On a race which has a recent history of dealing close, tight finishes, the final miles of the Transat Jacques Vabre can be the most nerve racking. The finish line is all but in sight, the miles counting down with a pleasing whirr, but for Safran’s Marc Guillemot and Charles Caudrelier – who are seeking to convert the lead they have held for nine days – they still have no shortage of pressure, and it is likely to stay heaped upon them until the end.
 
      And with less than 450 miles to go in this ninth edition of the Transat Jacques Vabre, the gap back from Safran to Kito de Pavant and François Gabart on Groupe Bel is just over 70 miles. In 2007 the Safran duo missed out, taking second just 54 minutes behind Michel Desjoyeaux and Manu Le Borgnan on the course from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. In 2005 the winning margin of Jean-Pierre Dick and Loick Peyron was just 35 minutes over Roland Jourdain and Ellen MacArthur. This new coffee route course to Costa Rica may yet brew up an equally close finish. 

      Groupe Bel are an ever present threat, as they have been to Safran since they eased past Mike Golding Yacht Racing a week ago, Saturday night 14th, to install themselves in second place. A relatively stationary little low pressure trough has installed itself over the Gulf of Panama. That has contributed to some spicy squall activity for the two leaders today but so there is the distinct threat that the final miles in to the finish line off Costa Rica’s Puerto Limon will not be easy. This morning, in a blustery 30 knots, Safran’s co-skipper Guillemot sounded slightly slightly harassed and was certainly too busy to speak for more than a few snatched seconds.

Groupe Bel are but one gybe behind, but how much compression there will be in the variable, fluky winds which are predicted for the finish tomorrow (Tues) late afternoon or evening, no one is prepared to guess.
Safran crossed the longitude of Cartagena (Colombia) which was the finish for the Transat Jacques Vabre from 1993 to 1999, with a time of 13 days and 22 hours of sailing.
Underlining the evolution of the class ten years ago, the winner of the IMOCA Open 60 division took 19 days and 17 hours over the same course.
By comparison with the course record to Salvador de Bahia, JP Dick and Loick Peyron’s 13.51 knots in 2005 compares with the course average so far of Safran at 13.26 knots.
Safran had done 375 miles over the 24 hours to 1100hrs today.
 
      While Mike Golding Yacht Racing and Foncia seem assured of third and fourth, the race for sixth to eighth remains the closest group of the IMOCA Open 60. While Pepe Ribes and Alex Pella now hold sixth place on W-Hotels, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson were breaking away from eighth and the heat of battle to effect a rapid pit stop to collect a replacement generator control panel at a rendezvous off St Lucia. The British duo were just two miles short of Veolia Environnment’s seventh when they diverged north.
 Golding confirmed to this morning’s radio vacs with Puerto Limon, Costa Rica that he feels sure that the leaders will squeeze up in the lighter, variable airs expected, but – he said – it would be unlikely to be enough for he and his Spanish co-skipper Javier Sanso to make any impact on the two leaders who are head by more than half of the remaining race track. Plagued by electrical problems, he is still on target for his fourth Transat Jacques Vabre podium finish in the six times he has raced in this Autumn classic.
 
Quotes:
 
Charles Caudrelier, (FRA) Safran:
“It has calmed a little since last night. It is calmer but no holidays. It is very demanding just now. We have so much to do, there is just one thing after another. I helm in shorts which is quite pleasant but you are soaked most of the time with water coming over the deck. We take turns doing things, I don’t mind from time to time being at the chart table.
It feels like we are getting near the end. You sleep little and make lost of moves..
Stealth mode? I don’t know if that is supposed to be funny, but for you it would not be funny now not to know who was leading now….!!”
 
Dee Caffari, (GBR), Aviva:
“It is all set up and we are now just trying to sail to St Lucia as fast as possible, these are great conditions to be sailing in and so we can’t complain too much and it should not cost us too much time, which is good because our competition is tough.
It was an incredible night to drive in, I kind of struggled. I kind of thought we would have lost a lot, and when we got our position reports it was one of our better nights….
It is full of surprises, but it just goes to show how hard we are all working. It is closer and closer.
We are trying to organize so it will be as swift as possible and not let us lose too much, especially in terms of our focus. We are so just trying to concentrate on boat speed all the time and the generator is just background.”
 
 
Mike Golding, (GBR) Mike Golding Yacht Racing:
“The gybes are quite interesting with a short sea, and quite a lot of wind. We are making good progress. We are still having to do quite a lot of hand steering which is quite tiring. At the one time we are massively overpowered and at the other we are hardly moving at all, so that is the only way to do it with no wind on the pilots.
We run trust watch system with no fixed timings, so we work as long as we feel we are alert and try and give the other person as much respect as possible, sometimes one guy is pretty tired then the other will know that and be feeling up for it and so give the other a bit more time lying down, and then when conditions get tough like just now then we are hand steering a lot then we maybe try and do three hour stints, but we have no precise watch system.
There will be a close up towards the end, as inevitably it will get lighter towards the finish, and that may well make for an exciting finish, certainly for the first two boats, and we might see some significant compression, right now with the conditions but with a large gap ahead of us and a similarly large gap behind us, then we are straight lining and trying not to break anything unecessarily.”

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Since the end of the day yesterday the first boat of the Istanbul
Europa Race fleet has entered the Atlantic, leaving the Mediterranean
in its wake. One by one, on the same single tack, the crews have
followed in the tracks of leader Michel Desjoyeaux, who has been
leading the way towards Brest for more than the last 24 hours. Though
all are making modest speeds, the passage of the Straits of Gibraltar
has mixed up the competition on this third leg more than ever,
particularly among the boats vying closest to take on the leader.
Veolia Environnement and Groupe Bel have been having quite a battle,
which Paprec Virbac 2 is doing its utmost to join. Further back, the
Spaniards aboard 1876 have been contending with a mast problem which has slowed them down, while the Mediterranean has yet to finish with the men of DCNS…

For its first edition, the Istanbul Europa Race has the pleasure of presenting a fleet of around fifteen boats,  helmed by the top sailors of our time. The trust the sailors display in the organising company, together  with the scale of the event and the course on offer,  greatly appeal to sailing  professionals.

In terms of image,  the skippers are perceived as adventurers, sacrificing everything for their passion and a far cry from overpaid stars. In addition they practise a sport which, though given a lot of media coverage, is sheltered from the numerous excesses you can observe in other sports (structured finance, doping), and benefits from a ‘clean’ image in every sense of the word.

As such  these top level offshore racers have expressed a desire to accept the invitation to what is to be an unmissable race in their professional career. Among them we can already mention:

The Istanbul Europa Race, in the prestigious IMOCA class, is the latest great sailing race in the yachting calendar. Its long course through Europe is to make it a major sporting event from its very first edition. In the great tradition of stage races, the Istanbul Europa Race will bring together a fleet comprised of some of very best sailors of our time, taking them on an ideal course and offering a genuine invitation to travel.

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BT Sebastien Josse (Photo By Jacques Vapillon Pixsail.com)

 

 

The 60 and 40 footers really showed what they were made of in the bay of Douarnenez in NW France today, such is their presence as they power along. Two starts were given this morning with remarkable precision on the part of the race committee headed by Loïc Ponceau: 1038 hours on the dot for the Class 40s and 1108 hours for the 60 footers, in exactly the same manner as yesterday. In contrast though, today’s weather conditions were very different, with 15 knots of N’ly wind and clear blue skies. The monohulls quickly devoured the 47 miles of the course which took them as far as the Tas de Pois and ultimately line honours at 1517 hours went to BT. As such the British contingent stood out, with Artemis getting off to the best start.  

Meantime Le Pal was the first out of the starting blocks in the 40 foot category and the self same Bruno Jourdren and his crew of Bernard Stamm and Kito De Pavant also led proceedings yesterday, even beating in two 60 footers, DCNS and Artemis. Today there was a bit of a frosty reception on Jourdren’s boat as the crew were forced to retire for technical issues, which nobody onboard wished to comment on. In substance, Nono (Jourdren) did admit that they could have continued but not without risk of damaging the boat, “a bit like when you have tooth decay and you don’t get it seen to so you end up with a stomach ulcer”. In short, this retirement gave Giovanni Soldini outright victory today. “It’s to thank him (Soldini), because he’s come a long way to come and sail on our waters”.  

For the Class 40, the Grand Prix Petit Navire is a gathering which completely corresponds with the mindset of the sailors in this series: a clever mix of sport and conviviality. So much so that the Class, which has seen a spectacular rise since 2006, is opening itself up ever more on an international level and gathers together both experienced amateurs and professional sailors. “They are boats which are easy to power up and incredibly entertaining on the water” explains Bernard Stamm, skipper of a 60 footer. “It’s rather nice to be invited to sail on a Class 40”.  

Fifteen nationalities in the Dragon class  

“The Grand Prix Petit Navire Dragon is the second largest French meet after Hyères Week” comments Jimmy Pahun, who’s racing on British Dragon Jerboa. “There are 15 nations, which is extremely interesting and the fact that there are so many craft on the water makes it an exciting exercise. It’s an admirable mix of cultures”. The president of the SRD who’s organising the Grand Prix, Louis Urvois, is also a Dragon enthusiast. “It’s a series which gathers together the greatest number of Olympic medallists. The technical level is very high. This boat requires a huge amount of precision and to finish in the top quarter of the fleet is a great result in itself. It’s hard to say who could win this year, but we can rely on the kings of the series such as Vincent Hoesch and Thomas Müller, as well as the Finnish crew of Rat-Pack, the Danish African Queen and a young French crew could really put on a good show on Q-Ti-Too”.  

Passion, precision and… loyalty is an asset and Bijou Bihen’s crew have an abundance of this as they haven’t missed a single one of the Douarnenez meets over the past 10 years. Francis le Bihan, Francis Mouremble and Régis Brachet form a closely-knit trio. Pure amateurs, they come all the way from Toulouse in SW France to the bay of Douarnenez ‘for the sheer enjoyment and conviviality’, even though they sincerely hope they’ll pull off a few blinding performances along the way. The race organisation was able to give the starts on three races today as conditions were great. The local trio of Dirastarc’h (FRA 355) got off to a great start as the top French crew after two races, before giving up pole position to a fellow local crew on Ar Youleg (FRA 365), currently in third. It came as no surprise that the battle has been raging between the Bunker Boys (UKR and Sinewave (GER 996), with the latter winning two races but nevertheless lie in second tonight behind today’s start performers, the Ukrainians.  

The low-down on the pontoons this morning!  

François Angoulvant (Fermiers de Loué-Sarthe): “We’re happy with how the day went yesterday. We worked well scoring a series of third places. Today things will get a bit more complicated as there are three of us tied in second with Telecom Italia (Giovanni Soldini) and Zed 4 (Gérald Bidot). As such there are three of us battling for second and third place. Fortunately there’s more wind than yesterday: the race will certainly be more dynamic because yesterday’s racing was about as calm as you can get. I’m sailing with a group of students who are finding their way around the boat. This has always been the scenario on the yacht: it was designed by Olivier Gouard at the Institut Supérieur des Matériaux et Mécaniques Avancés (ISMANS), the engineering college where I’m employed as teacher and researcher. Consequently my crew is made up of students.”  

Christopher Pratt is sailing on DCNS 1000, skippered by Marc Thiercelin: “The Grand Prix Petit Navire has enabled us to express ourselves on a number of levels. For the first two days we concentrated on speed with the runs across the bay. That was very entertaining and, in addition to that we had a good result on the last day. Yesterday and today the onus has been on strategy and control during manoeuvres. We’ve been struggling a bit on the latter in relation to the others as we don’t know our boat so well. Today’s course was reminiscent of yesterdays, but longer. It’s going really well on the boat: we’ve been able to rub shoulders with people from many different backgrounds. It’s interesting to show them the boat and let them share the sensations we get from sailing”.  

Michel Desjoyeaux (Foncia): “It’s already the third time I’ve been to the Grand Prix Petit Navire with Foncia. We’ve taken part in the event ever since we’ve had the boat. I’d already participated here in the Dragon class some years ago too. Since we began coming here we’ve been trying to share it with as many people as possible, not just confirmed sailors, but also the shore crew, friends and economic players. Yesterday was a bit drawn out. We sailed in light airs but we finished just a few minutes shy of six o’ clock, which was aperitif time so the timing was perfect. In the Class 40s though, some of them missed dessert! This Sunday is likely to be a little livelier on the water…”

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This morning saw the first offshore racing for the Open 60s and 40 footers, whilst the opening of hostilities for the Dragons has been postponed until tomorrow due to a lack of wind. Indeed the bay of Douarnenez swapped yesterday’s spring nuances for a veil of mist. The result was a change of atmosphere on the water with phantom boats emerging from out of the gloom and then disappearing just as quickly as they were swallowed up into the wispy nothingness. 

Local sculptor and highly-skilled Dragon sailor Yann Kersalé could be seen scanning the bay of Douarnenez this morning. “I bought my first Dragon 20 years ago and it was already painted black and christened Dirastarc’h (Breton for ‘win it all’). This bay has a unique geographic configuration, due West, which the sunshine just sinks into. We’re at the tip of Europe so we benefit from the first light and that’s something that is never the same, it’s constantly changing”. A loyal competitor in the Grand Prix Petit Navire, Yann sails with Tanguy Ravac’h and Gildas Philippe, the 4.70 m and Mumm 30 world champions. The crew is 100% local and hope to rank in the top 15. “We’re going to have to watch out for the black flag though as it’s known to be our speciality. In fact we’ve painted the nose of the boat white because a black one is too easy to spot”. Yann’s two crew share this enthusiasm and zest for competition! “It’s an ideal race zone, no matter which way the wind blows. It takes 10 minutes to get out on the water which is perfect” explains Gildas Philippe. “There’s no current, no rocks; the race zone is clear and protected. You come and go as you like” continues Tanguy Ravac’h.  

 

Safe, practical, ideal… what more could you want? Fred Gourlaouen, crew for Bruno Peyron on Ar Maout, goes further: “It’s a genuine stadium for watersports and if we had the infrastructure on shore, it would be the perfect race zone to play host to the America’s Cup”. Jimmy Pahun doesn’t originate from Douarnenez, but the sailor from Morbihan in SW Brittany is just as forthcoming when he talks of the bay: “To sail here is like sailing miles away. It’s about sailing in the verdure, it’s reminiscent of Ireland”. Bruno Peyron is just as enthusiastic: “Quite simply it’s the most beautiful bay in Europe. I am very sensitive to colours, landforms and contrasts and you’ve got it all here”. The Jules Verne Trophy recordman shares Jimmy’s views on preserving this landscape. “We have the Conservatoire du Littoral to thank for protecting such fabulous sites.”  

 

A taste of the open ocean  

Meantime the Class 40s set off on a far from ‘bracing’ coastal course this morning at 1038 hours and thirty minutes later it was the turn of the Open 60 footers. Seemingly at a crawl wading through cotton wool, the monohulls distanced themselves from the port of Rosmeur. The whole of the first part of the 36 mile coastal course was coloured by a very light breeze, but fortunately, early in the afternoon, this filled gently to 10 to 12 knots, which enabled the fleet to lengthen their stride. This respite was only short lived however as at 1800 hours, the wind had dropped again and there was still no sign of the Class 40s.  By the end of the first offshore race, it was the 60 footer BT which was first to cross the finish line at 1743 hours, followed by Foncia at 1752 hours.  

 

The low-down on the pontoons this morning  

Jonny Malbon (Artemis): “It’s my first time at the Grand Prix Petit Navire but I’ve known about the event and have wanted to be part of it for a long time. It’s also the first time I’ve come to Douarnenez: it’s a very pretty town and the coast is fantastic. When I arrived here three days ago, it was like being home in England: certain coastlines in Brittany and England are very similar. I’ve loved sailing in the bay, even though the sailing has been a bit difficult for my crew as some don’t know the boat very well yet. We’re getting on well though and we’re relishing being out on the water: that’s what’s important. Above all else we’re here to learn to control the boat better and naturally the best way of doing that is to sail against other honed crews. As such we’re clearly in the right place”.  

Jean Galfione sailing on Foncia, alongside Michel Desjoyeaux: “I really enjoyed the first two days of sailing. I’m really lucky to be able to sail on Foncia with Michel Desjoyeaux and his crew. There’s a great atmosphere aboard and I’m learning loads of things on this boat that I didn’t know before. For the time being we’ve racked up some good speeds with some great results comprising firsts and seconds. On the water it’s been fantastic, especially yesterday in the sun which stayed with us the whole afternoon. Though it’s misty today it’s so beautiful. I love the landscape here in Douarnenez. There’s no stress on the boat at all. Added to that, for Michel this racing is above all a chance to enable sponsors and friends to sail. The upshot of this is that the Grand Prix Petit Navire has a very nice, festive air to it”.

