Vendée Globe: A “next obstacle” which “concerns” the fleet

Charlie Dalin (Macif Santé Prévoyance) still occupies the lead of the Vendée Globe on Saturday morning, heading towards the south of New Zealand, with in his wake a new runner-up, Yoann Richomme (Paprek Arkéa), returned to less than 200 nautical miles from the leader.

Orphaned from his starboard foil for a week, Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), who had occupied second place since December, completes the leading trio and remains hanging on less than 10 miles from Richomme.

The three navigators are for the moment the only ones to have entered the Pacific after passing the south of Tasmania and moving away – at least temporarily – from the Antarctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ), prohibited because it is populated by icebergs. , heading towards the south of New Zealand.

The “next hurdle” in sight

Behind, the rest of the top 10 remains unchanged and clings to the leading pace, but a new “ridge”, a transition zone between two low pressure systems, could slow them down.

“My objective, above all, is to get out of the South Seas without taking any risks, without breaking anything so as not to degrade my performance. More than the ridge, it is the management of the depression in the south of New Zealand which will chase us away next that matters to me. That’s what concerns me most at the moment, it’s the next obstacle to face,” explains Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable), 7th in the fleet.

As for the Geneva sailors, Justine Mettraux (Teamwork-Team Snef) and Alan Roura (Hublot) keep their pace, respectively ranking 11th (1,160 miles from first) and 20th (2,925 miles) on Saturday morning. . For his part, Zurich’s Oliver Heer (Tut Gut.) is 31st, 3,686 miles from the lead.

At the very rear, the Hungarian Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe) is more than 6,500 miles from Dalin and is still sailing in the Atlantic, several hundred miles from the Cape of Good Hope, the gateway to the Indian Ocean.

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