"PRB"
The French Vincent Riou led the fleet of 20 Vendée Globe sailors with his "PRB" at 4 o'clock this Tuesday morning. After a day and 16 hours at sea, he was able to work out a 15 nautical mile lead over second-placed Roland Jourdain ("Sill Véolia").
The wind picked up a bit overnight, which also improved boat speeds. The fastest ships in the race now sail an average of 16 knots. The wind is currently occupying the 18 sailors and two female sailors at 20 to 25 knots from the northeast. The field, mostly past Cape Finisterre, the northwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, should therefore have a nice day of sailing with downwind conditions in front of you.
The leading Vincent Riou ("PRB") is currently being hunted by his compatriot Roland Jourdain (new building "Sill Véolia"), who finished third behind Michel Desjoyeaux and Ellen MacArthur in the last edition of the Vendée Globe in 2000/2001. Just five nautical miles behind Jourdain and 26 behind the leading Riou, Sébastian Josse follows with his "VMI". The two Brits, Alex Thomson ("Hugo Boss") and co-favorite Mike Golding ("Ecover"), follow in fourth and sixth place, framing Jean Le Cam with his "Bonduelle".
Norbert Sedlacek
The only German-speaking sailor in the field, the Austrian Norbert Sedlacek (see also portrait in YACHT 23/04), is currently in 20th and last place in the field. The 42-year-old has already lost a whopping 187 nautical miles to the top, but at the moment the sailors in positions 16 to 19 are still within reach, especially since the race is almost in the starting blocks anyway. After all, the skippers still have more than 23,000 nautical miles to go. In an interview with the YACHT, Sedlacek had already mentioned arriving as the top priority. With its aluminum "brother", the Viennese are not competitive when it comes to the top places. His ship is almost too stable for that.
On the other hand, Raphael Dinelli would have liked a somewhat harder outer shell yesterday. The Frenchman, who was shipwrecked in the Southern Ocean years ago and rescued from dire distress by fellow sailor Pete Goss, stumbled upon a tree trunk with his "AkenVérandas" that had torn a small leak in its port side. However, the hole doesn't seem to be particularly dangerous, the skipper doesn't think about giving up. Dinelli wants to wait for calmer weather to then dive under the ship and inspect the damage more closely and then be able to repair it.
The positions on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.:
1. PRB, Vincent Riou 2. Sill Véolia, Roland Jourdain, to the leader: 21.1 nautical miles3. VMI, Sébastien Josse, zF: 26.24. Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson, zF: 26.55. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, zF: 32.36. Ecover, Mike Golding, zF: 32.77. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick, zF: 38.48. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, zF: 41.7 9. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, zF: 61.0 10. UUDS, Hervé Laurent, zF: 61.211. VM Matériaux, Patrice Carpentie, zF: 64.412. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, zF: 65.813. Pro-Form, Marc Thiercelin, zF: 68.514. Skandia, Nick Moloney, zf: 86.5 15. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, zF: 87.4 16. AkenVérandas, Raphael Dinelli, zF: 136.117. Roxy, Anne Liardet, zF: 137.718. Max Havelaar / Best Western, Benoît Parnaudeau, zF: 147.119. Benefic, Karen Leibovici, zF: 183.920. Brother, Norbert Sedlacek, zF: 187.0