Who would have thought that - during the Vendée Globe, typical America's Cup vocabulary will become relevant for the first time. Who is ahead in the first "cross", as it is called there, when the course lines of two opponents pass close to each other on different bows? At the moment that is exactly the exciting question, because after Charlie Dalin was able to jibe to the starboard side yesterday, he is now sailing on the one with the intact foil - and immediately showed what that means for his pursuers. Over the last night he sailed with an average speed of 20.2 knots by far as the fastest in the field - sometimes three knots faster than Louis Burton or Boris Herrmann.
Status of the race today at 9:00 a.m.
And clearly won the first important "cross" ahead of Boris Herrmann. To be precise: Dalin was 71 nautical miles this morning at the bow of the German; "Seaexplorer" lost a good 20 miles last night on "Apivia". Louis Burton was not doing any better: After he was arithmetically first at the weekend, he is 23 miles behind today. But the cross for Burton and Dalin was canceled, Dalin necked back on port tack this morning. At the moment he and Herrmann are sailing equally fast at 19.3 knots, Louis Burton's "Bureau Vallée" is only slightly slower.
Boris Herrmann said yesterday evening in a zoom live on board in front of over 7200 spectators:
"It's really great that you follow me so much! It gives me a lot of energy, courage and motivation to give it my all again. Like you, I'm pretty excited every time I update the tracker and the new positions of the At the moment it is particularly exciting from a sailing perspective because very different strategies are used: Charlie Dalin sails further east through lighter winds on shallow seas - Yannick Bestaven is necked to the north and has stronger winds there. Two strong competitors. Es A lot can happen. It couldn't be more exciting!"
"The route chosen for the coming days is a mixture of the results of the computer programs and the actual turning of the wind here on site. I am currently driving a fast course so as not to get stuck in the wave and make sure that I get north. Everyone We receive new weather models for twelve hours and then readjust again, follow how the wind is turning and where the front is. The rest is intuition and gut feeling. The end is really still very open, but so far things are going pretty well for us. I am happy with my position."
"I think the last day will be super exciting and the arrival itself too, because we will all follow the same route from the northwest - it will be a pure speed race on a 450 mile home straight. The wind will come from 120 degrees, that for us means full foiling and high speeds. We will probably run into Biskay at full speed before the upcoming strong low. That will be incredibly exciting and tight, positions can still shift. And the time credit of over 10 hours for Yannick Bestaven, That's huge, of course. If we sail at 20 knots, it's 80 nautical miles in four hours. So Yannick can be 80 miles behind me and still beat me."
"I fought a lot on this Vendée Globe, I didn't really find my conditions in the south. Right now it's really brilliant sailing, and I'm actually relatively relaxed. Despite the rough seas, I found an angle to the wave that makes the boat good drives. It just works and I'm automatically relaxed. In addition, it's still quite warm and sunny compared to yesterday, but I think it was the last day for the next few months that I'm still sitting outside in my T-shirt."
A nerve-wracking crime thriller to its destination. Although you don't actually want to start, the arithmetic begins in your mind: If Herrmann does not succeed in overtaking Dalin and Burton on the water by the end of the day, what does his roughly six hours of time credit mean for participating in the rescue by Kevin Escoffier? The fact is: At the current speeds and distances, Herrmann would have good cards to still drive for victory. But what complicates the whole thing is that the wind will be significantly weaker shortly before the destination - the weather forecast predicts around 11 knots in about 42 hours, no more good foil conditions. And it only takes a wind hole to get stuck there, while the competition comes up to the right and left and above all from behind with the strong wind there. So it gets even more exciting towards the end.
Behind the leading trio are Thomas Ruyant and Yannick Bestaven, who had to let go over the weekend because they sometimes got into lighter winds than the boats in front. Ruyant is now 70 miles behind Hermann, Bestaven, who Boris Herrmann would have to pay for around four hours, 170 nautical miles. That sounds like a pretty good cushion, but in fact nothing seems decided in this race until the finish line is crossed. It will probably be sometime on Wednesday in the course of the evening or on Thursday night.
There was already good news from the race management: so that the fans can optimally follow the thrilling finale in the final phase, the race tracker is updated every 30 minutes 200 nautical miles before the finish, and every 5 minutes 60 miles before the finish.