Vendée Globe Race Friday Update: Cape Horn Cavalcade

by Vendée Globe media 27 Dec 2024 10:40 PST 27 December 2024

Thomas Ruyant on Vulnerable - Vendée Globe 2024 © Thomas Ruyant

With just 238 miles between fifth placed Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and 11th positioned Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V) a veritable cavalcade of Vendée Globe skippers will pass Cape Horn tomorrow.

At forecast speeds they should pass with 12 or 13 hours from early Saturday morning in a more compact grouping in the end than the last edition when nine skippers passed within 25 hours, all on or around Day 57.

Approaching his seventh rounding of the Horn, Germany's Boris Herrmann has the highest number of passages to his credit of this gorup, set to cross in eighth, whilst it will be the first time solo for sixth placed Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB), eighth placed Paul Meilhat (Biotherm), ninth placed Brit Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) and Switzerland's 10th placed Justine Mettraux (TeamWork Team Snef). They should cross quite far off the rock given the brisk conditions they will be experiencing and certainly the first will still be in the dark.

Cape Frio conundrum

After crossing a light winds zone leaders Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) and Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prevoyance) are back up to speeds of over 20 knots. Their priority today has been to go around a small depression to their north while carefully avoiding the calm zone in its centre. Crossing the semi permanent cold front at Cabo Frio will be the topic of one of their key decisions upcoming which could well influence who gets to the tradewinds first even if they are not that well established.

In the meantime the winds will be quite strong off the South American coast,

"We will have to decide this evening which route to take and it is not easy. There are large areas of light winds and they move around a lot. From one weather file to another, it varies considerably," analysed Dalin, meanwhile they are on what he called "rodeo on an Argentinian bull." But other than being over 600 miles ahead of third placed Seb Simon and only a dozen or so miles behind Richomme, the top pair are happy as the temperatures are finally rising, Dalin expecting to get out of his thermals soon and into his t-shirt. Both are now clear of the Antarctic Exclusion Zone, which he compares to a noisy neighbor that he is happy to final part company with. Dalin conforms a fast climb up South America Recife - on the NE corner of Brazil - in just one week, with the added bonus of a possible finish now talked of being into Les Sables d'Olonne around January 14 or 15.

Heer and Cornic in storm mode

Between Tasmania and New Zealand, Switzeland's Oliver Heer (Tut Gut) and Antoine Cornic (Human Immobilier) have about 12-18 hours in tough conditions in a big low. "I'm already seeing 44kts gustng to 47 with 6.5 metre seas and it is only going to get worse." Noted Heer.

And further east Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) is staying north to avoid a system which Benjamin Dutreux (Guyot Environnement) and Clarisse Crémer (L'Occitaine en Provence) are going through. Crémer has suffered a water leak which has affected all her computers leaving her working on a back up iPad.

But other than for these systems the Pacific is very much true to its name

"The current situation in the Pacific is rather exceptional at this time of year. It's quite rare not to see major depressions pass by. This Friday, a large number of competitors are sailing in beautiful anticyclonic conditions", explains Christian Dumard, weather consultant for the event.

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