Vendée Update
Speaking of the Vendée Globe . . .
The International Jury that had previously disqualified Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm (Cheminées Poujoulat) for accepting outside assistance and tying up to a Russian research vessel agreed to reopen the case after receiving the testimony of the skipper of the Russian ship. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that, the very next day, Stamm reported colliding with a UFO (unidentified floating object) that took out one of his hydrogenerators and severely damaged the other. The very same hydrogenerators that forced him to seek shelter at the Auckland Islands to repair, which is where he dragged and tied to the Russian ship. The irony is beyond cruel.
Consequently Stamm has turned off all but the most essential electronics to reserve as much power as possible. His team is working on a way to deliver fuel to the skipper to allow him to finish the race.
Elsewhere in the fleet, Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac Paprec 3) — currently in third place — reported that a soft shackle that attached the forestay to the deck had let loose. It appears there was no other damage. He immediately turned downwind and started repairs.
The leaders — François Gabart (MACIF) and Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) — are struggling with slow upwind progress, a far cry from the record speeds they were seeing in the Southern Ocean. Farther back, the second ‘pack’ of five boats are on their approach to Cape Horn (see above article). Alessandro di Benedetto (Team Plastique) is still at the back of the fleet, approaching the race’s second to last ice gate.
Stay tuned to www.vendeeglobe.org for lots of news every day, or ‘Lectronic for the occasional update.