Now sailing directly southeast towards the tip of South Africa Charlie Dalin is not far short of record pace this morning, hitting a consistent 25kts in the fast reaching conditions which are good for his Verdier designed boat. Dalin has opened his lead to some 60 miles now over the two VULNERABLE IMOCAs Thomas Ruyant in second and Briton Sam Goodchild who is still doing a fantastic job with his older generation boat in third.

 

The leaders have the low pressure that they are hooking into directly to their south and while they will gradually join the flight to the South Indian Ocean the question is how many of the leading boats will make it on to the direct flight and who will miss it. 

 

“There is no time to lose!” the defending Vendée Globe champion Yannick Bestaven (Maître CoQ V) reminded us last night. It should be a given that he, in an excellent sixth this morning, and the large majority of the top peloton should have no problem converging south to catch the system from around midday that Dalin and the top sailors will catch their ride. 

 

"From the moment we find ourselves wedged on the north side, we should make a nice diagonal to reach the Southern Ocean", rejoiced Bestaven who, in fact, was one of the outstanding performers in the south last time.  "The gap with Charlie will continue to increase", promises Bestaven who himself expects to break away from a large part of the competition in the coming hours. 

 

"Since crossing the equator, it's been very intense and very tight. There are several of us seeing each other and we're all absolutely on it to make our boats work as fast as possible. The sea is pretty neat so it's not too unpleasant apart from the heat", detailed Bestaven who, like the others, is making giant strides. As proof, in the last 24 hours, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) has covered more than 523 miles. 

 

Hard to keep pace with newer machines
"It's not easy to keep up the pace, especially for me who is positioned a little further east because I think I have a little less wind than the others", commented Justine Mettraux (TeamWork - Team Snef) who nevertheless has had a fantastic start to the race and, who like Goodchild, is just about holding her own against the more recent boats although she has lost miles to her good friend and rival Davies who has the latest Sam Manuard design. 

 

"It's great to be a small pack of 10-12 people fighting it out in front. We're all going to try to take a fairly northerly route with this depression coming from Brazil and above all not to let it go", says the Swiss racer. 

 

"If everything goes as planned, it promises to be fast without being too mad, which could allow us to get back to good timings compared to the reference times, which wouldn't be bad", commented Yoann Richomme (ARKEA PAPREC) who still thinks his 24-hour record in a solo monohull (551 miles) will be improved, ideally by him!

 

RECORD PROSPECT?
"When I did it, I was quite slow at the beginning, around 10 knots. Then, over 17 hours, I had an average of 25.5 knots. So I think we are capable of approaching 600 miles in one day and thus getting closer to the crewed record (648.48 miles achieved by the Holcim – PRB team as part of The Ocean Race in May 2023, editor's note)", warns the Richomme "The angle of descent may not be ideal this time. We'll see. What is certain is that managing the trajectory will be interesting over the next few days. It's a good prospect!" 

 

It is indeed for those who manage to take advantage of the depression. However, it is a little less so for the others who understand the consequences that it will have. 

 

ROURA WORRIES...
"It's hard because it closes a door. We're not going to have much of a chance of catching up afterwards, of course, but at the moment it's hard on the nerves. So we shouldn't think about it too much. The fleet did split up in a very short space of time. It really came down to very little. However, I think that in the front group, not everyone is going to leave with the depression. We'll see some of them again soon," confided Alan Roura (Hublot). A Sunday which will be bloody or beautiful depening….
 

Image: Justine Mettraux (SUI), skipper of Team Snef