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Monday 16 March 2009, A key point in the IMOCA Class’ calendar is announcing its new World Champion.  This time  the annual title goes to 32 year old Armel le Cleac’h.  He shares the IMOCA Championship podium with Marc Guillemot and Michel Desjoyeaux, exactly the same podium as the Vendée Globe, but the reverse way round.  Armel, skipper of Brit Air, has won his place by finishing second in both the Artemis Transat and the Vendée Globe. The Vendée Globe obviously carries the maximum points in the championship, and all 12 sailors that completed it will be rewarded accordingly.  This year the top ten rankings is made up of 5 French skippers, 4 Brits and 1 American.  Amongst them will be Sam Davies in 4th place who was the first Brit and first woman to finish the race. 

So at the age of 32, since winning the ‘Solitaire du Figaro’  in 2003, Armel has gradually but convincingly established himself on the IMOCA circuit. He is hoping to add to this recent accolade by winning the 2009 Transat Jacques Vabre.

Armel Le Cleac’h commented on winning :
« We are really happy! This title goes to the whole team who have worked together since the start of the project. Consistency reaps rewards. The whole way through the project our main aim was always to have a really good Vendée Globe and to finish in the best possible place we could.  We’ve finished second in the two greatest solo races on the circuit. That proves that we got our timing right, and had the right approach, even if we were denied an actual win.  As far as the boat’s concerned, we got it right, as at no point have we had to make any major modifications after any of the races.  I’m also really pleased that my sponsor Brit Air has made it as IMOCA World Champion after only three years in sailing. I’d like to finish by saying that it’s a great podium, I’m just in front of Marc who has vast experience and has one of the best boats and then obviously there is the winner of the Vendée Globe, Michel Desjoyeaux himself. It goes without saying that (sharing the podium with them) gives me a lot of pleasure.  I’m continuing this season with Brit Air and would really like to finish it off by winning the Transat Jacques Vabre for the first time. »

The 2008 IMOCA World Championship Top 10

1 Armel Le Cleac’h FRA  371
2 Marc Guillemot  FRA  368
3 Michel Desjoyeaux FRA  351
4 Samantha Davies  GBR  338
5 Vincent Riou  FRA  316
6 Arnaud Boissieres FRA  290
7 Dee Caffari   GBR  288
8 Brian Thompson  GBR  260
9 Steve White   GBR  256
10 Richard Wilson  USA  226

The 2008 title is made up from the coefficients from the Vendée Globe (coef 10) and The Artemis Transat (coef 4).
- Ends-

 

IMOCA Champions (since the Championship creation in 1991)
2008  Armel Le Cleach (France)
2007 Bernard Stamm (Suisse)
2006 Jean Le Cam (France)
2005 Mike Golding (UK)
2004 Mike Golding (UK)
2003 Bernard Stamm (Suisse)
2002 Roland Jourdain (France)
2001 Roland Jourdain (France)

EXTRACTS FROM ARMEL LE CLEAC’H’s CV :
Born on 11th May 1977, married with 1 child. He lives in Gouesnach (Finistère).

2009 2nd in the Vendée Globe
        IMOCA World Champion
2008 2nd in The Artemis Transat
2007 7th in the Transat Jacques Vabre with Nicolas Troussel
2006 Became skipper of Brit Air
        4th in The Route Du Rhum – La Banque Postale
        4th in the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro
2005 Skipper onboard trimaran Foncia
2004 Winner of AG2R Transat with Nicolas Troussel / Figaro
2003 Winner of the Solitaire Afflelou Le Figaro
2000 2nd in the Solitaire du Figaro
1999 Winner of the Crédit Agricole Challenge Espoir

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After 126 days 5 hrs 31 mins and 56 secs at sea Sedlacek crossed the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne at 17hrs 33 min 56 secs GMT, the delighted soloist – who started his sailing career on a six metres boat on the shallow waters of Vienna’s Neusiedler See as leisure diversion from his life as a tram driver – was simply ecstatic to finally complete the race among an excited flotilla of well wishers and spectator boats on a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon.  Sedlacek sailed the theoretical distance of 24,840 miles at 8.2 knots after covering 27,707 miles on the water at an average speed of 9.15 knots. 

