Vendee Globe - Third placed yacht loses keel overnight.

Tomahawk said:
Just looked .. 23:00 hours on Wed night.. Jolly chap is still keeping in front of Alex...

I know he shoudn't manage to get home... but looks like he is doing his level best to get a podium...
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I would be surprised if he continued past the Azores. It looks like the routing takes him past there or between the islands anyway, so he is sailing the same route whether he abandons or continues. But I really find it hard to believe that he would just keep going. With the weather that is forecast he would be running huge risks.

He should be at the Azores in about two days. We'll know then.

Alex should pass him before they get to the Azores. Keeping Alex at bay for several days, however, is absolutely amazing.
 
E39mad said:
Why?? He would get a suitable time redress from the race committee as others have in the past when going to the aid of a fellow competitor.
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Even so. 3rd place on the podium due to a time adjustment is not quite the same a being 3rd over the line in one of the closest Vendee finishes in its history. Alex was reported as saying “I would rather that Jean Pierre Dick finished the race and came third and I came fourth then he didn’t finish the race at all.” Top bloke in my opinion!!

Another telling quote in the context of continuing to race without a keel he said, “there’s some big weather ahead. It’s not something I would do – well maybe before I had a family.” :eek::eek:
 
What do y'all think would be the likely public response if Alec Thomson stayed with and 'shepherded' Jean-Paul Dick all the way to Sables d'Olonne - if the broken boat could stay upright...? Would that not bring huge media-coverage returns for the sponsors?
 
oldbilbo said:
What do y'all think would be the likely public response if Alec Thomson stayed with and 'shepherded' Jean-Paul Dick all the way to Sables d'Olonne - if the broken boat could stay upright...? Would that not bring huge media-coverage returns for the sponsors?
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That`s a nice idea but Alex couldn't help him in any way or they would both be disqualified. All Alex could do is pick him up out of the water if his boat sinks. All Alex wanted to do with this race was finish it in under 80 days and it looks like he will do it. Then again, i guess there is nothing stopping him following JPD all the way in as you suggest. Time will tell. Great race though.
 
looking at the weather for the next few days... JPD could make it to the finish even with the expected blow.. the wind is mostly behind him and once Alex goes past there is a huge gap to Jean Le Cam so he can take his tome and still have a fourth..

If Alex does decide to keep in sight I think that would be remarkable sportsmanship.... and a good PR story.. In is race the greatest opponent is the sea...
 
Tomahawk said:
looking at the weather for the next few days... JPD could make it to the finish even with the expected blow.. the wind is mostly behind him and once Alex goes past there is a huge gap to Jean Le Cam so he can take his tome and still have a fourth..

If Alex does decide to keep in sight I think that would be remarkable sportsmanship.... and a good PR story.. In is race the greatest opponent is the sea...
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Not sure I'd much fancy being in a Biscay gale in any sort of boat, let alone one that (by JPD's own admission) is more like a big windsurfer than a yacht! :eek:

Alex's team are suggesting that conditions in the final run-in the the French coast are likely to be some of the most challenging of the entire race! http://www.alexthomsonracing.com/2013/01/2973/

weather-644x356.jpg
 
If they were still in the Southern Ocean then Alex Thompson would already be going to assist. Since however they are in the North Atlantic now the likelihood of Thompson being best placed to assist JPD is rather remote. Chances are there will be plenty of other shipping closer and better able to help.
 
Just posted on twitter from Alex..... "I have changed course to stay closer to JPD while this front goes through tonight and tomorrow morning"
 
This was his update....

We've just had the following update through from Alex concerning his current weather and his plan for tonight and JP Dick:

“I am back into real North Atlantic conditions again and the wind is colder and the sea state has started to get pretty rough again. Over the last few days I have been worried about JP Dick and him sailing without his keel and even though my optimum route takes me more North and West of my current course and back to Les Sables fast and direct, this morning when I experienced the conditions I decided to change course to stay with JP until I know that he is happy with the boat and he has made his decision about what he will do regarding stopping or continuing.

Tonight and tomorrow morning a front will pass over myself and JP with some strong breeze and I will stick around him to make sure there is someone close by if something was to happen to him. JP is a great sailor and I am confident in his ability to sail safely to wherever he choses but I know that if I was in his position I would like to have someone watching my back through the strong winds that are coming.

He has not asked me to assist in any way, but I really feel that I cannot sail off and leave him until I know that he is confident and has confirmed what his intentions are. It is simple for me really, if he has a problem I will try and help him and once he has got through the worst of the weather safely and happy with the boat tonight, and if he then decides to continue with the race safely, then I will adjust my course and continue with mine. What I don’t want is to be too far away from him if he has an issue with the coming strong winds and before he knows if he is fully capable of continuing.”
 
I thought it looked like he had changed course :cool:
In view of the forecast I would expect JP to abandon the race, not really fair to put others in danger!
 
just looked up the tracking..
Thompson is definatelly tracking on JPD.. he has closed to about five miles off ... but seems to reslutelly stay in fourth place..

I wonde if he has it in mind to follow JPD over the finish line?
 
lenseman said:
Shock failure hands Alex Thomson third place

With a third place finish in the Vendée Globe apparently almost guaranteed, Jean-Pierre Dick (Virbac-Paprec 3) heard his dream break with an abrupt bang before midnight on Monday night as Virbac Paprec 3 lost her keel with just over 2,000 of the 28,000 mile race left.

With a squall coming there was a great risk of capsize after losing the four tonne keel (providing approximately half the weight of the boat and most of its stability) and it took all the experience and expertise of the 47-year-old skipper to avoid the worst.

He managed to ease the pressure on the sails, turn the boat running downwind and fully fill the ballast tanks to stabilise the boat. The immediate danger has passed but he is still very vulnerable.

