Jesus Christ and the genniker

Jean-Pierre Dick and Sam Davies report from the Vendee Globe race course

A conversation with Paprec Virbac 2's Jean-Pierre Dick

What is the latest news on board in the last 24 hours?

“There are ups and downs. Yesterday, I hoisted a rather large sail. I lost quite a bit of time and ground in the changing manoeuvre. Otherwise, my strategy was good. By evening, I’d climbed back up again, 8 miles from Loïck. It was then things got a little complicated. With the accumulated fatigue, I made a terrible blunder during the night…”

What happened?

“It was a diabolical night. I hadn’t secured the gennaker halyard. The sail flew into the sea and went under the boat. I fought hard to clear it. I almost thought I had lost it for good. I spent a lot of time and energy in recovering it. Luckily, it’s still there and hasn’t been damaged.”

It was more frightening than anything else, however, you sound like you’re still angry?

“I’m not very pleased with what happened last night. I was totally delirious in my sleep. I spent the night manoeuvring to make headway with the boat. Then I fell fast asleep and lost track of the race. I even thought that Jesus Christ had sent me a gennaker, that he had worked at tuning it right and that I was making rapid progress! I had a sort of hallucination, when in fact the sail in question was frankly badly tuned and I was not on the right course. I lost 20 miles because of this”

For all that, after five days of racing, you are among the five leaders. The result of this Vendée Globe start is still positive, is it not?

“That’s true. I’m very happy to be where I am and to have got through the passage of the wintery depression without damage. However, I’m staying on my guard. You’ve got to be careful; on board our boats, which are as complicated as they are demanding, the slightest error can quickly turn into a tragedy. I paid it for last night. It is essential to stay completely lucid, to keep so at all costs, and to be properly organized to be able to go to sleep at the right time.”


Sam Davies reports from Roxy

“Hello everyone!

Finally, yesterday, I cleaned up the oil! Hooray! It took me 5 hours, three special oil absorber sheets, half a bottle of washing up liquid and a lot of elbow grease - it's still not perfect, but I'm happy. Not too much damage to the spares (except the mess). It's still a bit slippery, but I will be careful.

Today is the day of sail changes! With the wind between 10 and 30 knots, I have been changing between Gennaker + full main, all the way down to solent + 2 reefs. It’s pretty tiring, so I am trying to find a compromise between course, speed and sail configuration to economise energy and not lose speed with a pointless manoeuvre. At some points Roxy was doing 22+ knots, which appeared to terrify Pierre Louis on the radio vacation! I took his advice and calmed things down a little as it was a bit fruity at the time!

I have also managed to stick up all my cards and photos that I received before the start, so Roxy is looking more homely than ever. I even have a four leafed clover stuck on my dashboard too - merci Nico!

Lucky (my lucky duck) and Foxy (my lucky pink flamingo) are finding their sea legs and have returned to their normal spot on my chart table. They rapidly took cover at the bottom of a gear bag for the first two days to avoid any flying around during the storms; I don't think they realise they are birds!

Sam x”