Vendee Globe: Day 3 – Passing Finisterre – the last land sighted until Cape Horn?
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 12 Nov 04:38 PST
11 November 2024
Justine Mettraux – Team Work Team SNEF- Vendee Globe – Day 2 – IMOCA60 – November 11, 2024 © Justine Mettraux
According to the latest update, Sam Goodchild (Vulnerable) is currently the leader of the Vendee Globe race.
However, this appears to be an anomaly due to the method used by Vendee Globe, which measures straight line distance to finish, until competitors round the Cape of Good Hope near Cape Town.
A more accurate measurement is the Time to Finish or time to a specific waypoint, which we will start using tomorrow. This requires weather routing, relatively simple with Predictwind.
We believe that last night’s race leader Charlie Dalin (MACIF), located to the west of Dalin, remains the leader, as crews will adjust their positions to head west and navigate through the Doldrums. They will then circle around the South Atlantic High and, once connected, will enjoy a quick passage around the Cape of Good Hope into the southern Indian Ocean.
Currently, based on the Distance to Finish system, Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable) is sitting in third overall. Ruyant is aligned with Goodchild as both sail southward.
Justine Mettraux (SUI) – Team Work, Team SNEF is the leading female sailor in 11th place, trailing the race leader by 83nm. Clarisse Cremer (L’Occitiane) is two places behind, 5nm behind Mettraux.
New Zealand’s Conrad Colman MS Amlin ranks 20th in the 40-boat fleet. Like the rest of the competitors, he had a restless night with heavy winds, closely trailing Louis Duc (Fives Group) and Jean Le Cam (Tout Commence en Finisterre). These three are the top daggerboard boats in the fleet.
Most sailors chose to evade the harshest weather offshore, opting to sail within the Traffic Separation Scheme, which required additional gybing. They successfully avoided collisions through effective communication via radio.
In the videos below, there are clips showing the sea conditions, filmed on Day 2, which appear relatively mild, with the IMOCA60s achieving good speeds. Conditions deteriorated overnight, with several sailors seen wearing helmets in the on-board footage.
Additional Images:
On-board Video – Day 2
