Vendée Globe Race- Day 11 - Lead change and new speed record
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 20 Nov 2024 06:19 PST
21 November 2024
Sam Davis (Initiatives-Coeur) - Vendée Globe - November 17, 2024 © Sam Davies
Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) is the new Vendée Globe Race leader flying into the lead at 24kts, as the new lead group passed Cape Verde Islands en route to the Doldrums.
At the 2200hrsUTC sked on November 19, Seb Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) is second on the water, sailing at 22.5kts and is 41nm behind the new race leader.
Race favorite Charlie Dalin is in third place, 57nm behind Goodchild sailing slightly faster at 23.5kts.
New 24-hour solo monohull record for Yoann Richomme
Vendée Globe Race reports that French Vendée Globe solo skipper Yoann Richomme has just covered a total of 551.84 nautical miles between yesterday at 9:30 and today (Nov 20) at the same time (i.e. covering 1,022 kilometers). Richomme was going fast since yesterday in the NE’ly trade winds on a practically flat sea.
Paparec Arkea improved the recent record set Nicolas Lunven (Holcim - PRB), 12 and 13 November by 5.24 miles on this race. This distance record is awaiting confirmation by the World Speed Sailing Record Council.
The margins are opening up, with 100nm covering the front eight boats on the water. Sam Davies (Initiative Coeur) is the eighth placed in that leader group all of which are foilers.
Former race leader Jean Le Cam is now in 15th place, he is sailing at 16.3kts at the 2200hrs sked on Nov 19, and appears to still be in the windshadow of the Cape Verde island of which Mt Fogo (9281ft) the highest of the group and the closest to Le Cam. The six race veteran (65yrs) was the race leader until earlier on November 19. Along with Conrad Colman (MS Amlin) Le Cam were the only two to pass between the Cape Verde group and the West African coast with the heavy influence of the west Sahara desert.
Their ploy while looking promising on occasions was against the round the world race wisdom of "West is Best".
With the fleet split at times into three groups - west, central and east - they have now come together - but even so Le Cam is still 400nm east of Goodchild.
With the exception of Conrad Colman the fleet are headed south, looking/hoping for a quick passage through the Doldrums - which appear to be significant, but with some pathways on offer, and the 39 boats in the Vendée Globe Race fleet will be puddle-jumping their way through - and updating their route with every weather data update.
Routing from the 1000UTC position sked and 0800hrs UTC Predictwind weather update.
It would seem that, based on the data, race leader Sam Goodchild is, or has had a dream run through the "Doldrums", and has hardly stopped. A similar experience appears tom await his teammate in TS Racing, Thomas Royant.
The notorious calm spot which could have taken several days to cross fortuitously appears to have closed up, allowing the two yachts, and presumably most of their surrounding group a similar run. (In Predictwind Summaries the winds are listed in six hourly intervals - so a virtual boat that is in the Doldrums may not show as such unless their duration is more than six hours.)
According to the Predictwind routing they are expected to be in the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn in 9.5days.
However their ride to the edge of the Ice Gate may not be as smooth as their trip through the Doldrums, with big areas of light winds opening and moving in the area normally dominated by the South Atlantic, or St Helena High.
Some cells of strong wind are also cruising through same the area and there will be plenty of opportunity for the race to be won or lost over the remaining 19,000nm.
In the image above large windless areas (blue and purple) are obvious, they are much bigger than the real Doldrums. The region continues to be swept by strong fronts.
For an explanation of the various weather feeds used by Predictwind click here