Vendée Globe, Charlie Dalin show and Imoca foils showdown in the storm

The Vendée Globe is experiencing some epic moments in these hours, with the head of the fleet, northeast of the Kerguelen Islands, dealing with a very nasty depression blowing with winds over 50 knots. Charlie Dalin on Macif is the real star of the last two days: he has managed to position himself far enough in front of this weather system to ride it eastward, managing to stay for many hours just in front of the depression, and avoiding the more intense winds and cross seas that are further west, inside the cyclone. Sebastien Simon also tried to make a similar choice, but he was unable to be fast enough to stay in front of the weather system and was encompassed by it, reckoning in these hours with the worst part of the depression. Others, such as Yoann Richomme and Thomas Ruyant, positioned themselves further north, but their choice to avoid the area of the strongest winds proved strategically weak, however, and caused the “northerners” group to cash 500 miles behind.

Vendée Globe – Imoca 60 foilers win the trial?

The fact that emerges from these hours, and in general from this first part of the world tour, is the reliability of the Imoca 60s. There have been only two retirements so far, the last one by Louis Burton, out of the 40 starters, and it was almost surprising to see Charlie Dalin and Sebastien Simon throwing themselves headlong into the gloom, evidently confident that the boats can withstand such stress. Among other things, especially Charlie Dalin, they did not spare themselves in terms of speed: Macif sailed for a long time with averages above 20 knots even in the depression, an important sign of strength that makes it clear that the latest generation Imoca 60 foilers can now dare so much even in quite extreme weather conditions. Dalin with Macif sailed more than 1,000 miles in 48 hours, 560 in the last 24, at an average of 23.30 knots.

What emerges is a solid leader, Charlie Dalin, who we can now say is in fact in a solo breakaway, after no one in the former lead group has been able to keep up with him. There will be another 24 hours to wait before the depression begins to move southward leaving the skippers with easier conditions, the only one who seems to be able to limit the delay in terms of miles is Sebastien Simon, who however will still have to fight in very tough conditions. Giancarlo Pedote on Prysmian passed Cape of Good Hope, in 28th position 2600 miles behind the leaders. The Italian openly declared that he suffers the ranking situation he finds himself in, trying to reason day by day to recover positions. Not an easy operation, by the way, Prysmian seems to have less effective course angles to the wind than its neighboring competitors: often Pedote’s boat sails more to the heel, but without developing significantly higher speeds. This is a situation to be monitored in the coming days as well, to see whether or not the Italian has, in the meantime, experienced any sail problems that prevent him from developing his full potential.

The Vendée Globe Trial

We talked about the strategic situation of the last few hours in the latest episode of The Vendée Globe Trial: we analyzed what has happened in the last few days and what the fleet will face.