Vendée Globe Race - Day 12 - Lead change. Procession forms up for a fast ride to the Southern Ocean
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 21 Nov 15:37 NZDT
21 November 2024
Thomas Ruyant - Vulnerable - IMOCA - November 2024 © Pierre Bouras
After leading the Vendee Globe Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) for two days, his team mate Thomas Ruyant took over the lead on Thursday morning.
Both appear to be clear of the Doldrums which have concertinaed over the past 24 hours and how seem to be much more extensive than over the past 24 hours when there were pathways through the normally windless zone. Report from the competitors mention severe rainsqualls with winds to 30kts.
On the Predictwind weather routing, Goodchild is showing some low windspeeds, but not less than 5kts.
On the latest routing Ruyant is calculated to round Cape of Good Hope in 9days 16hrs, almost two days ahead of Goodchild. However the weather data in the Southern Ocean is variable between calms and gales. We will run with hopefully better data later this morning.
Earlier in the day, TS Racing's Thomas Rouyant (Vulnerable) was 2° of longitude to the west of Goodchild, putting him further away under the distance to sail to the finish method of running the event leaderboard, favoured by the Vendee Globe organisers. However using Predictwind's weather routing facility, Rouyant and Goodchild were then predicted to arrive in about 8.5days at the virtual way point set between the Cape of Good Hope and the virtue Ice Gate surrounding Antarctica.
However now Ruyant has a big margin, which may well fade in later runs.
Both are calculated by Predictwind to have some firehose sailing coming up, with Goodchild forecasted to spend 83% of the route reaching, with winds in the 8-20kts range for 49% of the route, and 20-30kts for 51% of the remainder of the leg to the Southern Ocean.
Keel problem for Fabrice Amedeo on Nexans - Wewise.
Vendee Globe organisers have announced that Fabrice Amedeo racing in 34th place due west of the Cape Verde Islands has been sailing in safe mode at a reduced speed since yesterday evening after developing a keel problem. He is actively looking for a solution to resolve his problems. More information is expected when Race Control staff arrive later today..
Latest update from Race Control: