After 59 days at sea Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) and Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) continue their personal struggle for overall Vendee Globe victory . . . Others are facing mother-nature’s wrath.
In sixth place Boris Herrmann (Malizia – Seaexplorer) experienced two nearby lightning strikes that damaged the electronics and gave him a real fright. He lost most of his electronics onboard during a storm front.
Fortunately, he managed to recover an autopilot and some navigation instruments.
“Those who say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place are wrong,” he says.
“All the alarms coming on and the boat gybing instantly, lying flat on the water, with the wind increasing, more thunder and more lightning. I don’t have many things left working: The radar is broken, the screen here doesn’t work anymore.”
“I have no load cells whatsoever and I don’t have foil rake or keel angle data. The keel system doesn’t work as normal, but I can charge the batteries. I have power, I have the watermaker, I have the Oscar unit, I have wind instruments and one pilot.”
The later part of the fleet has been subjected to a strong depression for several days that’s sweeping across the bottom of South America.
During the passage of the depression from Thursday to Friday, average winds of 35-40 knots, with gusts of 50 knots, along with 6 metre waves are expected.
Guirec Soudée in 24th is part of this group and Wednesday morning the halyard of the code 0 headsail of the IMOCA Freelance.com broke. The 200m2 sail ended up in the water and wrapped itself around the keel, forcing him to take a dive under his boat to recover the sail.
This swim was carried out in water of 5° Celsius while the boat was uncontrollable and drifting towards the coast.
After successfully retrieving the sail Guirec admitted to being exhausted: confiding to his team: “I have no more juice left.”
Vendee Globe Leaders at 22:00 hrs GMT Wednesday 8 January 2025
1st FRA Charlie Dalin MACIF Santé Prévoyance – 2113 nm to Finish
2nd FRA Yoann Richomme PAPREC ARKÉA – 195 nm to leader
3rd FRA Sébastien Simon GROUPE Dubreuil – 751 nm to leader
4th FRA Jérémie Beyou CHARAL – 2316 nm to leader
5th GBR Sam Goodchild VULNERABLE – 2318 nm to leader
6th GER Boris Herrmann MALIZIA – SEAEXPLORER
7th FRA Thomas Ruyant VULNERABLE
8th FRA Paul Meilhat Biotherm
9th FRA Nicolas Lunven HOLCIM – PRB
10th SUI Justine Mettraux TEAMWORK-Team Snef
11th FRA Benjamin Dutreux GUYOT ENVIRONNEMENT – WATER FAMILY
12th FRA Clarisse Crémer L’OCCITANE en Provence
13th GBR Samantha Davies Initiatives-Cœur – 2938 nm to leader
14th FRA Romain Attanasio FORTINET – BEST WESTERN
15th FRA Damien Seguin GROUPE APICIL
16th FRA Jean Le Cam TOUT COMMENCE EN FINISTERE – ARMOR-LUX
17th SUI Alan Roura HUBLOT
18th FRA/GER Isabelle Joschke MACSF
19th ITA Giancarlo Pedote – PRYMIAN
20th FRA Benjamin Ferre – Monnoyeur