Sedlacek’s sheer pleasure this afternoon is doubled by the fact that this is his second attempt at the race. He had to retire in 2004 after just less than a month of racing, sailing back into Cape Town bitterly disappointed after suffering a mechanical failure with his canting keel system on his aluminium hulled boat which was built in 1996.

The Austrian skipper has shown the same grit, drive and determination throughout his race that has propelled him from the dissatisfaction with his life between the rails, driving a tram in Vienna, to sailing round the world on a 28 foot Wolf boat which he built himself in a parking lot in 1998 and which he sailed around Italy, the Mediterranean and Gibraltar, before sailing around the world. His longest period at sea until this Vendée Globe had been 93 days sailing from Cape Town. In 2000-01 he took part in an Antarctic challenge on a Garcia 54 to become the first Austrian to achieve this feat. He is an almost entirely self taught sailor who knows every centimetre and every fitting on his boat which was built for the 1996 Vendée Globe, but which Sedlacek has extensively remodelled and rebuilt. Of all the skippers in the race there is little doubt that Sedlacek spent more hours steering his boat, sometimes to feel more in control in the conditions, sometimes simply to challenge himself to see how many hours he could do, and sometimes just to enjoy the pleasant weather.

His story is an appropriately uplifting and inspiring one to safely draw to an end this epic sixth edition of the race. His has been a race which should prove as much of a focus to galvanise the adventurers and the dreamers to get going for the next race, or the one after that, as was the amazing win of Michel Desjoyeaux who finished

Throughout it he has proven his excellent seamanship, but he has regularly admitted that he has enjoyed every day of his race, sometimes relishing the tough conditions. While he has pushed on prudently he was hit by one of the biggest storms of the race in the South Atlantic after the Falklands Islands when he was struck by a violent depression which hit Nauticsport-Kapsch with gusts of over 80 knots. While others may have, at times buckled or strained under the many different challenges of this race, Sedlacek has positively thrived and has always delighted in ticking them off, reporting back a few days after, typically describing storms as ‘a bit sportif’ or ‘stressy’

He lost the use of his wind instruments on the 23rd January and has sailed without them since. Two days later his mainsail luff track was further damaged near the top of the mast, and it was the Doldrums nearly a month later that he could climb the mast when he was only able to consolidate the damaged track rather than repair it. While he was up the mast he discovered some cracking to the top of the mast, almost certainly the result of the strain on the topmast when the headsail went in the water.
On the 31st January he was hit by a big, very active low pressure system in the South Atlantic which he rode out, seeing winds of over 80 knots in some white-out gusts.

Completing the race brings to an end a remarkable chapter in his sailing career. As a teenager Norbert was more into his football and other active sports. He trained formally and worked as a waiter in the Vienna Hilton before taking a job driving trams in the Austrian capital city. It was while in his early 20’s and he was doing this that he took up sailing on the shallow lakes. He read voraciously of the adventures of Tabarly, of Austria’s first circumnavigator Wolfgang Hausner, and many others, regularly missing stops and forgetting to start from the tram terminus because he was so engrossed in his sailing reading.

 

Sedlacek has been consistent when he has said he intends to go forward and do the next race in a better boat, but at least this time he will return to his marine chandlery and clothing business in Vienna a satisfied skipper, even if it proves his thirst for adventure has been heightened just as much as it has been quenched by his first successful Vendée Globe.
Les Sables –Equator 17 days 14h 18 mins
Les Sables – Cape of Good Hope 34 days 17h 33 mins
Les Sables – Cape Leeuwin 51 days 7h 38 mins
Les Sables – Cape Horn 87 days 2h 05 mins
Les Sables-Les Sables 126 days 5h 31mins

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Crossing the finish line off Les Sables d’Olonne at 12h 43 19s GMT Rich Wilson completed the 24,840 mile Vendée Globe solo non stop round the world race in ninth place, completing a highly creditable result which is testament to his excellent seamanship skills, deep determination, careful planning and prudent execution, staying the distance to finish this incredible edition of the race which has claimed the highest attrition rate yet. Wilson finished 121 days 00 hours, 41 minutes and 19 seconds after leaving Les Sables d’Olonne on Sunday November 9th. Wilson averaged 9.84 knots on the water covering 28,590 miles. He sailed the 24,840 theoretical miles at an average speed of 8.55 knots.

