect wind speed and the sea-state has been pretty nice, but it's been getting worse and worse. It was relatively flat and that's what's allowed six boats to break the 24-hour record," Pratt told the Class.
His comments came as Sébastien Simon, on Groupe Dubreuil in third place (+52.1), took the 24-hour solo distance record to new heights today, with an astonishing unofficial mark of 613.33 nautical miles at an average speed of 25.56 knots.
"These boats are completely amazing in these types of conditions," added Pratt, who reached the podium in both the 2019 and the 2021 editions of the Transat Jacques Vabre alongside Beyou. "If you imagine they are reaching 23-24 knots of average speed, that means that a lot of the time they are hitting 30 knots to make those averages.
"It's really impressive and what is amazing now is that the two Antoine Koch/Finot Conq designs - sailed by second-placed Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) and fourth-placed Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) - look like they are a bit more comfy for their skippers when they are reaching these kinds of speeds than the other boats."
Pratt says the older boats in the top-15 from the last Vendée Globe - like Sam Goodchild's VULNERABLE, currently in seventh position (+180), and Justine Mettraux's TeamWork-Team SNEF in 13th (+584) - have struggled to keep pace with the new generation of foilers.
"When we saw the boats accelerate, it was hard for those older ones to follow the pace and so it is really a matter of how much you can cope with these types of conditions, and also how the trim of the boat is, and its ability to go fast, even when the sea state is not flat," he said.
And Pratt is particularly interested in the design race that we are seeing among the newest boats, as race leader Charlie Dalin on his Guillame Verdier foiler, MACIF Santé Prévoyance, takes on the two Koch/Finot Conq boats. "What's interesting in terms of design philosophy was that the approach by Antoine Koch for Yoann and Thomas was to have a boat set up for the Southern Ocean. The philosophy for Guillaume Verdier and Charlie was more about having a boat that is able to do everything well - and with no gaps in the performance spectrum, even if it's light winds.
"So, if we do an assessment at the end of this Atlantic section, what we can say is that Guillaume and Charlie win this bet because they designed a boat to be first to tackle the low pressure systems and enter the Indian Ocean with quite an advantage. On the other hand, Yoann and Thomas will have a less than a 100-mile gap to him and they probably have better boats for the Southern Ocean for the next four or five weeks ahead."
Pratt says the surprise package of the race so far has been Sébastien Simon who has been fully dialled-in with his boat from the start. "He is doing a good race, he has almost been in the top-3 or top-5 since the beginning in every different type of conditions," he said. "He is always fast, he has made really good and clean routing decisions. We can say he is sailing at his best and it is really nice to see."
By contrast, Pratt says it has been a much tougher start to his second Vendée Globe for the German skipper Boris Herrmann whose Malizia-Seaexplorer lies in 11th position, 507 miles off the pace, and is likely to be many more miles behind by the time the leaders reach the Southern Ocean.
"I am a bit disappointed for Boris because I think he has to be in the group of six or seven boats ahead. He struggled a bit in the light pressure system around Madeira and the Canaries. But I think the boat and Boris himself have a really good ability to sail fast in the Southern Ocean and I will not be surprised if he is leading the fleet by the end of the Southern Ocean. But, for sure, he is going to reach the Cape of Good Hope with probably an 800-1,000 mile deficit on the leader which is a bit too much," said Pratt.
As far as what happens next is concerned, Pratt says the routing is not clear in terms of when the leaders will finally lose touch with the low pressure system that has brought them all the way from the Brazilian coast across the south Atlantic.
"It's really hard to time the moment when the low pressure system will pass," he said. "It's really hard because if they go one or two knots faster, they can stay with it for many more miles. Even for the skippers it's hard to know when they will have to gybe south after this low pressure system."
Out on the racecourse, the IMOCA Class also spoke to the Guyot Environnement-Water Family skipper, Benjamin Dutreux of France. He is currently in a rather lonely 14th position, about 720 miles behind Dalin and 135 miles behind Mettraux in 13th.
The 34-year-old Ocean Race skipper, sailing the former Hugo Boss from 2015, says he is enjoying his second Vendée Globe, but would prefer not to be isolated in the fleet. "I do prefer being in contact with others - it's always a bit more enjoyable - but otherwise, the race is going well. We're making good progress heading towards the Cape of Good Hope."
He said the difficult part for him at the moment will be watching the leading group stretch their advantage over trailing boats like his. "I don't know what will happen next, but I do know that in the coming days the gap with the boats ahead will keep widening. That's going to be a bit hard to deal with - that frustration. For me, that's going to be the toughest thing to handle," he said.
But Dutreux still believes a top-10 finish, which was his goal before the start, is doable. "For now, I'm at the place I should be with my boat," he said. "So the race is going smoothly for us so far. It's still a long way to go, so I just need to keep navigating well like this and hopefully things will fall into place naturally."
We asked him what he believes is the main lesson he learned from his first Vendée Globe when he finished ninth. "What I've learned more now is how to go fast, to hit the gas and accelerate sometimes. But it's also a bit less comfortable," he said.
But he also said finding the balance between speed and looking after the boat is never easy. "Out here, you always want to keep pushing harder and harder," said Dutreux. "But you have to manage the boat carefully too and make sure it's comfortable. So I'm trying to hold back at times and not push the boat too hard, reminding myself that not all boats are the same and that, if I push mine at the same pace, it suffers a lot more."
Record-Breaking Spree
Driven by the depression propelling them ever faster, the six frontrunners of the race continue to smash records.
Today, it's Sébastien Simon who makes history, setting a staggering new record* by becoming the first solo sailor on a monohull to surpass the milestone of 600 nautical miles covered in 24 hours. Between 3:00 PM yesterday and the same time today (French time), the skipper of Groupe Dubreuil recorded an incredible distance of 615.33 nautical miles (equivalent to 1,139.6 kilometers) at an astonishing average speed of 25.64 knots.
With this outstanding performance, Sébastien Simon obliterates the previous record held by Yoann Richomme, who had covered 579.86 nautical miles between November 24 and 25 during the same event. Simon's achievement represents an improvement of 35.47 nautical miles.
*Pending official certification by the WSSRC (World Sailing Speed Record Council).
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