Vendée Globe bewitched: Thomas Ruyant breaks a foil, Dalin goes on the run

It seems that fate has decided to turn on the favorites to win the Vendée Globe. After Beyou who had to return to make a technical pit stop at Les Sables and is now last off by 3,000 miles, after the structural problem on Hugo boss which cost Thomson more than 600 miles of delay, it is now the turn of the enfant prodige Thomas Ruyant coming to terms with bad luck. The Frenchman reported the breakage of the left foil, which occurred tonight under circumstances yet to be understood but the likely hypothesis seems to be a stray object.

“I was at about 120° in the wind, walking at 20 knots when I heard this big noise,” Thomas says. “I really don’t have an explanation. I immediately indented the foil so that it would not drag in the water. In daylight, I was able to inspect it from top to bottom, in collaboration with my team and the architects on the ground. There is no waterway. But the foil is really cracked in many places. The structure itself is affected. I am waiting for the architects’ analysis to see if I should cut the appendix or not. I am second in the Vendée Globe. Since Sunday I have had many small problems, which I have been able to solve, but which were crowned with damage this morning. Of course I continue the race, handicapped, with only one foil, but I take comfort in the fact that I still have the starboard foil, which is perhaps statistically the most important one for a round-the-world race. It is a long way to go. I’m going on, holding on!“. Ruyant we imagine is hoping that over the next few days, as early as Cape Town, he can sail into westerly winds rather than southerly, which would allow him to employ his right foil.

This number of accidents in fact is normal in the Vendée Globe and they were happening even when the boats did not have foils. Indeed, we can say that so far this Vendée Globe, net of numerous technical problems had by several boats, is all in all letting the fleet through, considering also the two strong depressions encountered a few days after the start. Apart from Corum’s dismasting, the entire fleet is still racing.

Leading the way is Charles Dalin on Apivia, who benefiting from the slowdown of his main rival now puts a 70-mile lead right over Ruyant. Provisional third place for Jean Le Cam, 363 miles off and struggling with a difficult tactical choice in the midst of the St. Helena anticyclone. Those escaping the anticyclone instead, with the boat now able to sail steadily, is Alex Thomson, who sets a determined course south to leave the Santa Elena calms behind. To be closely monitored are the choices of the Boss, which is over 600 miles behind and in eighth position, but by now we have come to understand how unpredictable this edition of the race can be, and 600 miles at the speeds of the new Imocas can mean even just a little over 24 hours behind.

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Giancarlo Pedote, 13th at over 800 miles, has paid dearly for the vagaries of Santa Elena that kept him trapped for at least 24 hours in its “becalmed” weather, now he too seems to have chosen the southern route, which in light of the weather forecast may prove to be the right one. Prysmian can struggle to break into the top 10 in this highly uncertain situation.

Mauro Giuffrè

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