SIGHTINGS vendée globe record shattered
pacific sail show First Strictly Bluegrass added the word 'Hardly' to the festival's title, now this. For the first time in its history, Strictly Sail Pacific (née Pacific Sail Expo) will be rebranded as Pacific Sail & Power Boat Show and Marine Sports Expo. It will be expanded accordingly, and held on April 6-9. For the second year in a row the show will be located at Richmond's Craneway Pavilion, with boats in the water at Marina Bay Yacht Harbor. Last year, the show site received rave reviews. Like the move from Jack London Square, the newly expanded format
MARINE NATIONALE / NEFARTITI / VENDEE GLOBE
After just 74 days at sea, Armel Le Cléac'h returned to Les Sables d'Olonne, France, late last month aboard his IMOCA 60 Banque Populaire VIII VIII, thus winning the eighth edition of the Vendée Globe, a solo nonstop sprint around the planet.
Known in racing circles as 'The Jackal' for relentlessly stalking his prey, Le Cléac'h found the shoe on the other foot for much of this race, as he was closely chased by Briton Alex Thomson onboard Hugo Boss, who has recently crossed the line to finish in second place. Between the two of them, they led virtually the entire race and broke every course record along the way, with Thomson only just recently breaking the official 24-hour solo monohull distance record with a single-day run of 536.8 miles. Compared to their efforts in the previous edition of this race, both Le Cléac'h and Thomson moved up one position on the podium, as Armel Le Cléac'h finished runner-up to François Gabart last time, while Alex Thomson finished third. Le Cléac'h in particular has now cemented his spot as one of the alltime greats of solo sailing, having won the Solitaire du Figaro twice and now finally winning the Vendée Globe after two previous secondplace finishes. Ever since their November 6 departure from Les Sables d'Olonne under sunny skies and moderate breeze, Banque Populaire and Hugo Boss both figured as the favorites within the fleet of 29 boats. While nearly 10 boats were thought to have had a realistic shot at claiming victory in the race, Le Cléac'h and Thomson quickly established themselves as the ones to beat. Thomson led down most of the Atlantic before Hugo Boss' starboard foil broke off. Crippled when sailing on a port tack, Thomson began slowly bleeding miles to Le Cléac'h, until being overtaken on December 3 in the South Indian Ocean. Building a lead of some 819 miles as the duo rounded Cape Horn, Armel Le Cléac'h would lead until the finish, though he saw a hardcharging Alex Thomson cut the lead to 50 miles at the equator and to as little as 30 miles in the North Atlantic. Methodical in his routing and open-ocean match-racing tactics, Armel Le Cléac'h played his hand beautifully, never relinquishing the lead, and sailing into Les Sables d'Olonne as the new Vendée Globe champion — the goal he set out to accomplish more than a decade ago. The new Vendée Globe reference time set by Armel Le Cléac'h is 74 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes at an average theoretical speed of 13.77 knots. This time is nearly four days faster than the record time set by François Gabart on MACIF in the 2012-13 edition of the race. Jérémie Beyou rounded out the podium, with fourth through sixth places going to Jean-Pierre Dick, Yann Eliès and Jean Le Cam, in that order. As this issue went to press, nine more competitors remained on the course. (For more, see www.vendeeglobe.org/en.) — ronnie simpson Page 58 •
Latitude 38
• February, 2017
SPREAD & INSET VENDEE GLOBE
Briton Alex Thomson of 'Hugo Boss' kept the pressure on Le Cléac'h.
Tenacious French singlehander Armel Le Cléac'h — aka 'The Jackal' — raises his fist in a victory gesture after smashing the solo, nonstop Vendée Globe record aboard the IMOCA 60 'Banque Populaire VIII'.
