Vendée Globe Race - Day 30: - Dalin stops heading north and turns for Cape Horn
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 10 Dec 18:26 NZDT
8 December 2024
Southern Ocean - Fives Group - Lantana Environnement - Vendée Globe Race - December 09, 2024 © Louis Duc
Overall Vendée Globe Race leader, Charlie Dalin, has finally turned for Cape Horn but is still the northernmost boat of the top 16 on the Vendée Globe Race leaderboard - and also the most easterly of the 38 boat fleet.
For the past four days, since clearing the western corner of the Ice Gate, the race favorite has continued to sail north, reaching 5° of latitude north of the most northern edge of the artificial boundary. That latitude placed him in mid-Tasmania, or Christchurch NZ.
His strategy was not clear as there are no major storm fronts coming through in his immediate future. So far did Dalin move north that he swapped latitudes with third overall, Youann Richomme, who decided on a safety first option when a deep Low hit the frontrunners, and Richomme decided to get out of its way.
Dalin along with Sebastien Simone(FRA) stayed south and challenged the storm, which seemed to be shorter and less extreme than expected.
At the 0600hrs UTC sked Dakin had kept pushing north. In the last 30 minutes of the sked, Dalin's position became even more extreme - doing only 6.6kts of VMG against a boat speed of 21kts. The next two competitors were sailing at 16.2kts and 17.1kts of VMG. It will be interesting to see how long Dalin is prepared to make that tradeoff - presuming that he is sailing a long term strategy for course position, rather than for short-term gain to be on top of the leaderboard, and keeping the sponsors and fans happy.
Taking the ECMWF feed massaged by Predictwind, which is reckoned to be the most reliable of the six options, Dalin is still the leader by 300nm over Simon and over 500nm over Richomme.
In her latest report, Pip Hare (GBR) says she has a cracked bulkhead, but is confident of her ability to effect a repair before the next storm hits.
Conrad Colman
Sail-World.com
Pip Hare:
Vendee Globe Daily Update