Until that point he was continuing to close on the front two and still had faint hopes of catching them.

Dick, still technically in third place on the ranking because he has not retired, is heading for shelter at the Azores, still over 1,000 miles away on Monday morning. He is on a starboard tack in a northeast wind of 20 knots. He cannot take a direct route at the moment and must head north-east for two days, but in 450 miles he should pick up some undisturbed south-west wind and will be able to head directly to the Azores archipelago. He is expected to arrive there in six days, which will be a difficult time because he was expected to have arrived in Les Sables by then.

The skipper from Nice is in third Vendée Globe. He finished sixth in 2004-05 but had to retire from the 2008-09 race with broken rudders after hitting a UFO.

Dick’s misfortune is part of the thread that runs through the history of the Vendée Globe. There is no good time to suffer a failure but there is something especially cruel about it happening so close to the finish. The second edition of the race in 1992-93 saw the first such cruel blow as Philippe Poupon, in second and chasing the leader Alain Gautier, dismasted. But Poupon was still able to limp home in third the place. The line has continued to the modern day and Roland Jourdain lost his keel bulb whilst clear in second place in the last edition in 2008-09 and was also forced to seek shelter at the Azores, where he assessed and then retired. Such keel failures failures obey only the laws of physics and chance not those of merit.

Already in this race, the North Atlantic claimed two keels in the first two weeks of this race, when Marc Guillemot’s titanium keel broke off on the first night and then Jeremie Beyou suffered hydraulic failure of the canting mechanism and almost lost the whole keel in the second week.

Virbac Paprec 3 was one of the six new boats in this edition and one of the four VPLP-Verdier designed boats. Many, including Alex Thomson, had said they would be too light and fragile to make it around the world. But that has appeared wide of the mark. Vincent Riou (PRB) was forced out in the second week of the race, in the South Atlantic, after unluckily hitting a harbour buoy that drifted and submerged 500 miles off the coast of Brazil. But the VPLP-Verdier boats have continued to form the leading pack from start to finish and either MACIF or Banque Populaire have led for most of the race, setting an unrelenting pace that could smash the old record by a week if they finish in 77 days on January 26. Dick was dropped by them in the Indian Ocean and soon after made his first of several trips up the mast to make fixes, but he has been their permanent shadow ever since.



Thomson into third



Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) who could now achieve both his targets of third place and 80 days around the world. But Dick’s sudden failure will have sent a shudder through him and the entire fleet and underlined the old Vendée cliché that ‘to finish first (or anywhere) first you have to finish.’ The race is not over until you cross the finish line at Les Sables d’Olonne.

Only yesterday on Vendee Globe TV, Thomson had talked about keeping up the pressure in case one of those ahead had a problem. But he said he would not wish any misfortune on anyone: “At the stage of the race we’re at now, I would be very sad for anybody who has a problem, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”

Thomson, is still in fourth place, 236 miles behind Dick, 562 miles behind second-placed Armel Le Cléac’h (Banque Populaire) and 657 miles from the leader, Francois Gabart (MACIF). But he has a huge 1,627-mile lead on those behind him, with Mike Golding (Gamesa), who passed Jean Le Cam (SynerCiel) overnight, albeit by only a mile again.

Golding (Gamesa) will understand Dick’s shock more than most, after losing his keel with 50 miles to go in the 2004-05 edition, where he limped in third after the closest race in Vendée Globe history.

Le Cléac’h continued to erode Gabart’s lead, taking back almost 50 miles in the last 24 hours. The 0400hrs ranking he was 95 miles behind, but Gabart had found the better breeze in the last hour, averaging 15.6 knots to Le Cléac’h’s 11.2 knots, although as through the night, Le Cléac’h’s better angle and VMG was nullifying that. After what has befallen Dick their finish will be even more tense.

There was some drama at the back of the fleet too as eleventh-placed Tanguy de Lamotte (Initiatives cœur), suffered a halyard failure and watched his huge Code 0 sail drop into the water. "The road does not end, she extendable,” he wrote this moring. “The second halyard broke and the code 0 is passed in water. I had to change the sail before dark and I visually checked the halyard all the time since and noticed nothing suspicious...I was going to write you a nice email saying that it was a beautiful day with albatross and flying fish: it's nice to have two at the same time. It will be necessary that I go up the mast as soon as possible to return to retrieve the headsail halyard, meantime, I rest and will do it tomorrow."

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/article/10679/broken-dreams-as-dick-loses-keel.html


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Prosecute them for littering the seabed with their keels from these badly designed yachts I say :eek:
 
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Tomahawk said:
I wonde if he has it in mind to follow JPD over the finish line?
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Not if JPD has any say in the matter..

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/article/11173/jean-pierre-dick-thank-you-very-much-alex.html

Response to JP Alex Thomson

"Thank you Alex. It touches me deeply.

I will study the weather to see if I can continue to safely navigate to the Sables d'Olonne. I sent a photo with a message for you, "Alex, take this 3rd position with care" (take care of the third place). It is important to me!

Do not hesitate to call me.
JP "
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Alex is back on track with his bow pointed North again as Jean-Pierre has decided not to stop at the Azores:

"Last night I saw some pretty strong winds, up to 30kts, so I am very glad I came down to stay close to JP. I know I would have been feeling very nervous indeed in these conditions with no keel!

It seems that JP has got the boat into a very stable sailing mode and is very comfortable with how the boat handles in these conditions. The weather will get better today for us both with the winds falling and his forecast for heading to the Portuguese Coast looks good.

Earlier today he called me on the phone to thank me for staying with him overnight and to also say he feels fully confident in his ability to now sail towards Portugal. With the good forecast and improving conditions, I am happy the big danger has passed and I have gybed and am heading back to Les Sables."
 
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