Page 22. MAINE COASTAL NEWS April 2009
Yacht Racing News
Update Vendee Globe: The Last Boat Completes the Race
On 15 March the last competitor in the
Vendee Globe singlehanded non-stop race
around the world cross the finish line.
Day 115, 3 March: After breaking his
boom, Raphael Dinelli (FONDATION
OCÉAN VITAL) may have broken a rib. Dur-
ing the night he was on deck when he was
knocked down by a wave suffering the injury.
He was able to make his way to his berth and
rest. When he arose he contacted the race
doctor, who said that he had either cracked or
broken a rib.
American Rich Wilson (GREAT AMERI-
CAN III) was finally heading for the finish
line. He had suffered through two high pres-
sure systems that had forced him to sail west,
not east and added more than a 1,000 miles to
his voyage. Now that he is sailing easterly,
Wilson said that he would be setting as much
sail as possible and taking advantage of the
stronger winds he should experience the next
couple of days. He now has 1,400 miles to the
finish at Les Sables d’Olonne.
Wilson said, “Well we are just going
Rich Wilson's GREAT AMERICAN III
down to the third reef. We finally got around
that big high pressure system and are bearing and views from a collection of experts and
off now. We are not quite on the course but presents it in an engaging and interesting
things are looking up. Yesterday morning we fashion for young people.
were flat becalmed, I turned off the pilot. We Rich has written articles for dozens of
did not even have enough wind and it was American newspapers and publications
necessary to roll up the Solent to keep it from along the route. His race has been one which
slatting, so we did some circles there and it has challenged him close to his limits, but
was pretty discouraging. That high pressure which he has accomplished by carefully man-
system was forecast to keep moving and it aging the risks, preparing well in advance of
just stopped. It stopped right there in front of situations as well as dealing well with the
us and expanded. To a 1042 mb high, and I adversity as it arrived. Wilson was violently
actually have that on the barograph. I did not seasick not long after he left Les Sables
know high pressures could get that high. But d’Olonne.
anyway we are finally round that and into During the first violent storm he was
some breeze, broad reaching and heading thrown across the cabin and sustained a
about 40 degrees true. It was very difficult. It cracked rib which restricted him for some
just seemed like we were making no progress time. In the Southern Ocean he was thrown
whatsoever. We had to go round two differ- out of his bunk against the chart table, lacer-
ent high pressure systems, and the second ating his head close to his eye. And since the
Rich Wilson
one was 600 miles further north. I made no Southern Ocean he has struggled with an
progress. Round the first high pressure there autopilot system which will not steer to the
Atlantic meant he had to make detours of sick within the first few hours of the race.
was a four day stretch when all I made was 350 wind angle and so he has been unable to get
nearly 1000 miles to get west around succes- During that first big storm he was thrown
miles from point to point and not even in the good rest for weeks.
sive high pressure systems. violently five or six feet across the cabin,
right direction. It has just been very discour- His passage from Cape Horn has been
His finish is a great triumph for the ama- smashing his back against a grab bar. At first
aging, but it looks like now we should have difficult, plagued by headwinds for much of
teur solo skipper whose career has progressed the pain was so bad that he could not call his
usable winds for the next couple of days, and the time, but the final two weeks have re-
steadily, regularly proving that he has the specialist doctor.
then just keep all the systems on the boat quired a time and energy sapping 600 miles
steel and the skill to take on big challenges. The injury improved in time but even in
going. Yesterday we had a pilot alarm. It detour around a high pressure system which
In 1980 he was the youngest skipper to win early December the pounding of the boat in
turned out I had to replace the primary pilot ultimately took him closer to his home in
overall in the Newport-Bermuda Race on trade winds damaged it again and it was a long
hydraulic ram with the back up ram we have, Boston than the finish on the other side of the
HOLGER DANSKE. Between 1993 and 2003 time until he could move freely.
but the back up ram is marginally better. We Atlantic.
