Sam Goodchild takes the lead and takes a lead… Follow the position of the skippers live

The British sailor managed to better exploit the wind shifts to take first position and break away from the fleet.

He has slipped into a mouse hole in the middle of the fleet, and is taking off. The trajectory of Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable), which allowed him to take the lead in the 2024 Vendée Globe, impresses his competitors. At the 7 a.m. check-in, Monday November 18, the Briton is ahead of Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) and Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable).

“Sam's trajectory is magnificent. It's easy to say now that it was the route we had to take, that we would have done the same in his place… He followed his intuition to the end and realized his strategy to perfection. He will create a nice gap!”greets Damien Seguin (Apicil Group). The Briton is 42 nautical miles ahead (around 78 kilometers) over Sébastien Simon.

“In my predictions, I said that he was going to become the first foreigner to win the Vendée Globe. I believe in it firmly. I saw him in training, I sailed with him. He takes the right options, he's going fast. He's an extraordinary person, an outstanding sailor. He's going to go very far in this Vendée Globe.”predicts Eric Bellion (Stand as one – Altavia) on the race website.

It remains to be seen how the Briton will approach the next 24 hours during which the race direction does not anticipate any wind. And how it will manage its advance as it approaches the Doldrums, the intertropical convergence zone at the equator where weather conditions are changeable and difficult to predict.