This is the great debate in this eighth edition of the Vendée Globe. To foil or not to foil, that is the question… On paper, these appendages which we saw in the America’s Cup allow the boat to be lifted up, as if the boat was lighter, meaning that the top speed increases significantly with a bonus of 10-15% with the wind on the beam.
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Fourteen IMOCA 60s will set sail from New York this Sunday in the last major singlehanded race before November’s singlehanded non-stop round the world marathon, the Vendée Globe.
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Look back to the pre-start period of the last edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the two handed Transatlantic race from Le Havre to Brazil two years ago, and there were clear favourites in most classes. But, as the sages constantly remind us, ocean racing is a mechanical sport which is entirely reliant on what the weather and sea conditions deliver. And so there may be pre-race race favourites but there is no such thing as a certainty.
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Altadill, 52, has enjoyed many round the world race finishes over a varied and successful career spanning nearly 30 years.
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Powerful dreams came true, ambitions were realised when We Are Water and One, Planet One Ocean & Pharmaton rounded Cape Horn last night and very early this Sunday morning.
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If, in the end, the Pacific gave up race leaders Cheminées Poujoulat without too much of a fight and since Wednesday morning the Atlantic, in turn, has opened its fastest toll-free lane north east to Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam, the Pacific seems rather more keen to hold on to second and third placed Neutrogena and GAES Centros Auditivos.
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A top class sporting line-up with no fewer than nine nations taking part, Race HQ based at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, multi-screen international TV broadcasts, innovative digital and media arrangements… The eighth Vendée Globe already looks like being an exceptional vintage and confirms its place as the world’s leading ocean race and a major sporting event.
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The irony is not lost. The closest, most engaging and longest running battle of this edition of the Barcelona World Race is between four of Catalonia’s favourite, and nicest sailors. The good guys are fighting for fourth. In every sense it is almost ‘who cares who wins?’
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Jean Le Cam and Bernard Stamm on board Cheminées Poujoulat have become the first team to return to the Mediterranean in the Barcelona World Race, crossing the longitude of Gibraltar this morning at 08.30 (UTC). The leaders kept a course close to the North African shore, before a rapid transit through the Straits in a 20-knot southerly.
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Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam passed under 5,000 miles to the Barcelona World Race finish line and today also crossed over their own outbound track. The leading duo are starting to feel like the worst of the course is very much behind them. Both skippers have, individually, suffered more than their fair share of ill luck over their careers. Now, if it is not good luck that is running with them it is certainly at least good timing.
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