Record for Vendée Globe race smashed

06 December 2016 - 11:48 By vendéeglobe.org
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Vendée Globe leader Armel Le Cleac'h yesterday smashed the race record for the passage from Les Sables d'Olonne to Cape Leeuwin by five-and-a-half days.

After stretching his lead over Britain's Alex Thomson to over 160km, during a period of difficult, lighter breezes and awkward seas, the skipper of Banque Populaire VIII was 85km from the longitude of the second of the non-stop solo round the world race's great capes at around sunrise yesterday morning.

He was expected to improve the mark set on December 15 2012 by Francois Gabart, which stood at 34 days 10 hours 30 minutes.

The testing, unsettling breezes have meant Le Cleac'h and second-placed Thomson on Hugo Boss have been unable to accelerate.

After midday on Sunday five more skippers entered the Indian Ocean, passing the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope and Agulhas. This tightly grouped pack is some distance behind the leaders, who are already to the southwest of Australia.

In that chasing group, after fixing his main sail, Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline) ran into more trouble. "I got going again doing about 10 knots and I hit a whale. My rudder kicked up. It also hit the keel but it's OK. The trailing edge of the rudder is a bit damaged."

New Zealander Conrad Colman had an even bigger scare over the weekend.

"One of the solar charge controllers was burning and was in the process of taking down the entire electrical system. I took the fire blanket and smothered the flames, ignoring electrical shocks and the burning heat in my desperation to save my boat. When the flames were gone I heard one beep from the autopilot and my world turned upside down."

When he got outside, his boat was busy capsizing and his mast was a few metres away from the water before he averted disaster.

Sébastien Josse has been forced to halt his challenge after suffering major damage to his yacht Edmond de Rothschild in heavy seas off the coast of Australia.

The third-placed Frenchman had suffered major damage in storm conditions and would have to assess the damage before deciding whether to continue with the race.

Practically the whole fleet is experiencing low pressure systems in the Southern Ocean.

Some skippers have been forced into protection mode to preserve boat and equipment. Jérémie Beyou has his mainsail operational again after replacing the hook and track car at the top of his mainsail on Maître CoQ.

Paul Meilhat (SMA) prudently headed some way north to let the worst of the storm go by to his south. Yann Eliès (Quéguiner Leucémie Espoir) slowed down for the same reason.

At the start of this fifth week of racing it is the changing moods and challenges of the Roaring Forties that dictate strategy. François Gabart, the winner of the last edition of the Vendée Globe, said yesterday:. "In the lows, you stay inside your boat and you note down what is starting to suffer from wear and tear. In the transition zone, when it starts to calm slightly, you do your little DIY jobs and you get ready for the next big blow."

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