March 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. American Rich Wilson Finishes Vendee Globe


family, who have come out to greet me, it is so overwhelming. I can’t fi nd the right words. It was 92 days of fi ghting. Sometimes it felt endless. It was really long, really tough, all the time it was really wet. Eighth place is far beyond my dreams. At the start I did not think about placings because this fl eet is so strong. The boats are so prepared and good. I thought my place with my boat, my age it might have been 15th to 20th. My performance I just wanted to be better than 100 days. That happened. Eighth is way beyond my imagination. Sometimes I was frustrated I am not fast enough. My new boat would be a fl ying machine. She is a boat, this one. The next one is a fl ying machine. It will never be built for me though. The time is gone. I am sorry about that. I don’t feel any energy to do it again right now. In four years time I will be 67. I am young in the way of thinking, I am fi t but now I see what kind of energy, what kind of motivation second by second, day by day, that you really need and I know my time is gone. I don’t have it any more. The future is with my family. It will be diffi cult to forget.” 9 February (Day 96): Eric Bellion


was battling an Atlantic low the last 800 miles to the fi nish. The winds are averaging about 60 knots with gusts up over 70. Back more than 200 miles was Colman who was experiencing the same conditions. Alan Roura and Rich Wilson, in 13th respectively, were 20+ trade winds and


and 14th


this is testing both the boats and skippers. As for what weather was ahead of them their choices were going to be diffi cult. Rich said, “The wind is going further east than anticipated but the challenge there is you end up going further north into the old seaway and it gets bumpier. Everyone says the same thing – it’s hard, it’s long. A couple more days like this trying to be as easy on the boat as possible. We’re going almost due north now. It would be really nice to have some easy miles. I’m looking at weather maps for the next 2-4 days. It’s quite com- plicated. Not obvious at all. I’m just going a day at a time. We’ll get there when we get there. The idea was to get up north and then get to the Azores and wait for some good weather and then make a run for it. But the latest fi les show a storm developing at the Azores. There’s an awful lot going on in the Atlantic in winter-time.” 10 February (Day 97): There are still


10 boats racing and fi ve of these should fi n- ish within the next week. Boats and skippers have been pushed to the limit and failures can happen within 1,000 miles of the fi nish. All the racers are well aware of this possi- bility.


Next over should be Bellion, who should arrive late in the weekend. 12 February (Day 99): The Bay of


Biscay has not been kind to Eric Bellion (COMMEUNSEULHOMME) as he closes on the fi nish line without a mainsail up. He has lost a section of his sail track at the top of the mast, and this coupled with halyard issue he cannot raise the main until he can remedy the problems. This battle has been going on for four days. He is still in 30-35 knots of wind, but is making a more direct course towards the fi nish, which is just over 250 miles away. Conrad Colman has been dismasted and


is trying to get a jury-rig stepped in place. Winds have dropped to 20 mph and this should allow him to accomplish the repairs needed. A high pressure ridge has slowed Rich


Wilson and is moving north to pick up the next low. Wilson said, “There is a big low pressure system coming out of the north east of the USA but it forecast to not come all the way across but head across the north


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east. We will carry on the north east and get updates every six hours, we need to watch that. It looks like the Azores high pressure system will re-establish itself between the Azores and the Bay of Biscay. So we will see how that materialises. The idea is that we can stay on the southern peripheral of the system, take advantage of the downwind aspect of it and not get into the north where the really strong winds are. Again if goes where it is forecast then it is all do-able and so it depends how far south we want to stay. My inclination is to stay away. Yesterday I had some sun and that helps a lot. It seems like this whole race has been very grey com- pared to 2008-9 when it seemed like we saw the sun a lot more along the way. That was nice. And there was a nice big full moon last night which is a bonus. As we are out of the stronger part of the trade winds then the sea state has gone down which is great relief. The boat really took a pounding. Everyone in front that I was in touch with said the boats really took a beating upwind. We are closer to the eastern side of the Atlantic. In 2008 it was a strange situation. I had trouble going across the trade winds, we had no ballast tanks. We were really overpowered with the staysail and so I had to sail a lot of time with the storm jib then in 2008. We have done better this time.” Rich is looking to better his 2008-9 time


of 121 days, which he should beat by about two weeks. 14 February (Day 101): Last night Eric


