Vendee
Globe - Marc Thiercelin Fifth Skipper To Retire
From The Vendée Globe
Marc
Thiercelin finally confirmed his retirement from
his third Vendée Globe at 10h00 GMT this
morning. He was clearly upset at the today’s
radio session, after what is the first ever time
he has not been able to complete a race in his
entire sailing career, always endeavouring to
finish what he sets out to do. “Lots of
things are knocking around in my head; you have
to accept that there’s nothing you can do
and bounce back.” For the rest of the now
15-strong fleet, conditions are very different
throughout the rankings. The top six are powering
along in favourable Westerlies, Riou and Golding
making a less rapid comeback on the leader than
originally thought as they have had to gybe north
to avoid an ice field unusually far west spotted
by a Canadian satellite last night. Le Cam is
currently leading by 250.3 miles having again
covered the most ground over the past 24 hours
(332 miles). Behind them a calm has stretched
itself lazily across the fleet from Moloney back
to Schwab while Humphreys is on a high speed dash
on a high speed boat heading up towards Campbell
island and the ice field in a pea-souper of a
fog just 33 miles behind Schwab. All the Anglo-Saxons
are now unofficially in the top ten. Patrice Carpentier
rejoined the race in the early hours of the morning
after successfully carrying out various repairs,
notably to his boom, in a sheltered bay off Southern
Tasmania.
Having
arrived at around 04h00 GMT this morning in the
Bay of Akaroa in New Zealand, the skipper from
La Rochelle was able to quickly analyse the state
of his monohull. “There is too much to do.
I don’t have the right material aboard to
make repairs to everything that is damaged on
ProForm. I am forced to request outside assistance.
It’ll take me ten days to do the necessary
work to get the boat back into shape”. Marc
then hopes to head towards the Pacific Ocean again
and complete his round the world single-handed.
Marc will make the repairs himself with the help
of a couple of people he knows in the area that
he got to know during a stopover in the Boc Challenge
in 1998.
Having
suffered a great deal in the race during the first
weeks of the Vendée Globe 2004, Marc then
accumulated considerable amount of damage: destroyed
bow sprit, broken mainsail traveller cars, leaks,
no internet access (and thus weather data)…It
was finally a weakness in his masthead (D3) that
forced ProForm to divert to New Zealand. In the
throes of his disappointment, Marc Thiercelin
said during the radio session that he didn’t
want to do another single-handed round the world
race. “The Vendée Globe is over for
me. You have to know when to stop. It’s
the increase in the amount of work which requires
an enormous amount of investment. I have other
projects, in lots of other domains. The programme
with ProForm isn’t over yet either; there
is still the Transat Jacques Vabre and the Route
du Rhum…”
Leading
the Vendée Globe fleet by over 250 miles
Jean Le Cam (Bonduelle) said that he was itching
to get out of the Southern Ocean. “The icebergs
are magnificent, but whoever rubs up against one
gets stung. I am dying to turn left and I am rather
happy to be first. I’ve seen enough of the
south and it is time to go onto other things.
I’m going to open my package for the 31st
and I think that I will cook up a good meal.”
Second
placed Vincent Riou (PRB) was on form in second
having hooked onto the wagon to the Cape Horn.
“It has been a bit strange in the south
with the presence of a little depression centre
that I hadn’t noticed. I was so absorbed
by this issue with the icebergs that I gybed a
tad early. I have plotted the icebergs on my computer
spotted by the Canadian satellite and I’m
going to pass to their north. It is surprising
to have ice 200 miles from the Horn. I am delighted
with my course since the start. The climb back
up the Atlantic should be nice, racing with a
boat in good condition. The race is superb. We’re
having a ball. Of course I feel really sorry for
Marc Thiercelin. The distance of the boats means
that it doesn’t affect me quite so much
as it did when it was Bilou (Roland Jourdain)
for example, that I was racing with since the
start. Three quarters of the fleet are still racing
which is rather good. At the moment it’s
accelerating quite well. Tonight I will be right
into my racing and will have little time to think
of New Year’s Eve. I hope to pass the Horn
on 3 or 4 January.
We’re
on the right gybe now and finally making some
progress in the right direction. It was very marginal
and then it came my way” said Mike Golding
(Ecover) of the same conditions. “The wind
is gently strengthening and in the next 24 hours
it will head us [ie the wind will veer further
round towards the north] and we will slowly come
down on to a course that will take us all the
way to the Horn. So, a big arced course, along
the rhumb line or to the north of it. If you don’t
get to a certain place by a certain time you miss
the boat. I think Jean will have to go through
this transition and we should be able to close
some miles down. I don’t know how much we’ll
compress back up. Obviously I’ve been suffering
from it for the last 36 hours. Whether or not
he will suffer as much, remains to be seen. We
are steaming along at the moment.”
