Briton Sam Goodchild took the lead in the Vendée Globe overnight, on his Imoca Vulnerable. But Nicolas Lunven, Boris Herrmann and Justine Mettraux are not far behind.
New change of leader in the Vendée Globe! While the head of the fleet has passed the Canary Islands and is now heading towards that of Cape Verde, the ranking is now led by the young Briton Sam Goodchild, who will celebrate his 35th birthday next week. The skipper of Vulnerable, who is competing in his first Vendée Globe, took advantage of the night to overtake Nicolas Lunven (Holcim-PRB), whom he is ahead of by just over 20 miles at the 7:00 a.m. check-in.
A group of twelve boats broke away and stood in just 70 miles. But the cards could be reshuffled quickly, because a vast windless zone awaits the skippers in the coming hours. “We have a little tighter wind which allows us to go south. The first ones will stop because there is no more trade wind and that will allow us to get back on track without playing with elasticity”, hoped during a session Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western ), 27th in the ranking. “We still have an instability of the wind which is incredible, I have rarely sailed with wind so unstable in strength and direction,” explained Paul Meilhat (Biotherm), 17th. We have squalls and as a result we go from 10 to 25 knots, so we sail very lightly but it's quite stressful. »
Galley slaves at the bottom of the rankings
At the bottom of the rankings, we find the three most unlucky since the start: the Hungarian Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe), forced to climb to the top of his mast to repair a damaged sail, the Frenchman Maxime Sorel (V and B – Monbana, Mayenne), who also experienced sail problems and still suffers from his anklewho continues to swell, and the Chinese Jingkun Xu (Singchain Team Haikou), who suffers from a sprained foot. The Vendée Globe could be very, very, long for some…
SAILING / VENDEE GLOBE
Ranking at 7:00 a.m. – Friday November 15, 2024
1- Sam Goodchild (GBR/Vulnerable) 23,768.87 miles from the finish
2- Nicolas Lunven (FRA/Holcim – PRB) 20.58 miles from the leader
3- Boris Herrmann (ALL/Malizia – Seaexplorer) at 40, 20
4- Justine Mettraux (SUI/Teamwork-Team SNEF) at 40.44
5- Yoann Richomme (FRA/Paprec Arkéa) at 41.06
6- Charlie Dalin (FRA/Macif Santé Prévoyance) at 46.39
7- Jérémie Beyou (FRA/Charal) at 47.34
8- Louis Burton (FRA/Bureau Vallée) at 49.09
9- Yannick Bestaven (FRA/Maitre Coq) at 53.88
10- Sébastien Simon (FRA/Groupe Dubreuil) at 56.32
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