That’s it, the Vendée Globe skippers have reached the doldrums, and in this little game it was Thomas Rettant, on Vulnerable, who came out the best. But the pace is dropping and the gaps are getting tighter and tighter at the top of this 2024 Vendée Globe. We’re taking stock.
Thomas Ruyant comes out on top in the doldrums
The skipper of Vulnerable was the first to emerge from the doldrums this Thursday morning, this intertropical convergence zone which generates very unstable weather. Thomas Ruyant fell to 11th place on Wednesday evening, before taking advantage of the night to take the lead in the race.
“In the middle of the night, over four hours, his speed was 16.9 knots, compared to 5 to 6 knots for Sam (Goodchild) and Sébastien (Simon), explains Pierre Hays from the race director. He managed to find a less complex passage and take advantage of it.”
The pace slows down
The days follow one another and are not the same in the Vendée Globe, with quite a few oscillations in terms of wind power. And if the conditions are often feared in the doldrums, the boats which have reached it are no longer really moving forward. As a result, the gaps are closing more and more at the top of the ranking, the first 5 of which are held within 35 miles.
Distance traveled record by Yoann Richomme
The navigator Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkea), one of the leaders of the Vendée Globe, covered 551.81 miles (1,021 km) between Tuesday and Wednesday while approaching the doldrums, a new record for a monohull sailboat . In the space of 24 hours, the Var sailor, one of the favorites of this 10th edition of the Everest of the seas, took six places over the competition, reaching 4th place at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, thanks to downwind winds. around 20 knots. But that was before approaching the doldrums.
The Ranking:
1. Thomas Rettant (Vulnerable) at 21502.66 nautical miles from the finish
2. Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) 6.52 miles from first
3. Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) at 23.98 miles
4. Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB) at 30.70 miles
5. Justine Mettraux (Teamwork-Team Snef) at 35.06 miles
How far will the fall go?
The news is not good from Marina Foils, the 20 Minutes Imoca on Virtual Regatta. While our freshwater sailor was aiming for the top 150,000, he found himself around 350,000th place after a night of struggling to reach the west after this catastrophic choice to follow King Jean Le Cam along the coast. Africans. According to sources close to the team, the skipper would like to sink the boat, “perhaps we would move faster underwater”.
Marina Foils should fall into the doldrums in a little over forty-eight hours, more than three days after the leaders of the Vendée Globe. A new windless zone to further slow down the progress of the boat. We will have to keep our morale up.
