Vendée Globe: Justine Mettraux not spared, Alan Roura “in stupid mode”

Charlie Dalin (Macif Santé Prévoyance), again at the head of the Vendée Globe since the day before, regained a slight lead on Thursday approaching the Némo point over his two pursuers Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) and Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil ). On the Swiss side, Justine Mettraux is still on the outskirts of the top 10, while Alan Roura continues his rise.

Almost halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn, Dalin is 56 nautical miles ahead of Richomme and 79 miles ahead of Simon at the 7:00 p.m. check-in. “I’m in great shape, happy to have found the head of the fleet again. I had 24 hours without maneuvers and without changing sails, so it allowed me to settle down and rest a little,” appreciated the Norman navigator.

After recently taking a day and a half to repair a sail, his boat regained all its capabilities, which allowed the 40-year-old skipper to cover almost 600 miles in the last 24 hours, the best performance in the fleet of 36 vessels. still in the race.

Approaching Point Némo, the most isolated place on the globe and a transit zone, damage is particularly feared by sailors because help would take around fifteen days to reach them by sea.

The leading trio has generally widened the gap of around a hundred miles on their immediate pursuers, like Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable), in fourth position, now 817 miles behind Dalin. The Northerner is followed by Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB). But after spending several days in a windless zone, the Ruyant group will “be able to accelerate from tonight, with more than 20 knots of wind and flat seas,” assured Basile Rochut, weather consultant.

Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq V) is temporarily alone in 7th position, 1,024 miles from the leader, after almost three days of struggling to avoid being caught by a zone of strong wind, with gusts of 50 knots. “Four years ago, I spent a lot of time stopped in Brazil… Lots and lots of things will still happen, nothing is unacceptable, even for those in the lead,” recalls the organization the defending champion, who, unlike his competitors, is currently sailing towards the Antarctic exclusion zone.

Mettraux “loses his two aerials”

Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer) took eighth place at the expense of the Englishman Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable), 9th, and Paul Meilhat (Biotherm) just behind. In 11th place, we still find Justine Mettraux (Teamwork-Team Snef), who is around 150 miles behind the top 10.

The Genevan is coming out of several days in a big depression, where conditions have not been kind to her. “Unfortunately, she lost her two aerials, present at the masthead, which give her wind information. She therefore had to put her head in the toolbox to install her bridge aerials,” her team indicated on Instagram Thursday evening.

For his part, Alan Roura (Hublot) continues his rise to 17th place on Thursday evening, 3,196 miles from the lead. The Genevan found “ideal” conditions for going fast.

“In our small group, it’s a bit of a competition to see who can go the fastest, in stupid mode! After weeks of braking to preserve the equipment, we have our foot on the floor. Result ? I did 530 miles in 24 hours. It’s not bad at all, there’s always a way to do better, but I’m happy with myself,” explained the 31-year-old sailor on his site, estimating that he was going to fall into the Pacific Ocean “the next night.”

Third Swiss sailor competing in this “Everest of the seas”, Zurich native Oliver Heer (Tut Gut.) is 31st, 4,676 miles from first.

Archives on the Vendée Globe