
Vendée Globe, Goodchild hoisted his repaired mainsail
Brit Sam Goodchild was celebrating a small victory this morning as he hoisted his freshly repaired mainsail which split in half two days ago. After working tirelessly since the accident, sticking the halves together in big waves and strong winds, the skipper of VULNERABLE, tentatively hoisted the smallest morsel of mainsail this morning and by this afternoon had his boat racing at up to 16kts of boatspeed, a little quicker than his nearest challenger ninth placed Justine Mettraux who is poised 15 miles behind this afternoon.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2025
17:37
Little wins and false summits
Brit Sam Goodchild was celebrating a small victory this morning as he hoisted his freshly repaired mainsail which split in half two days ago. After working tirelessly since the accident, sticking the halves together in big waves and strong winds, the skipper of VULNERABLE, tentatively hoisted the smallest morsel of mainsail this morning and by this afternoon had his boat racing at up to 16kts of boatspeed, a little quicker than his nearest challenger ninth placed Justine Mettraux who is poised 15 miles behind this afternoon.
RACE, JANUARY 21, 2024 : Photo sent from the boat FOUSSIER during the Vendee Globe sailing race on January 21, 2024. (Photo by skipper Sébastien Marsset)
LE 21 JANVIER 2024 : Photo envoyée depuis le bateau FOUSSIER lors de la course à la voile du Vendée Globe le 21 janvier 2024. (Photo du skipper Sébastien Marsset)
“Isn’t that beautiful. It feels so good. I am going to get to Les Sables d’Olonne” grinned Goodchild with a smudge of white Sikaflex glue on his nose.
ETA slipping
For the last three days the ETAs for the next group of Vendée Globe finishers has been slipping ever later and later, indeed a week ago the computer modelled routings had Jérémie Beyou (Charal) finished by now. But the increasingly complicated, challenging weather in the North Atlantic, between the Azores and the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne has required all too slow down to cope with the strong winds and big seas.
An anticyclonic ridge off Cape Finisterre is now slowing down progress, already trapping some in light winds. And then two malicious low pressure systems are coming in one after the other. All in all these last battles at the end of their solo non stop races round the world really will take the tired skippers and their equally tired boats close to their limits.
These last few days of racing are far from being easy," confirmed Clarisse Crémer (L'Occitane en Provence),
"It is better to avoid thinking too much about the number of bumps left, otherwise you will be disappointed. The idea is to take each thing one after the other. What is complicated is this uncertainty: will I arrive on Sunday or not? As long as the depression, which is forecast for that day in the Bay of Biscay, continues to accelerate, there is even a chance that I will have to slow down, and that is hard for my morale. Because deep down we cannot help but project ourselves across the finish line on that date, even if we know that we should not. It is a kind of mental torture, but we accept it, because it is the rule of the game," added Crémer.
One part of me is already in "finish" mode, which is not ideal. I have this feeling of being several people at once: one who is impatient to touch down, a little nostalgic at the idea that this adventure is over, and at the same time relieved at the idea of being on the very edge of succeeding
Clarisse
Crémer
L'OCCITANE en Provence
Heading for fourth at over one week after the top two finished leader on the water Beyou should arrive during Thursday night normally with Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) and Nico Lunven (HOLCIM PRB) over half a day behind. The two are still only about 25 miles apart. Otherwise it is hard to judge when the others, to eighth placed Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-TeamSnef) will arrive but likely between Saturday and Sunday.
A tiny window
But behind them the challenge is greater for Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) who faces the slenderest of time windows for her to get finished and find shelter before the storm hits the French coast.
Davies said today, “I don’t know how I am going to get into Les Sables d’Olonne to be honest. It is actually looking OK to get to the finish line if I can manage to follow the routing that I am running. I should arrive just ahead of this really big front, but just one or two hours ahead, but the channel entrance will be too dangerous to get into. I am watching and hoping the forecast gets a little better to have a tiny window to get across the finish line. I don’t want to wait because there are so many depressions coming through and they are so far south….waiting would mean waiting here, where I am right now and it is too early to make that decision.”