on his 50 foot trimaran GREAT AMERICAN In twenty first place at Cape Finisterre,
keep our fingers crossed for that. I am tired. Dinelli is now 300 miles northwest of the
II he set world records on clipper routes. In Wilson routed to the east, inshore and was in
I am ready to be there. I have a week to go Azores. He has repaired his boom, despite his
1993 he set a record for San Francisco to eighteenth place has he paced Raphael Dinelli
probably. I am going to set up with the smaller injured rib. He brought the pieces of the boom
Boston of 69 days 20 hours. In 2001 he sailed who was just 22 miles behind him and 28 miles
sails and then wont have sail changes to inside and dried and warmed them. After the
from New York to Melbourne in 68 days and ahead of Unai Basurko. The Basque skipper
make. It is just a question of keeping the pilots repair was made he was able to get the boom
10 hours and in 2003 he sailed from Hong stayed closer to the rhumb line to the Cape
going, not having any big gybes and keeping back up on deck and fitted, despite the pain
Kong to New York in 72 days and 21 hours Verde islands while Rich stayed east of the
it going.” from his rib.
before competing in the 2004 Transat in which islands. Dinelli, Basurko and Wilson had an
Norbert Sedlacek has less than 2500 miles Austrian Norbert Sedlacek has less than
he finished second in class 2. Since moving enjoyable and friendly three way race going
before reaching the finish. He has reached the two weeks to go in this race. He had a problem
to the IMOCA Open 60 GREAT AMERICAN on and it continued right south through the
northeasterly trade winds and is now making with the engine, which had shaken loose in
III, Wilson completed two Transatlantic races, Equator. The Sablais skipper and Rich were
200 to 220 miles a day. the confused seas. He repaired this by put-
the two handed Transat Jacques Vabre in just 20 miles different when they crossed into
Day 118, 6 March: The predicted condi- ting in some wedges.
2007 and the return solo race the BtoB from the Southern Hemisphere.
tions that Wilson will be sailing in the next Day 122, 10 March: Wilson finishes the
Brasil to France. Wilson’s course is methodical and con-
week, looks very favourable. Wilson will be Vendee Globe having sailed this race by his
In a field which is mainly populated by servative while Basurko is more extreme from
sailing in downwind conditions and has just watchwords of safety and conservatism.
die-hard professional solo skippers, Wilson the east to the west, gaining but then losing
829 miles to go. Sailing GREAT AMERICAN III, which was
stands out with a long academic, teaching, to Wilson. But as perhaps a first taste of the
The 58 year old Wilson holds three uni- built in 1999 to a design by Bernard Nivelt for
consultancy and investment career which attrition which is to affect all parts of the fleet,
versity and college degrees and previously Thierry Dubois, Wilson becomes only the
has run successfully alongside his sailing first Dinelli heads west to the try and repair his
set three sailing world records. His mathemat- second American ever to finish the Vendée
programmes. halyards and then Basurko, on 4th December,
ics degree and his MBA from Harvard as well Globe after Bruce Schwab finished ninth from
He has also been an inspiration to asthma reports his rudder cassette problem which
as an MIT science degree are complemented 20 starters in the 2004-5 race on OCEAN
sufferers all over the globe. Afflicted since ultimately lead to his retirement.
in the sailing world by setting speed records PLANET.
the age of one, he went on to run the Boston At the first security gate the Great Ameri-
on routes from San Francisco to Boston, from While his first race into the inhospitable
marathon in 1982 and has taken four daily can III is in 21st place as his race develops
New York to Melbourne and from Hong Kong wastes of the Southern Oceans proved the
medications to keep his asthma under con- with a new set of rivals and running mates.
to New York. He served as Defence Analyst biggest physical challenge for Wilson, his
trol. British skipper Jonny Malbon, having suf-
in Washington, a mathematics teacher in weeks since rounding Cape Horn have tested
Rich’s Race. fered badly in the Doldrums compounding an
Boston, a desalination consultant in Saudi his mental durability. In the South Atlantic he
Wilson was all but overwhelmed at the earlier poor routing choice in the east, is just
Arabia, and is a successful corporate inves- struggled with constant headwinds and oc-
start, admitting to being nervous about the 151 miles ahead of him and by the Iles Crozet
tor. Throughout his 116 days racing has casional difficult low pressure systems which
magnitude of the adventure he was setting and then the Kerguelen Islands Canadian
constantly updated the sitesalive web site, generated strong winds and confuses seas
out on and, of course, the forecasted storm.
Continued on Page 24.
which he founded, gives expert information and the complex weather pattern in the North
He settled quickly to the task but was very
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