The 2020\/21 Vend\u00e9e Globe finish goes to the wire: Dalin first to cross the line with several boats still in with a chance of taking the title overnight, but Herrmann out of contention after crashing into a fishing boat in the final hoursApivia with its V1 foils in pre-lift off mode, showing the improved water flow onto the foils compared to previous foiling IMOCA iterations. Photo: Maxime Horlaville \/ polaRYSE \/ disobey. \/ ApiviaThere is no such thing as an \u2018easy\u2019 Vend\u00e9e Globe. It is, rightly, considered to be one of the very toughest sporting challenges in the world, and the 2020\/2021 edition of the Vend\u00e9e has been no exception.
\nBut whilst a clear home run can never be taken for granted in the Vend\u00e9e Globe, never has there been a finish quite like this one. For much of the final day of racing, no fewer than five skippers were still in the running for victory, with Charlie Dalin on\u00a0Apivia, Boris Herrmann on\u00a0Seaexplorer \u2013 Yacht Club De Monaco, Louis Burton on\u00a0Bureau Vall\u00e9e 2, Thomas Ruyant on\u00a0LinkedOut and Yannick Bestaven Maitre Coq IV\u00a0all within touching distance of the greatest prize in ocean sailing: to be named the Vend\u00e9e Globe winner.
\nWatch the live finish here: https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZwLikklVVP4
\nApivia, skipper Charlie Dalin (FRA) at the finish of the Vendee Globe, on January 27, 2021. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Area<\/p>\n
After 80 days of racing, the solo around the world race came down to the type of margin you might expect in a coastal race: with just a couple of hours between the top three. Having variously thrashed and nursed their boats \u2013 and themselves \u2013 around 24,000 miles of the most remote oceans in the world, the 2020\/21 Vend\u00e9e Globe finished with all the intensity of a Figaro stage where podium places could be decided by a single shift.
\nAnd so it was fitting that the first boat across the line was Figaro graduate Charlie Dalin on Apivia, who finished in 8d 6h 15m. Dalin, 36, has raced a masterful first Vend\u00e9e Globe, leading for 37 days in total. He has kept his new Verdier-designed Apivia right on the red line, balancing his Figaro-style intensity of racing with just enough caution to keep the distinctive yellow and black boat on its feet despite damage to the port foil back in mid- December.
\nEven the Vend\u00e9e Globe\u2019s expert meteorologist, Christian Dumard, was reluctant to call which boat would be in the top three places this morning, so tight were the margins with a single layline or gybe likely to determine the distance. Dalin took a southerly route through Biscay, sailing waters that will be familiar to him from his Figaro career whilst also trying to maximise time on his favoured port gybe. He crossed the line shortly after 1940 on Wednesday night, only then coming out of his protected cockpit to celebrate.
\nPrevious Vend\u00e9e Globe winners are usually able to relish their final approach to the French Atlantic town of Les Sables d\u2019Olonne, coming on deck to wave to an appreciative on the water spectator fleet.\u00a0Not so Dalin, for whom every minute of racing counted. He might have had the finish line in his sights, but Dalin has been racing against the clock since December 16. Despite being the first boat to cross the line, he had no guarantee that he would become the eventual winner of the race. (article continues below)
\nYou can follow the final hours of the race via the event tracker.
\nA complex Vend\u00e9e Globe finish
\nOn November 20,\u00a0Kevin Escoffier\u2019s PRB suddenly and catastrophically broke up. The bow of PRB\u00a0sheared off as Escoffier surfed a large wave, the boat snapping in two and sinking within seconds. Escoffier was left drifting 850 miles south-west of Cape Town in a liferaft and survival suit, without his sat phone or VHF.<\/p>\n
Unusually for that stage of the Vend\u00e9e Globe, there were several skippers within close range of PRB\u2019s position, and four were requested to suspend racing and divert to assist the search and rescue operation. Escoffier was thankfully picked up by veteran Vend\u00e9e sailor, Jean Le Cam, after around 11 hours.
\nThe four sailors who were involved \u2013 including Boris Herrman, Yannick Bestaven, Jean Le Cam and Sebastien Simon (who later retired) were awarded redress by the jury on December 16 for the time and extra miles they lost during the search. Critically, Herrmann was awarded 6 hours, Bestaven 10h 15m, and Le Cam 16h 15. As soon as Dalin crossed the finish line, a new stopwatch started to see if Bestaven or Herrman could overtake him by their time advantage.
\nCrash in the night
\nHowever, events took a radical turn just before 2000hrs when news came in that Boris Herrmann, who was in 3rd place and still well within his six-hour margin to overtake Dalin, had collided with a fishing boat some 90 miles from the Vend\u00e9e Globe finish.
\nHerrmann was unhurt, but reported damage to the starboard foil. His boat speeds on\u00a0SeaExplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco plummeted from high teens to just 7 knots, and although he continued sailing to Les Sables the chances to become the first non-French winner of the Vend\u00e9e Globe was ebbing away.
\nThe second skipper home was Louis Burton, who finished four hours after Dalin in 80d 10h 25m. Burton\u2019s\u00a0Bureau Vall\u00e9e 2 was the winner of the previous Vend\u00e9e Globe, Armel Le Cleac\u2019h\u2019s Banque Populaire VIII.\u00a0Burton\u2019s team bought the boat before it had even reached home in 2017, giving the 35-year-old skipper a full four year preparation for his third Vend\u00e9e attempt.
\nBureau Vallee 2, skipper Louis Burton (FRA), arrives at the finish of the Vendee Globe in 2nd place.\u00a0Photo: Olivier Blanchet\/Alea
\nDespite being of a previous generation design,\u00a0Bureau Vall\u00e9e 2\u00a0has demonstrated lightning speed at times during the race, Burton pushing hard to make up 650 miles to catch the leaders in the Atlantic. However, he has picked up no fewer than three time penalties over the course of the race, including one for being OCS at the start, and battled a series of repairs, at one stage even pulling into the lee of the remote Macquarie Island in the south-west Pacific to fix his mast track.
\nAll eyes now turn to Yannick Bestaven, who is steaming into Les Sables at 18-20 knots in 4th place with a 10-hour time advantage due to the redress. His is now the best chance of snatching victory from Dalin at the Vend\u00e9e Globe finish. Bestaven must finish before 0550 (UTC) on Thursday 28 January in order to take the win.<\/p>\n
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The post Vend\u00e9e Globe finish: Epic conclusion to round the world race \u2013 updated appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2020\/21 Vend\u00e9e Globe finish goes to the wire: Dalin first to cross the line with several boats still in with a chance of taking the title overnight, but Herrmann out of contention after crashing into a fishing boat in … <\/p>\n