Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), the French skipper who grew up in Les Sables d’Olonne with the Vendée Globe as the backdrop to his life, is Sunday’s new leader of the solo non-stop round the world race.
The 34 year-old, who had to withdraw into Cape Town from his first Vendée Globe challenge after suffering damage to his foil housing, has sailed a solid first week on this race, positioning himself close to the rhumb line – the most direct, efficient course south – for a lot of the time to ease ahead this afternoon.
Simon, winner of La Solitaire du Figaro in 2018, is now further south than erstwhile leader Jean Le Cam whose position – just 150 miles west of the African coast exclusion – has seen the French veteran struggling for wind. The ridge of high pressure which has been a roadblock for the fleet – has extended east and left Le Cam and New Zealander Conrad Colman (MS Amlin) almost starved of wind.
It has, nevertheless, been a good Sunday for British skipper Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) who is drawing plaudits for his race so far. He found a rich vein of wind and today spent hours at around 20kts of boatspeed whilst rivals to his west and east were still struggling to find double digit speeds. Goodchild is back up to third on this second Sunday afternoon of the race, still some 400 miles or so NW of the Cape Verde islands. He was still making 14-15kts, quicker than leader Simon who had gybed westwards this afternoon.
Damien Seguin (Groupe Apicil) in 11th today enthused, “His course choices are magnificent. Today, right now, it’s easy to say that his is the route I should have taken that I would have done the same in his place. But he executed his strategy to perfection. He’s going to create a nice little gap! I like his way of sailing. He’s a really nice guy and he’s had a very good start to the race!”
Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa) was less profuse in his praise but acknowledged Goodchild has played a blinder: “Sam has found a mouse hole (a little corridor of breeze south ed note). It’s frustrating, he already has a good lead and it’s going to get worse and worse.”
Even in relatively benign conditions there are big jobs and little jobs to do. Last night, Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée), who was out in good company in the west heard a crack in squall, and on further inspection today discovered cracking on the edge of his deck where his jockey pole which is located. He was further evaluating the situation today and effecting some kind of repair but the situation is worse than first reported in the middle of last night.
Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe) has arrived in the Canaries. The Hungarian stopped at a buoy off Las Palmas to repair his mainsail which was torn when he was knocked flat a few days ago.
Fabrice Amedeo (Nexans – Wewise) has repaired his keel ram support. “I’m not a handyman, there must be a few shelves mounted upside down at home. So to succeed here, it’s really nice!” said the former Le Figaro journalist. Briton Pip Hare (Medallia) has had the power tools out to repair part of her hydrogenator system. Damien Seguin (Groupe APICIL) is equally satisfied: “I had a good ‘job list’ of repairs to do. Nothing too serious but it’s better when it all works. And I’m satisfied since everything is working again!”
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