The 24 hour solo monohull record had already been broken twice on this tenth edition of the Vendée Globe but last night it fell successively to an onslaught of attacks as the leaders of the solo non stop race round the world enjoyed perfect conditions for sustained high speed.
Thomas Ruyant (VULNERABLE), Nicolas Lunven (Holcim – PRB), Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance), Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA) all pushed the mark higher and higher. But, appropriately it was Richomme who held the record set five days ago, who trumped the fast moving, hard driving peloton with a new mark of 579.86 miles devoured in flat water and 17-20kts winds between 0130hrs UTC yesterday and the same time early this morning.
But there has been little time to celebrate the new mark as the top group push hard to make the most of a low pressure system which is following the perfect axis to propel the towards the Southern Ocean. All are trying to stay with the system which is becoming narrower and narrower. With lighter winds either side it is increasingly a fast moving high wire act.
“It is a bit like in life, the rich get richer!” quipped 16th placed Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western) on the French Vendée Globe LIVE! show today. And indeed leaders Charlie Dalin and Thomas Ruyant are slowly but surely widening the gap on their pursuers. A few days ago at Fernando de Noronha the top ten was about sixty miles apart but now stretches to 273 nautical miles back to Briton Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) who still holds a good tenth.
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