Several finishers in the past couple of days have left just three IMOCAs still out on the Route du Rhum race course, including Ollie Heer (Oliver Heer Ocean Racing). Now with less than 1000nm to go, Ollie is hoping to finish the race within the time limit that will give him the miles to help him to qualify for the 2024 Vendée Globe.
The International Jury awarded Ollie 84 hours of redress due to the collision with Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One) on the first evening of the race. The jury found Ollie was not at fault and so awarded him the time he spent repairing his boat in St Malo and Port La Foret. The decision means that Ollie will get around 3.5 days taken off his race time at the end; he has until the morning of the 30th of November to cross the finish line to still be within the time limit. It will be close, but I’m sure Ollie will manage it!
Yesterday evening Sam Davies (Initiatives Cœur) finished in 28th place and admitted her frustrations with the race when she hit the dock. She explained that she never expected to be too competitive due to a lack of training time on her new boat, but some technical problems early on put her towards the back of the fleet. Sam herself admitted that she was too cautious in this race, but regardless, finishing is a huge achievement and a big step forward in a new boat.
Four Vendée Globe veterans arrived into Pointe-a-Pitre yesterday in the Rhum Mono and Rhum Multi fleets. Jean-Pierre Dick (Notre Méditerranée – Ville de Nice) crossed the line on his JP54 to win his first major solo race. Known for his double-handed sailing victories, Jean-Pierre never quite managed the top step of the podium solo in his time in the IMOCA fleet, but he must be incredibly proud of a fantastic result in this legendary race. Jean-Pierre’s race wasn’t easy – he had to rescue fellow competitor Brieuc Maisonneuve whose catamaran capsized near the Azores. Following a small detour to drop Brieuc in Ponta Delgada, Jean-Pierre was awarded 8 hours of redress.
Roland Jourdain (We Explore) was the first to cross the line in the Rhum Multi fleet, but unfortunately was handed a 90-minute penalty due to a broken engine seal; this moved him into second place, behind Loïc Escoffier (Lodigroup). Roland is a two-time Route du Rhum winner, having taken the crown in the IMOCA fleet in 2006 and 2010.
Finishing his sixth Route du Rhum, Marc Guillemot (Metarom MG5) finished off the podium places in the Rhum Multis. Coming into the race hoping to win, Marc’s race was decided early on when his southerly route around the Azores High slowed him down and put him out of the fight with Roland and Loïc.
And in the Class 40s, Kito De Pavant (HBF – Reforest’Action) crossed the line to take 11th place. This was Kito’s third Route du Rhum in Class 40, and he said this was a difficult one. He’d set himself the goal of finishing in the top 10, a difficult ask considering the age of his boat and the pure number of new builds around, but he’s still happy with 11th, in his own words – “it means that there are 44 skippers behind, it’s not bad”.
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