While nineteen of the 30 skippers who started from the Vendée start line on November 9th had to retire from the race, the most gruelling challenge in solo ocean racing, Wilson, the race’s senior skipper at 58 years old, has stuck rigidly to his watchwords of safety and conservatism, showing huge determination to complete the course as the pinnacle of a sailing career which already included three ocean passage records.

Sailing Great American III, which was built in 1999 to a design by Bernard Nivelt for Thierry Dubois, Wilson, of Marblehead, MASS, becomes only the second American ever to finish the Vendée Globe after Bruce Schwab finished ninth from 20 starters in the 2004-5 race on his Ocean Planet.
Wilson safely completed his boat’s third circumnavigation after Dubois sailed her in the 2000-1 Vendée Globe and then the 2002 Around Alone.

While his first race into the inhospitable wastes of the Southern Oceans proved the biggest physical challenge for Wilson, his weeks since rounding Cape Horn have tested his mental durability. In the South Atlantic he struggled with constant headwinds and occasional difficult low pressure systems which generated strong winds and confuses seas and the complex weather pattern in the North Atlantic meant he had to make detours of nearly 1000 miles to get west around successive high pressure systems.
At one point in the middle of the Atlantic he was nearly 500 miles closer to his home in Boston than he was to the finish. His race has been more limited to a test of stamina since the south of Australia and New Zealand when his nearest rivals, first Canadian Derek Hatfield (Algimouss Spirit of Canada) and then Jonny Malbon (Artemis) retired successively with rigging damage and with mainsail damage respectively. That left Wilson feeling more isolated with his next nearest rivals 1000 miles ahead and astern.

His finish is a great triumph for the amateur solo skipper whose career has progressed steadily, regularly proving that he has the steel and the skill to take on big challenges. In 1980 he was the youngest skipper to win overall in the Newport-Bermuda Race on
Holger Danske. Between 1993 and 2003 on his 50 foot trimaran Great American II he set world records on clipper routes. In 1993 he set a record for San Francisco to Boston of 69 days 20 hours. In 2001 he sailed from New York to Melbourne in 68 days and 10 hours and in 2003 he sailed from Hong Kong to New York in 72 days and 21 hours before competing in the 2004 Transat in which he finished second in class 2. Since moving to the IMOCA Open 60 Great American III, Wilson completed two Transatlantic races, the two handed Transat Jacques Vabre in 2007 and the return solo race the BtoB from Brasil to France.
In a field which is mainly populated by die-hard professional solo skippers, Wilson stands out with a long academic, teaching, consultancy and investment career which has run successfully alongside his sailing programmes. He has three university and college degrees from Harvard, from MIT, and Harvard Business School. He was a policy adviser to the Democrat party, a popular maths teacher in his native Boston, a desalination consultant in Saudi Arabia as well as a successful private business investor. In 1990 he created the sitesAlive foundation and has since developed hugely popular learning programmes on the internet and in newspapers, engaging young people of all ages with his adventures. Along with a team of experts he enlightens with practical presentations of topics from simple science and geography to more complex topics. During the Vendée Globe he has had hundreds of syndicated articles and essays published in more than a dozen different newspapers.

He has also been an inspiration to asthma sufferers all over the globe. Afflicted since the age of one, he went on to run the Boston marathon in 1982 and has takes four daily medications to keep his asthma under control.

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The latest Arrival Times for the remaining 3 boats based on this morning’s weather charts and positions, Météo France has come up with the following ETAs for the next three boats.

- Great American III: Between 18h00 GMT on Monday 9th March and 12h00 GMT on Tuesday 10th
- Fondation Océan Vital: Between 00h00 on 12th and 06h00 on 13th March
- Nauticsport-Kapsch: Between 00h00 on 14th and 18h00 on 15th March

The Following is Video of d’Arnaud Boissières ‘s Finish of the Vendee Globe

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