Sailing more than 28,000 miles, averaging around thirteen knots, French solo skipper Michel Desjoyeaux has shattered the Vendée Globe race record today on his way to becoming the first solo skipper ever to win the solo non stop around the world race twice.
After winning the race in 2000-1 on PRB, eclipsing the young emerging British skipper Ellen MacArthur by 1 day 28 minutes, Desjoyeaux joined the 30 strong field for this race, the biggest entry ever round the world race in sailing history, as one of the clear favourites.
After a successful odyssey into big racing multihulls, Desjoyeuax returned to monohulls in 2007 when he won the highly competitive Solitaire du Figaro, going on to win the Transat Vabre in late 2007 on his return to the IMOCA Open 60 class in which the Vendée Globe
Desjoyeaux crossed the finish on Sunday 1st February at 15:11.08 GMT , after 84 days 03 hours 09 minutes of racing. Foncia completed the race in twenty knots of breeze under sunny skies, greeted by a massive armada of spectator boats before bekiung warmly welcomed by huge crowds who gathered along the waterfront and harbour area of Les Sables d’Olonne, where the race departed at 1202 GMT November 9th 2008.
The gruelling race has taken a high toll of the 30 skippers who started the non stop solo round the world race. As Desjoyeaux finished this afternoon, nine are climbing northwards in the Atlantic ocean while some 7,700 miles behind two are expected to pass Cape Horn and leave the Pacific tomorrow. Eighteen skippers have been forced to abandon. In early December Yann Eliès had to be evacuated off his Generali when he sustained a broken femur while working on the bow of his boat, and Jean Le Cam was rescued when he capsized off Cape Horn by Vincent Riou, the 2004-5 winner of the race.
In reality the race for Desjycould not have started worse for the solo skipper from Port la Forêt: after setting out at 12h02 GMT on 9th November under grey skies and in a freshening south-westerly, Foncia having sailed 200 miles, had to return to les Sables d’Olonne. A leak in the ballast tank flooded the engine compartment and burnt out an electrical circuit… After a lightning pit stop, Michel Desjoyeaux set sail again on 11th November, some 360 miles or forty hours sailing behind the leaders, Peyron, Josse, Jourdain and Dick, who were already enjoying moderate downwind conditions in the Portuguese trade winds. The gap would increase, as Michel had to deal with light airs off the Spanish coast: on 15th November, Michel Desjoyeaux was 670.3 miles behind Loïck Peyron, the leader at that point, the biggest gap that he was to see in his Vendée Globe.
The Atlantic express
He then began to climb his way back up the fleet: after Norbert Sedlacek off Madeira, Michel Desjoyeaux caught Raphaël Dinelli at the latitude of the Canaries, then Rich Wilson, Unai Basurko and Jonny Malbon before the Cape Verde islands in some brisk trade winds, which did not offer any strategic options. The leaders had been slowed in the Doldrums, but Foncia crossed the Equator at 03h43 GMT on 23rd November in 15th place, 383.5 miles behind the leader. After eight days of upwind sailing to get around the St. Helena high, the monohull was finally able to turn left approaching the Forties: Michel Desjoyeaux took the most extreme westerly option, which allowed him to be back up in thirteenth place by the 30th November.
To the south of the area of high pressure in the Atlantic, he would step up the pace to make his way into the Top Ten on 3rd December 193 miles behind Sébastien Josse, who was about to reach the first Ice Gate. When he passed the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, he was only 89.5 miles behind, as the winds in the Southern Ocean began to strengthen. The position of icebergs that had drifted up from the Weddell Sea led the Race Directors to modify the course: the Ice Gates would almost all be shifted northwards, but this did not stop Michel Dejoyeaux from encountering ice on 11th December just before he left the Kerguelen to port.
Leader from Australia
The seas in the Indian Ocean were violent and a series of incidents saw a number of boats damaged and forced out of the race: Loïck Peyron, Bernard Stamm, Dominique Wavre, Yann Eliès, Jean-Pierre Dick and Mike Golding… while the skipper of Foncia clocked up the greatest distance covered in 24 hours of the whole race: 466.6 miles in 24 hours on 16th December, the day when he crossed the longitude of Cape Leeuwin, and grabbed the lead. Keeping up an extraordinary pace, Michel Desjoyeaux entered the Pacific on 19th December 59.1 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain and already 400 miles ahead of Armel Le Cléac’h. The Pacific was to be particularly nasty. While Michel just avoided a disaster on 25th December, which could have so easily have forced him to retire, Sébastien Josse was knocked down by a breaker. This clearly reveals the sea state in this active cold front that the two frontrunners managed to catch enabling them to extend their lead.
Only the skipper of Veolia Environnement was able to stick with him: at 03h10 GMT on 5th January, Michel Desjoyeaux rounded Cape Horn less than 100 miles ahead of Roland Jourdain, but the rest of the fleet was now more than 700 miles behind. The sailor from Port la Forêt took advantage of the situation to make up the time lost at the start to improve on Vincent Riou’s 2004 record by two hours. The climb back up the Atlantic was another very fast stretch. At the Equator, Michel Desjoyeaux was practically a day ahead of the 2004 time with Roland in second place more than 330 miles behind. While the Doldrums were not very cooperative, the final section of the course was a real sprint: just twelve days to complete the stretch. Today, Sunday 1st February, Michel Desjoyeaux is finishing his second Vendée Globe, once again on the highest step of the podium.