Vendée Globe finish: Epic conclusion to round the world race
Despite a relatively slow edition, the Vendée Globe finish for 2021 is a nail-biter with several boats in with a chance of taking the title
The 2020/2021 edition of the Vendée has been long and difficult for the sailors. And the Vendée Globe finish looks to be just as difficult, with a significant number of boats in with a chance of victory in the final few miles of the race.
The Vendée is known to typically see around half the fleet retire, usually due to breakage of some sort, so this has not been an unusually difficult race in that sense. But the wind has made things very tough, with a difficult start, relatively low speeds throughout the Southern Ocean, and the wind causing restarts for the front of the fleet on multiple occasions on the return Atlantic trip – allowing those behind to close up on the leaders.
As we write this, there are three sailors who are looking in the hunt to make it across the finish line first. Charlie Dalin on Apivia is leading; Louis Burton on Bureau Valée 2 and Boris Herrmann on Seaexplorer – Yacht Club De Monaco are both essentially neck-and-neck, though with Herrmann to the south of the Bay of Biscay and Burton to the north.
Joining Burton in the north of the Bay of Biscay are Thomas Ruyant on LinkedOut and Yannick Bestaven on Maitre Coq IV.
At the moment it looks likely the first sailors to arrive should do so early evening Wednesday 27th January. You can follow the final hours of the race via the event tracker.
The first finishers are set to make it across the line after 80 days of hard racing in the solo, non-stop, around the world race. This will make the 2020/21 edition the first Vendée Globe have taken longer than the previous edition of the event since 1992-93.
Complex Vendée Globe finish
It is important to note that those sailors who cross the line first may well not be the eventual winners of the race.
Earlier in the race, Kevin Escoffier on PRB suffered serious damage. His bow essentially sheared off on contact with a massive wave, sinking the boat in seconds. This left Escoffier in the water in a liferaft and survival suit – an extremely perilous situation.
As is to be expected in a situation such as this, a number of those skippers closest to his position were asked to suspend their racing as they took part in a search and rescue operation. Escoffier was eventually picked up by veteran Vendée sailor, Jean Le Cam.
When sailors in the Vendée stop to help out in situations such as this, the time they spend not racing is totalled up and will be subtracted from their finishing time.
Thus, should any of those boats who have stopped racing in these circumstances finish sufficiently close to the lead boats, they may yet be able to win the event.
As such, although it looks likely that Charlie Dalin will be the first boat across the finish line, should Boris Herrmann finish within 6 hours of Dalin’s finishing time Herrmann would beat Dalin.
Added to the above complexity, should Yannick Bestaven finish within 4 hours 15 minutes or Herrmann then he would beat Herrmann.
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