Peyron pushes on, Wavre in more trouble - Vendee

11:30 PM Wed 17 Dec 2008 GMT

Quite unlike the title of Bernard Moitessier's famous book, Lo?ck Peyron has no desire to sail round and round without ever reaching land. Indeed it's the very thought of land which is the daily motivation for the skipper of Gitana Eighty.

It's already been a week since the sailor's Vend?e Globe dreams and the hopes of Gitana Team were stopped in their tracks off the Kerguelen Islands. In a split second, after a magnificent performance over the first third of the course in this 6th edition of the solo round the world without stopovers and without assistance, the skipper had to lay down his arms following the breakage of his mast.

After 48 hours' wait, which was the time required to draw up a plan to recuperate the monohull and the sailor, the decision was made to make for Australia and more specifically the port of Fremantle on the SW coast, some 2,800 miles away at the time. Since then, equipped with a jury rig which Lo?ck Peyron is improving day by day, Gitana Eighty is continuing to truck on through the Indian Ocean, an ocean which has been living up to its lousy reputation once more. Indeed, last Friday, the Swiss sailor Dominique Wavre announced that he was altering course towards the Kerguelen following the breakage of his keel head. This serious damage sadly brought the sailor's race to an abrupt end. Just hours later, it was the turn of his compatriot, Bernard Stamm, to signal rudder issues. The Swiss sailor then decided that he would make for Port-aux-Fran?ais in Kerguelen, but the particularly harsh weather conditions on his arrival in the Baie du Morbihan were to put paid to the sailor's determination. Plagued by bad luck his boat was driven onto shore.

Further misfortune followed yesterday with the dismasting of the English sailor Mike Golding and the withdrawal from the competition of Jean-Baptiste Dejanty. These two further abandons have been added to what is already an overly long list, which the skipper of Gitana Eighty briefly analyses: 'Unfortunately there has been a big epidemic of abandons since me and I'm really sorry for them, with a particular mention for Bernard. However, I'm not being fatalistic when I say that it doesn't surprise me! When we committed ourselves to taking the start of the Vend?e Globe, we all knew that certain boats wouldn't cross the finish line. We set off in full knowledge of the facts and we just have to hope that we're not going to be part of it. Personally I don't think that the pace of this 6th edition is the source of this damage. Sailing is a mechanical sport which is constantly progressing and being perfected, however there is still a random, unknown aspect. We are in an Open class, at the helm of prototypes.'

There is still a long way to go to get to Australia - 1,800 miles this Wednesday 17th December - and after 31 days of intense racing, the end of the voyage is proving to be quite 'special' for Lo?ck Peyron. The reasons for this are that sailors who are racing put up with - or almost relish you could say - the noise and the impact of the sea, but when progress is no longer motivated by the appeal of the competition, it becomes more difficult: 'This situation isn't very pleasant for a whole host of reasons, primarily because I'd really prefer to be racing rather than where I am! Without a mast it's very uncomfortable to make headway, especially as there's a steady wind at the moment - around 35 knots since yesterday - and the seas are big and very complicated. Gybing under jury rig are pretty full-on. but luckily there's not many manoeuvres. Fortunately I've got my big collection of books, so I'm trying to pass my time reading them. I'm also mulling over the light winds to come and on rigging up a third sail so as to make better headway in the light conditions' concluded Lo?ck Peyron.

However, these long days bound for Australia are naturally providing Lo?ck Peyron and his shore crew with an opportunity to look back at the incident and try to decipher the root of the problem, even though it'll be several weeks before a conclusion can be drawn about the mast breakage.

Once he's reached shore, the skipper from Pouliguen is keen to see his nearest and dearest as soon as possible. At that point the Gitana Team will take over from him and organise for the Imoca monohulll to be repatriated to Europe. However, according to the latest estimates, Gitana Eighty is unlikely to make the port of Fremantle before 29th or 30th December.
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Dominique Wavre in difficulty aboard his monohull.

At 1015 UT, Dominique contacted his shore crew to alert them that the imposing steel part weighing close to 100 kilos, which had been attached to the head of the keel in Kerguelen, wasn't able to withstand the considerable stresses currently placed on this area of the boat.

Surprised by weather conditions which were more violent than forecast, heightened by the strong venturi effect around Kerguelen, the skipper is currently negotiating a solid cold front and is struggling to make headway in cross seas and a wind oscillating between 30 and 40 knots. For the time being there is no way Dominique can envisage returning to Kerguelen. Were he to turn back, the boat would end up in headwinds, tacking upwind, slamming against what is already a very bad sea state. The damaged keel would stand no chance of withstanding that.

Dominique finds himself in the same situation as when he arrived in Kerguelen. Though he's not requested assistance, the skipper has transmitted a PANPAN (emergency message). The CROSS (emergency services) and the Vend?e Globe race management were immediately alerted to the skipper's situation and are ensuring the regular monitoring of the boat's positions. Though the skipper is currently preparing his grab bag and getting into his survival suit, he isn't abandoning the boat for the time being.

Dominique is sailing at a reduced speed, with all his ballast tanks filled so as to make the boat as stable as possible. The two lowered daggerboards are also limiting the boat's movements as much as possible as it gets tossed about in the big seas of the Indian Ocean. In this configuration, Temenos II is managing to make headway under reduced sail, three reef mainsail and storm sail, making between 8 and 10 knots.

Dominique will only be able to escape the strong winds by climbing northwards, but the keel damage is limiting the points of sail which are possible for the boat. Currently the skipper is managing to maintain a course of 45?, a heading which is still not far enough North to stand a chance of extracting himself quickly from the continuous flow of australe depressions, however it should progressively get him away from them. In order to make more manageable conditions forecast at around 46 degrees South, Dominique still had 200 miles of northing to make. However, prior to being able to reach this latitude, the skipper still has to negotiate strong winds forecast tomorrow morning. The next few hours are likely to be difficult aboard Temenos II.