Mike Golding ("Ecover") comes up powerful
On the 44th day at sea, Mike Golding fought his way up to edge three in his "Ecover" in the 25,000-nautical-mile one-handed regatta. There are 285 nautical miles separating him from the leading Frenchman Jean Le Cam ("Bonduelle").
"If I'm not more than 400 nautical miles behind the leader at Cape Horn, I still have a chance of winning the race," said the Briton Mike Golding at the start of the Vendée Globe in Les Sables d'Olonne. That's how much the skipper trusts his new "Ecover", which is perhaps the best ship in the fleet. At the moment, however, Golding is sailing better than his own target.
This morning he was ranked third in the Vendée for the first time. The fact that he is only 300 miles behind Jean Le Cam and Vincent Riou ("PRB") is all the more astonishing as he was around 800 miles behind on the geographic length of Cape Town. Together with Sébastien Josse ("VMI"), the he was just able to leave behind him last night, he now hunts Le Cam and Riou, albeit in conditions that were not expected in the South Pacific. Instead of gliding in front of the wind, the four foresailers fight with the wind coming from the east. According to the weather forecast, these conditions will continue for another three days.
Good for Golding, whose "Ecover" has great strengths compared to "Bonduelle", "PRB" and "VMI" on the wind, bad for the leading four overall. Because the sailors around the fifth-placed Swiss Dominique Wavre ("Temenos") are meanwhile with wind from astern. With a lead of around 1,000 miles, the management group can still live on its cushion for some time.
1. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, 54 ° 27'60 S, 173 ° 06'44 E, nautical miles to the destination: 11,053.8 2. PRB, Vincent Riou, nautical miles behind leader (ShF): 26.1 3. Ecover, Mike Golding, ShF: 285.34. VMI, Sébastien Josse, ShF: 287.75. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, ShF: 1086.06. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick, ShF: 1687.17. Skandia, Nick Moloney, ShF: 1,927.48. Pro-Form, Marc Thiercelin, ShF: 2,084.59. VM Matériaux, Patrice Carpentier, ShF: 2,452.910. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, ShF: 2,485.211. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, ShF: 2,872.512. Max Havelaar / Best Western, Benoît Parnaudeau, ShF: 3,224.413. Roxy, Anne Liardet, ShF: 3,437.3 14. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, ShF: 3605.415. AkenVérandas, Raphaël Dinelli, ShF: 3,673.0 16. Benefic, Karen Leibovici, ShF: 3,798.8DNF: Sill et Veolia, Roland JourdainDNF: Hugo Boss, Alex ThomsonDNF: UUDS, Hervé LaurentDNF: brother, Norbert Sedlacek