Vendée Globe: Charlie Dalin continues to lead the dance and stabilizes his gap with Sébastien Simon

Charlie Dalin (Macif) continues his race at the head of the Vendée Globe, which he has been leading since Monday, without increasing his lead this Saturday, November 7 over his closest pursuer Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), still relegated to 290 nautical miles.

The two French skippers are continuing their route towards Cape Leeuwin in Australia via the south, skirting the Arctic Exclusion Zone (AEZ), which the 38 competitors are forbidden from entering to avoid icebergs.

Currently in the Furious Fifties, a particularly windy area, Dalin and Simon are facing more than 30 knots of wind and waves of around 7 metres, in icy waters below 6 degrees.

“It's freezing!”, summed up the skipper of Groupe Dubreuil, who made seven gybes (changing tacks with a tailwind) during the night to get away from the zone forbidden.

At the 7pm time point on Saturday, Charlie Dalin had not regained a lead over his pursuers for 12 hours, after increasing his gap by 75 nautical miles on Simon during the night from Friday to Saturday.

Paying choice

His average speed over the last 24 hours (30km/h) is however higher than that of the skipper Groupe Dubreuil (24 km/h).

The riskier choice of going via the south is still paying off for Dalin and Simon, unlike their first seven pursuers who have chosen to “take advantage of slightly calmer conditions” to the north, as Nicolas Lunven, but are not spared by the wind either.

“This northern route was supposed to be better than that. We really weren't well served”, regretted the 42-year-old Frenchman, seventh, more than 1000 nautical miles behind the leader, to the organization.
“We had some unexpected light areas and spent a whole night in the storms but the highlight of the show was the anticyclone that swelled and ate us up” , he added.

The gap between Charlie Dalin and the third skipper, Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), remains more or less the same that at the 7:00 a.m. time, some 530 nautical miles away.

Fifth in the solo round-the-world race, Jérémie Beyou (Charal) has gained 55 nautical miles on Charlie Dalin and is closing in on his compatriot Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable) 85 miles ahead.