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(November 21, 2024; Day 12) – Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE) took over the lead of the Vendée Globe solo race round the world very early this morning benefiting from his position to the west of his rivals which include his teammate British sailor Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE) who holds second place.

Ruyant was first to emerge from the Doldrums and after a spell at more than double the speed of his British counterpart is about 6.5 miles ahead this afternoon.

The other skipper to have made a notable gain is Pip Hare (Medallia) who has profited from her position to the west also and over recent days has worked her way up to 13th, reducing her deficit of 250 nautical miles yesterday morning to be about 80 miles behind the leading duo this afternoon.

Crucially for the British skipper her gains might now possibly give her a chance of hooking into the first low pressure in the South Atlantic along with the main peloton but the actual time window to catch this system are not very clear.

It is now the first time that Ruyant has led this, his third Vendée Globe. Four years ago he chased British skipper Alex Thomson across the Equator about 80 miles behind. Both gained an immediate jump on the fleet in the South Atlantic when they caught a low pressure in a scenario which very much mirrors this year’s, and indeed 2016-17 when Thomson and Armel Le Cléac’h escaped the pack.

Although he blitzed a new 24 hour solo monohull distance record yesterday morning Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) has not been able to wriggle out of the Doldrums as efficiently as the likes of Switzerland’s Justine Mettraux (TeamWork-Team Snef) who is up in fifth now less than 40 miles behind Ruyant.

“It seems that we are now out of the Doldrums. It looks like it because everything is stabilizing! We were in there for 24 hours. For 12 to 15 hours, we were in a bit of a tough spot. We were really stuck but we have already all seen much worse scenarios than this one,” Richomme said this morning,

He added, “I had 12-15 hours in the hard stuff yesterday afternoon. It was really slow. We didn’t make much progress but last night it was good. It was quite a nice Doldrums in the end. There was just a big squall that came through yesterday afternoon. By tomorrow morning, we will have crossed the equator: it will be my first solo. Apparently that’s quite something!

“I’ve crossed it three times racing. It will be almost a formality. My team must have provided me with a small bottle of champagne. I have to see what day they had planned it for me because I haven’t eaten much since the beginning and I’m on day 5’s food bag. I’m 4-5 days behind. In the South Atlantic, it could be very fast, without being very violent.

“The situation allows us to cut across the South Atlantic fairly quickly. We could pass the Cape of Good Hope, which would put us back in slightly better timings compared to the reference times, which wouldn’t be bad. It’s a good prospect. It will work for a lot of people. We will break with the group behind of course but the whole group in front risks leaving with it.”

Ruyant’s gain may stabilize as Goodchild should initially have a faster angle to the wind and the sailor from the North of France is converging back east to his team-mate who sails his previous, older generation boat on which he finished sixth on the last Vendée Globe.

But the biggest gain has been to Hare, who enthused this morning, “I had quite a good night which I was kind of not expecting so much, I can’t touch the others on speed at reaching angles, I just can’t stay with any boats 2020 and newer I just can’t touch them in a straight line. So I need to take the opportunities to ‘think’ my way up the ranks, and I think last night was pretty good for me.

“Being in the west is the better option and yesterday all day I was really, really vigilant with clouds. I had a satellite image up all the time. It is incredible how accurate it is on my computer screen and then it would pop up on the radar and then I could skirt my way around things. And so I think that really helped me. I am feeling pretty good and am about to have a cup of tea this morning, which is often short lived as all hell will likely break loose.

“All I need to do is keep in touch, keep in touch as long as I can and then when there is an opportunity to ‘think’ my way through things I will give it my best shot. But I am feeling pretty pleased this morning, it is good!”

Not quite the same story from the winner of the last race, La Rochelle’s Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V). “The Doldrums were intense, with quite a few squalls and very unstable winds, both in strength and direction, but they were relatively short lived. What was good was that there were several of us who saw each other at the AIS, which allowed us to understand a little bit what was happening, now I almost feel like it’s a new start!”

Next up? Crossing the equator tonight. From then on it is very much a drag race down the South Atlantic in the SE’ly trade winds, all the time eyes on the prize, a depression that they could catch a little to the north of Rio de Janeiro. The low pressure would be ideal to let them put the foot down and go full throttle to the south of the African continent.

If this scenario plays out it would similar to the system which propelled Alex Thomson and Armel Le Cléach’ to the Kerguelen Islands at full speed during the 2016-2017 edition. “It’s a good prospect. It will be a chance for a whole group of people but it will cause a real break with the group behind,” analyzed Richomme.

Meantime the entire fleet, with the exception of Oliver Heer (Tut Gut), Denis Van Weynbergh (D’Ieteren Group), Jingkun Xu (Singchain Team Haikou) and Szabolcs Weöres (New Europe) who also burned his hand yesterday while heating water, will only be out of the Doldrums in in about 36 hours.

Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook

Attrition:
Nov. 15: Maxime Sorel (FRA), V and B – Monbana – Mayenne – ankle injury, mast damage

The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.

