Vendée Globe: the final rush toward the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne is about to begin

This time Charlie Dalin wants to close it out; he does not want yet another second place of his career, but he wants consecration. When the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, and the conclusion of the Vendée Globe, is now 2,000 miles away, Dalin’s lead over Richomme has grown to 180 miles. It is not an absolutely safe margin, but Macif and Dalin are in a strong position. Be careful, however, because the pitfalls are not over yet.

First the anticyclone, then the final Biscay depression.

Dalin will be the first to enter the Azores anticyclone, so his lead in the next phase of the race is bound to drop significantly. If he threads a good trajectory, however, he will also be the first to set off, so the loss of miles will only be a rubber band effect in the windless zone, as long as he does not make any course errors of course.

And then there is the final rush, which looks like it will be in hard sea and wind conditions. Should Dalin get there with a lead of more than 150 miles he could try to manage, perhaps not pushing the boat 100% all the time to avoid trouble in the home stretch. If, on the other hand, the anticyclone actually burns off some of his lead, it will be last-mile battle to the finish. And watch out because in the tough conditions Richomme’s Imoca 60, Arkea Paprec, has proven to have more horsepower than Macif. As opposed to the trade wind phase where instead Dalin took advantage of his boat’s greater speed in the medium-light wind. About the final rush between the two leading skippers and Giancarlo Pedote’s Cape Horn, we will talk about it in today’s episode of The Vendée Globe Trial, airing at 6:30 p.m. on our Facebook and YouTube channels (at the player below). Our guests will be ocean racers Francesca Clapcich and Alberto Bona, weather coach Gianni Bianchini, and Luigi Maffioli of Gottifredi Maffioli. We will talk about the latest strategies, weather, but also how Vendée Globe boats can transfer some of their technology to the world of “ordinary” boats.

Mauro Giuffrè

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