Vendée Globe, Richomme breaks J0: does comeback become impossible?

Twist of fate at the Vendée Globe, Yoann Richomme in an attempt to catch up and stay in “the hunt” on Charlie Dalin for the final sprint of the round-the-world race, stumbled with a technical break. At dawn this morning the hook of his J0 gave way and the sail fell into the water.Richomme after 40 minutes of work (during which he had to lean noticeably and slow the boat down) managed to retrieve it on deck but the sail was now destroyed and unusable. The accident occurred when the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne was about 1,600 miles away and Arkea Paprec was 700 miles west of the Canary Islands.

J0, what it is and how it will replace Richomme

The mishap has cost Yoann Richomme over 40 miles, his delay at the 11 o’clock mark has in fact increased to 200 miles, but more importantly the skipper loses an important weapon in his attempt to catch up with Charlie Dalin. The J0 is a masthead sail, a sort of Code Zero masthead sail, it is used in the medium-light wind on the slack, precisely the conditions of these hours. It is a versatile sail, one that skippers have long used in downwind and upwind Atlantic or weather transitions. A weapon that would probably serve Richomme well for at least another 20 hours or so, before an increase in the wind brought by the depression forces Imoca into a different configuration. How will Richomme make up for this shortfall? From some onboard images, which we analyzed during the episode of The Vendée Globe Trial(REVIEW IT HERE, from minute 27.30 Ambrogio Beccaria talks about the J1 hypothesis) , we had the suspicion that in Richomme’s sail kit there is also a J1. A sail between J0 and J2, to be intended not so much as a light wind weapon (as the J1 would be on “normal” racing boats), but to be taken out when on the luff the strong wind does not allow the use of sails on the bowsprit. Hardly, however, can this be the alternative to the J0 to be used for Richomme.

The natural solution is the FR0, the fractional Code Zero, a sail that is used on the slack with a lot of wind, which still has less square footage than the J0, to be used perhaps trying to find a configuration with double or triple headsails employing also J2 and J3. In fact Richomme in these hours seems to have already found a solution as far as speed is concerned, the problem might if anything be the angle with some difficulty in leaning as much as he did with the J0. In fact, he seems to be holding a slightly more heeled course than Dalin. So to be monitored in the coming hours course and speed of Arkea Paprec. One thing, however, is clear: the road to Richomme’s comeback is uphill, the road to Charlie Dalin’s victory begins to be downhill. Nothing is yet written, however.

Mauro Giuffrè

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