On the southern highway, against much faster sailboats, I will go cross-country as soon as I can, says Le Cam in this cartoon. It should say on the way to the Southern highway, but it is really what we all are waiting to see, whether or not he can do it again, if he can cross Saint Hellen high much better than the others and recover the leadership.
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| Linkedout, Ruyant's boat |
Right at the beginning of the Vendée, when Ruyant and Dalin were many places behind Thomson, after Beyou had problems, I commented, on my facebook page, where I am following the race in detail, that the three that are leading would leave all the others behind, that if they did not break, one of them would win the Vendée, and that I would bet on Ruyant.
And it seems I got it right, the three continue heading towards Southeast increasing, every hour, the distance to the others and there is no one who is able to match them in speed, except from time to time Simon, the only one in the two groups on the head of the race, who, like them has a new boat (2018/2019).
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| Hugo Boss, Thomson's boat |
Once again it shows how fast the evolution in these boats is and how good the naval architects who design them are, to the point that a boat designed 4 years ago is no longer competitive, at the highest level. Truth be told that unfortunately the best boat of the previous generation, the old Hugo Boss, is not competing, having been bought by an American to do the Ocean race, which unfortunately has been postponed.
1We can see that the first three are going at full speed without anyone else being able to keep up with them, everyone on the second group losing miles and that has been like that for days.
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| Apivia, Dalin's boat |
Among the leading trio, today, between 4.00 in the morning and 8.00, the fastest was Dalin (23.2) who is now chasing Thomson, who scored an average of 20.7 kt in the last four hours. Ruyant, who now leads, made the same average speed as Thomson.
In the second group Le Cam continues to surprise by making 17.4 and being faster than Samantha (15.4) and Burton (16.5), but Burton is placing his boat further West, sailing with a worse wind angle than that of Le Cam, which is the one that is sailing more to Southeast and that will cross the anti-cyclone of Saint Hellen more to the East.
We'll see if he can get again another rabbit out of the hat and win a lot of miles there to everyone, as he has done before. Between the ones leading it is Ruyant who is more to the East and therefore also being the slowest of the three in the head of the race.
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| Yes we Cam, Le Cam's boat |
In the second group four were faster than Le Cam, Escoffier (17.6), Boris (18.0), Bestaven (17.8) and Simon (18.2) but the truth is that they recovered little.
Between 8.00 in the morning and 14.00 hours it has been pretty much the same, with the three leading boats going away from the second group, with Ruyant matching Thomson's speed, both doing 20.2kt average and with Dalin approaching them almost 2kts faster, doing 22.3kt.
Behind, on the second group, Le Cam is doing 16.4 being faster than Escoffier (14.5) but slower than all others, with Samantha doing 16.8, Simon 17.1, Burton 17.7, Bestaven 19.2 and Boris 19.3. From all the others only Pedote on the third group was able to match these speeds doing 17.1kts. But again, Le Cam not losing much ground.
Le Cam is doing an incredible race but the reason he can do so well has not only to do with his great sailing but because this Vendée has been very slow, with winds weaker than previous ones and that does not allow the new foilers to show all their potential.
To understand how much slower this Vendée has been if compared with the previous one we can compare the position of the one that is leading this one, with the position of the one that was leading last year, on a slower boat at the same time. Armel last year with 21days of race had already passed the Cape of Good Hope three days ago!
At this point, approaching Saint Hellen High it's navigators’ turn again and the game is open in what regards choosing the best course to cross the weak winds of Saint Hellen high-pressure center, in the most efficient way, towards the highway of the southern winds.
Here, in a day you can win or lose what you have won or lost at pure speed in 15 days. The big game is open, bets are accepted.
The ones that want to follow this race with me can do so on my facebook page commenting in English or in your language. I will write in Portuguese but can reply in your language, if I can. Facebook has a good translator and that is great.
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