Bellion fi nished in ninth place and the next to fi nish will be Arnaud Boissieres (LA MIE CÂLINE) who when he fi nishes in a couple of days will be one of only two, the other Armel Le Cléac’h, that has fi nished three consecutive Vendee Globe races. Colman has put together a jury-rig, but


will wait to set it up. He is now making a mainsail. He is in nicer sailing conditions, but then he will get into a high pressure system when the weekend arrives and this should slow him. As for Rich Wilson he is still looking at


the weather and how best to make his way to the fi nish. He said, “When I was trapped in a high pressure I took the chance repair the FR0 (Fractional Code Zero) fi rst. This sail had suff ered a lot in the passage of the Doldrums and I knew there were a couple of holes, but I had not seen a cut of 5 meters in its upper part when I hoisted it at night. As I have not the required materials for such a repair and due to the greater need for a relatively small sail for the North Atlantic lows, I decided to try to repair a sail that I


Jean Pierre Dick's ST. MICHEL-VIRBAC Photo: Jean Marie Liot


broke before passing Cape Horn: the MDTK (blast reacher), that has plenty of cuts and delamination. I had to try, even if I only can use it for a few hours before fi nally it gives up. I used almost all the material left on board to repair sails: cuben fi bre cloth, Dr. Sails, sikafl ex, everything and after 10 hours of work I hoisted the sail to furl it properly and then I discovered a new cut in the foot of it. It was dark and I had no strength enough to lower it again so I hung myself with my harness and put a last patch juggling with the sail. I did what I could. We will see how long it will last.” 15 February (Day 102): Colman


(FORESIGHT NATURAL ENERGY) has set his jury rig and is making progress. He has about 750 miles to the fi nish and he needs to be extremely careful if the wind increases and must keep his wind angle greater than 90 degrees. Arnaud Boissières is getting closes with less than 200 miles to go. Pieter Heerema (NO WAY BACK)


is off the Cape Verdes and Sébastien Des- tremau (TECHNOFIRST-FACEOCEAN) is off the coast of Brazil and 3700 miles from the fi nish. 16 February (Day 103): As racers near


the fi nish they are all mindful that Murphy is right there and disaster can strike at any time. Just ask Conrad Colman who lost his mast less than 800 miles from the fi nish. 17 February (Day 104): Arnaud


Boissières (LA MIE CÂLINE) sailed across the fi nish line at 0826 UTC for a tenth place fi nish with a total time of 102 days, 20 hours, 24 minutes and 9 seconds. He sailed 28,155


miles at an average speed of 11.04 knots. Boissières’ hometown is Les Sables d’Ol- onne. His father brought him to the start of the 1989 Vendee Globe as he was recovering from Leukemia and that got him through his treatments. It also gave him a way to escape and to dream about the future. 18 February (Day 105): Sailing across place was Fabrice


the fi nish line in 11th


Amedeo (NEWREST-MATMUT) at 0903 UTC. His time was 103 days, 21 hours and 1 minute. 19 February (Day 106): Alan Roura


(LA FABRIQUE) is nearing the fi nish line and should cross tomorrow. His racer has had a very interesting history. She was built to a Pierre Rolland design in a garden in Brittany by Bernard Stamm of Switzerland 17 years ago for the 2000 Vendee Globe. Stamm crossed the line but developed prob- lems with his steering system and rudders and was forced to retire. He then sailed her across the Atlantic in 2002 and set the solo record of 10 days 11 hours and 55 minutes. He then won the Around alone race in 2003 and Velux 5 Ocean race in 2007. So this will be the fi rst time she crossed the line of the race she was designed for. Colman is not have an easy time sailing


in light air and was just holding onto 13th place. He did fi nd that his jury rig worked well in a good breeze upwind. His bigger problem may be the amount of food left on board and he is rationing himself. He also has power issues and is not turning on anything that draws power unless absolutely


Continued on Page 20. NEED TO MOVE YOUR BOAT? CALL YORK'S BOAT TRANSPORTATION


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