Video Of Sam Davies Finish
Marc Guillemot (Safran) should finish his epic Vendée Globe this evening, ready to collect a well deserved third place. For all that he will enjoy the result he is perhaps the skipper of all 30 who started who returns to Les Sables d’Olonne with the richest store of unique memories from this race. He has battled through early disappointment and a loss of confidence when he was stuck in calms by the Canaries, had to replace his daggerboard after hitting a sea mammal and raced to stand by the injured Yann Elies until the Generali skipper was evacuated by the Royal Australian Navy.Guillemot pit-stopped twice – in the Auckland Islands and the Falklands Islands – to try and repair his damaged mainsail track. Up the coast of Brasil he dodged fishing nets, local shipping traffic and oil platforms and was just 20 miles off the coast as he sought better breeze while dueling with Sam Davies.Suddenly on 9th February he told of a keel problem which had been worrying him and later that day Safran’s keel dropped out of the boat. Since then the skipper from La Trinité has been on edge, relying only on water ballast and careful sail control to keep Safran upright over the last 1000 miles.
Safran is was less than 70 miles from the finish line this afternoon, making 8.4 knots and so should be in between 20 hours GMT and 2230 hours GMT approximately.
Battling for a place on the podium and focusing on the finishing line in this sixth Vendée Globe, Guillemot’s typical generosity is underlined by his finish plans. The skipper of Safran has invited all those forced out of the race, who were unable to finish aboard their own boats to be on board in the channel. Jean Le Cam, Roland Jourdain and Kito de Pavant will be aboard the grey and orange monohull as Guillemot makes his way into the harbour. Yann Eliès will also be taking part in the celebration aboard a RIB alongside Safran, making, as Guillemot shares his enjoyment widely.
Brian Thompson should secure his fifth place in the early hours of Monday morning on Bahrain Team Pindar, the powerful Juan K design completing its first ever offshore race of any description. Thompson’s satisfaction will be not only in securing a great finishing place from the 30 boat fleet, but in nursing the untested boat back in one piece. His repairs have been virtually constant since Mid December, indeed he remarked on Friday that he had enjoyed two days of consistent sailing for the first time in a long time without having to fix anything.
Thompson has been pushed hard to the finish by Dee Caffari, GBR, (Aviva). The pair have been close since the South Atlantic but Thompson lead by 470 miles in the Inidan Ocean to the south of Australia and were then apart by 300 miles after the Doldrums, but this evening as they battle to the line Caffari is just 33 miles behind her compatriot and is due to finish during Monday morning.
Arnaud Boissières, Akena Vérandas: “ I’m in the middle of the Azores with Azores weather. It’s dull with squalls. I need to hurry up as the Vendée Globe bar is going to close and so my team is telling me to finish before Sunday. I’ve had a bit more wind since yesterday afternoon. I gybed in the night and now I’m sailing along decently, but on a route that is a bit north of the direct route. It’s overcast with heavy rain clouds, so it’s on with the boots and woolly hat. So it’s not too bad
Rich Wilson, Great American lll “Heading just outside Fernando Island, then change course to north true, with maybe a bit of west, toward where I think the doldrums/ITCZ will be narrow. Yesterday, not fetching the coast up toward Recife, we tacked offshore, target 25 miles, tacked back when we reached that, and to deep discouragement, were still not fetching the corner of Brazil. Eventually, we got lifted a degree at a time until we were fetching (heading straight for) Recife. Then we put a few degrees in the bank as surplus, and then a few more.