With some totally windless zones behind in the
mish-mash of high and low pressure systems sweeping
between the two capes, Conrad Humphreys is lucky
enough to in a great system. “Things are
looking complicated up front with a high pressure
ridge to negotiate. I think it´s possible
to pass Bruce in the next 24 hours though. I´m
in good winds at the moment but the ridge is moving
east and I have to round it at some point. I will
have to go north to round the ice, and then west.
I think I should be able to get going again. For
now I can´t see beyond the bowsprit, and
we´re still sailing in 20 knots of wind..it´s
stressful and I´m on edge. I´m relying
on the fact that no ice has been reported in this
area. I really need to have the radar running
all the time but it draws a lot of power so I´m
switching it on and off. I´ve got enough
power at the moment to last me until the end of
the race if I go carefully. I´m nervous,
can´t sleep or even rest easily it´s
too tense...I will head towards Campbell island
and then gybe onto a safer course. I´m very
pleased with my pace - since Cape Town I have
made up 300 miles on the leaders even though I
haven´t been pushing overly hard. I feel
I could push harder but I don´t want to
break anything. I couldn´t be in a better
place but it would be nice to spend New Year´s
Eve with a few more people! For 2005 I´d
like a new 60 footer for the next Vendee and a
fast drive to Cape Horn."
The
first competitors should pass the Cape Horn on
Monday.
Happy
New Year from all the Vendée Globe Team
here in Paris.
Quotes
from the Boats
Karen Leibovici (Benefic): “I am becalmed,
stuck in a ridge of high pressure. I’m not
moving along very quickly. I’m making the
most of it to make repairs and check the boat,
especially going up to see what it looks like
up forward. I have repaired by generator underneath
the boat that converts the energy made by powering
through the water into onboard power and helps
me charge my batteries. My back is still causing
me pain but I have decided to just live with it.
The pain will only go away when I’ve had
the iron bars taken out of my back (after a car
accident in August). My wishes for 2005? Wind
to catch up with my friends.”
Anne Liardet (Roxy): “I’ve had some
real hassles today! My main automatic pilot has
gone haywire and I have spent all day on it trying
to understand why it’s broken down. I think
I’ve found out the reason but it’s
nigh time at the moment and I’m going to
sleep a little before I can repair it tomorrow.
I think it’s a problem linked with the dampness.
The past year has involved a great deal of emotion
and work to get where I am today.”
Nick Moloney (Skandia): “Crossed the dateline,
so my New Year is tommorrow! New Year’s
Eve, not got much planned...I’ve got a bottle
of champagne for Cape Horn though. Think I can
still catch some of the boats ahead of me, but
it’s likely to be a procession to Cape Horn,
and then we’ll see what happens in the Atlantic.
It has surprised me every day that I have got
this far to be honest. Pretty hard work. A lot
harder than I thought it was going be. Only 40
more days of eating of Go bars, and then never
again in my life! Hardest thing for me is not
being able to go down below, get my oilskins off
and get in my bunk knowing that everything is
ok on deck with the other guys up there, and go
to sleep. I can never shut my eyes and think everything
is under control, that makes life tough and very
limiting! The good thing about having New Year
in the middle of the ocean is that the cops can´t
chuck me in jail. It´s really good to be
approaching the new year and I really hope that
2005 has in store for me a fantastic memory of
the finish and a fantastic memory of a large portion
of this adventure, and I hope 2005 brings for
everybody else a lot of happiness and a lot less
world grief. My thoughts a primarily with people
in desperation or heartbreak from the effects
of the tidal wave.”
Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet): “Regarding
our much less dramatic efforts at sea, I have
been battling to stay in front of a ridge of high
pressure that would park us for some time if we
get caught. The options have been limited; either
very far south towards the icebergs or the more
northerly route we are taking. Right now we right
on the edge of the ridge just barely staying in
the wind, and that is why we jibed to the north
for a few hours last night, which worked quite
well. If we can hold on, hopefully we can pass
under New Zealand without getting swallowed by
the high. If we get stuck then there will be headwinds
afterwards, so the going will be very slow. Behind
us, Conrad on Hellomoto is flying with good winds
while we try to keep crawling along. But that
is the way it goes. He is also apparently willing
to sail a very daring course right through the
area of icebergs south of New Zealand at 51/52
degrees latitude. I wish him luck.”
Source : Vendée Globe 2004
www.vendeeglobe.org
