Vendee Globe: Ten sailors round Cape Horn. Justine Mettraux is first woman
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 28 Dec 2024 20:30 PST
Justine Mettraux aboard Teamwork - Team Snef - 10th Vendée Globe © Gauthier Lebec
As at the 0200hrsUTC sked, ten sailors have now rounded Cape Horn and are headed towards Brazil. The first female sailor has rounded - with Justine Mettraux (SUI) rounding in 10th place.
It has been a day of firsts with the leading international sailor Boris Hermann (GER) rounding in 7th place, followed by Paul Goodchild (GBR) in 9th, with Paul Meilhat (FRA) in 8th place.
Next to round will be Yannick Bestaven (11th)
The concertinaing battle for the lead continues to go Youann Richomme's way, but Charlie Dalin has cut his lead to 75nm. Within a 24hour period the margin between the two has been as little as 75nm and as wide as 130nm.
Vendee Globe race control reports a long casualty list:
Yannick Bestaven, who earlier was reported to have broken his steering system; Clarisse Crémer, who is dealing with a navigation computer issue; Isabelle Joschke; who has a motor problem, and Romain Attanasio, who has a broken hook.
Sam Davies (FRA/GBR) who positioned herself to the North a few days ago to presumably avoid some nasty weather that was coming through - might just have got away with it.
She is 1268nm from the Horn, by our calculations and expected to round at 0130hrs UTC on January 2, 2025.
Davies looks to be carrying a fresh breeze to the tip of South America, and is just ahead of a nasty Low pressure cell. However if this speeds up up or she slows down, she will be in for a tough time. She still has some challenges going up the South American coast first with too much wind, and then not enough as she passes Recife and Natal on the Brazilian coastline as she approaches the Doldrums.
The seven day prognosis shows Cape Horn being Cape Horn. Storm after storm - it gets worse, believe it or not.
Mark Jardine has a full update on Sail-World's Youtube channel www.youtube.com/@Sail-World