Source: VG2024, SSN

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The 8-person crew on the AC75 for the 37th America’s Cup had four people sailing the boat, and four people on cycles to power the systems. The cyclors were mostly not known within the sailing community, having excelled outside of the sport, but tragedy has brought to life a unique contributor in the 2024 competition:

Austin Regier, a national champion rower for the University of Washington men’s rowing team who went on to compete in the America’s Cup, died in a free-diving accident in the Philippines on Friday (Nov. 15). Regier was 27.

Regier spent most of the past year in Barcelona, Spain, training for the America’s Cup competition and was on a six-week trip to Southeast Asia before planning to come back to Seattle.

Regier, often described as kind, engaging and humble, made friends everywhere he went, said his parents, Monte and Christie Regier.

“The easy thing would have been to go to Barcelona, do the America’s Cup and not engage in anything,” Monte said. “The first thing he did when he got there was go find a (church) youth group to get involved in and start talking with kids.” – Full report

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Nicolas Lunven, the skipper of the IMOCA Holcim-PRB, broke the outright solo monohull 24-hour record on the second day of the 2024-25 Vendée Globe. Opting for a more westerly route than the fleet, he covered 546.60 nautical miles in 24 hours (pending official ratification).

Lunven’s pace would surpass the same record set by Thomas Ruyant during the 2024 Retour à la Base event (539.58 nm/ 22.48 knot avg.).

This boat also holds the outright monohull 24-hour record, with skipper Kevin Escoffier and crew covering 640.48 nm in the 5th leg of The Ocean Race 2022-23, with an average speed of 26.68 knots.

Race updates – Tracker – Ranking – Facebook

The Vendée Globe, raced in the 60-foot IMOCA, is the elite race round the world, solo, non-stop, and without assistance. On November 10, 40 skippers started the 2024-25 edition which begins and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France.

Armel Le Cléac’h, winning in 2017, holds the record for the 24,300 nm course of 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes 46 seconds. Only one sailor has won it twice: Michel Desjoyeaux in 2001 and 2009. This is tenth running of the race.

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Well ok then. I mean sure, whatever floats your boat. It does look pretty cool inside though…

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Racing yachts are meant to be raced, so rather than strapped to a shipping cradle for a trip to North America, the 2025 RORC Transatlantic Race departs from the Canary Islands on January 12 for the 3000nm course to Grenada, West Indies.

After competing in the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race in the central Mediterranean Sea, USA’s Bryon Ehrhart’s 88-foot Lucky will contend for monohull line and overal honours. The Juan K designed Lucky will have a stellar crew which includes navigator  Juan Vila (ESP).

The Spaniard is one of the very few sailors to have won the Jules Verne Trophy, the Volvo Ocean Race, and the America’s Cup, yet this will be his first RORC Transatlantic Race.

“This is a race that I have always liked to do,” commented Vila. “I have done similar races in the past but a trade wind race in January across the Atlantic is very special for any navigator because it is always challenging; you have to adapt and use all your knowledge for this race. This is a very fast route across the Atlantic and Comanche’s record from 2022, at nearly 16 knots average, is very impressive.

“At the beginning of the race, we have to navigate through pretty much the whole Canary Islands, especially the lee of Tenerife. It is an early call in the race to decide whether to sail in the lee of islands or sail the extra distance to avoid them.

“In the open Atlantic, ideally for Lucky we will need broad reaching conditions; that is the boat’s fastest angle. Even with the huge improvement in satellite communications and accuracy of weather models, for forward planning you have to decide how long you can trust the weather model for.

“Maybe the routing is made because of a situation in the future which is not going to happen, or maybe the routing is not taking into account local affects; you have to adapt it. Local factors such as trade wind showers can be used to advantage to gain miles but they can be quite tricky. Overall, you have to make up your own mental picture of what is going to happen.

“The race starts in higher latitudes and goes to lower latitudes at the end, so transitions are very likely and dependent on how the Jet Stream is running. Getting the transitions right is where gains and losses can be made. The timing from where you jump from a North Atlantic type system to trade wind weather is crucial. If you delay too much the door closes, if you go too early, you might make a longer course.”

Details: https://www.rorctransatlantic.rorc.org/

The RORC Transatlantic Monohull Race Record was set by Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth in 2022: 07 Days 22 Hrs 01 Mins 04 Secs.

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The official start of the Vendée Globe took place today at 13:02. The skippers have now set off on the most famous and challenging of circumnavigations, with more than 24,000 nautical miles (45,000 km) to cover solo, non-stop, and without assistance.

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Last week we looked at craft which chased the wind speed record. Whilst they did not always look conventional, they still had a certain sanity about them. Our video archive has uncovered some designs which are way more unusual… or even, plain silly…

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On October 19th, 2024, Emirates Team New Zealand secured an historic victory in the America’s Cup match, defeating INEOS Britannia by 37 seconds in the final race, with a final scoreline of 7–2…

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Next Sunday, that is the 10th of November, the 40 skippers of the Vendée Globe will start the 10th edition of the legendary solo non stop round the world race…

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