Nail-Biter Finish in Vendée Globe
Within the next 24 hours, the two leaders in the solo nonstop round-the-world Vendée Globe will sail into Les Sables d’Olonne, back where they started on November 6. Remarkably, although Frenchman Armel Le Cléac’h has led for most of the circumnavigation, Brit Alex Thomson has been nipping at his transom for weeks. With only one day of racing to go for the leaders after 73 days, Thomson’s Hugo Boss has closed to within 34 miles of Le Cléac’h’s Banque Populaire VIII. Nail-biter finishes are not uncommon in short-course buoy racing, but after a lap around the whole planet? Amazing. This is one of the reasons that even the non-racers here at Latitude 38 get excited about this particular event.
Making Thomson’s race even more remarkable is that, on November 19, his foiling IMOCA 60 monohull struck a UFO (unidentified floating object) and broke the starboard mustache foil. On port tack he was thus handicapped in relation to the intact BP, but for this leg, he is on starboard tack and thus unaffected by the damage. If Alex is able to catch up and pass Armel, he’ll be the first non-Frenchman to win the race in its eight editions.
Spectators are invited to watch and greet the finishers. For those of us not fortunate enough to be within commuting distance of Les Sables, the finish will be streamed live on the Vendée Globe website, www.vendeeglobe.org. Les Sables, on the coast of the Bay of Biscay in Pays de la Loire, is eight hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time and one hour behind UTC. The first boat is expected to finish between 8 a.m. and noon tomorrow PST (4-8 p.m. UTC). We are planning a report in Friday’s ‘Lectronic, and in the Sightings section of the February edition of Latitude 38 magazine.
On Day 69 (January 16), Alex Thomson set a new 24-hour record (536.81 miles) for a singlehanded 60-ft monohull.
Le Cléac’h and Thomson will both break the the race record, held by François Gabart with a time of 78 days. After their finish, 16 more boats out of the 29 starters (all men) will still remain on the course. Dismastings, collisions with UFOs, and other damage took a toll on the fleet.