Charlie Dalin increases his led over Sébastien simon in the Vendée Globe rankings this Thursday evening.Louis Burton abandoned it after damage.
Racing into a storm off the Kerguelen Islands, Charlie Dalin increased his lead over Sébastien Simon at the head of the Vendée Globe on Thursday while in the heart of the fleet, Louis Burton retired after further damage. Dalin (Macif) like Simon (Groupe Dubreuil) decided on Wednesday to continue their route near the inhospitable archipelago, maintaining their route eastwards despite a violent depression to face. At the 7pm check-in on Thursday, the Normandy’s skipper appears to have done a little better, showing a lead of more than 100 miles over Sébastien Simon and, importantly, maintaining a speed high enough to escape the brunt of the storm.
“It has to last, for the moment everything is fine but it has to last another 24 hours. I have to be able to stay in front and if so, when I recover, the wind will be a little less strong, the depression will have lost intensity”the visibly tired skipper Macif told the organizers at midday. The meteorological phenomenon that chases them is “a monster”, Armel Le Cléac’h, winner of the 2017 regatta, confided on wednesday: more than fifty knots of gusts and a sea that will gradually rise to form ten meter waves…Their pursuers, starting with third Yoann Richomme, have headed north-east in recent days to avoid suffering the full force of the storm and spare their horses, even at the cost of losing much ground.
By evening they were more than 460 miles behind Charlie Dalin. Much further west,shortly after the Cape of Good Hope,Louis Burton (Bureau Vallée) announced his abandonment on the night between Wednesday and Thursday. already the victim of structural damage to his sailboat in the Atlantic which he had ingeniously managed to repair,malouin discovered serious damage to his rigging on the night between Wednesday and Thursday. As conditions seem to be getting increasingly difficult in the Indian ocean, the third of the 2020/2021 edition decided to give up and head to Cape Town, south Africa. This is the second abandonment of this 10th edition after that of maxime Sorel (V and B-Monbana-Mayenne) a few days after the departure, on November 10th.