Yannick Bestaven again widened the gap with his two pursuers, Charlie Dalin and Thomas Rettant.

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Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP

The December 29 newspaper

What a fight!

While the front of the Vendée Globe fleet is preparing to pass Point Némo, the pole of the ocean furthest from any land, before tilting towards Cape Horn, it is still just as difficult to broadcast a prognosis on the final victory.

Yannick Bestaven certainly has a small margin of advance (and bonuses on the finish line), but behind, the hunt for the leader does not weaken.

Charlie Dalin is holding up despite recurring port foil problems.

A little further on, we should no longer speak of the leading trio but of a quartet because if Thomas Rouillard is melting on Apivia, he is now accompanied by Damien Seguin.

Finally, to give an idea of ​​the level of the fight, the 11th, Louis Burton, is sailing less than 500 miles from Bestaven.

The classification at 9 a.m.

1) Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV)

2) Charlie Dalin (Apivia), at 144 nm

3) Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut), at 206 nm

4) Damien Seguin (APICIL Group), at 219 nm

5) Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!), At 265 nm

It's back to Le Diraison

Good news for Stéphane Le Diraison.

Victim of the breakage of his hook control cart on Time for Oceans, the skipper was able to solve his problem at the cost of superhuman efforts and a few blisters in his hands without having to go along the Macquarie Islands as Louis was for example able to do. Burton (Office Valley II) before him.

Thanks to the help of his shore team, Le Diraison was able to start again faster than expected and he now forms a trio with Didac Costa and Kojiro Shiraishi in the south of New Zealand.

After 24 hours of hard work, I managed to repair and for the moment it works !!!!



Thank you to all the people down to earth who supported me and helped me find solutions 🤝



Exhausted, I am resting and I am telling you the details of my last 24 hours in a video!

pic.twitter.com/WfhcOv6eBt

- Time For Oceans - Stéphane Le Diraison (@stephlediraison) December 29, 2020

Alexia Barrier almost lost her mast at Christmas

Sale Christmas present for Alexia Barrier.

The skipper on TSE - 4 My Planet thought it was goodbye to the Vendée Globe on December 25.

She recounts this mishap in her vacation of the day.

“I was waiting to learn more about the condition of my mast because I almost took it on deck!

After the Christmas radio session, I was going to take the second reef when the backstay block exploded… The mast went forward and I thought it was over.

I immediately rode my J2 and I jibed: I was really scared!

This is the reason why I left for the North, the time to repair.

I also tinkered with a "mast-traveler" to climb along the mast like in the cinema and see the potential damage!

I jibed again to validate my repair: it's an old mast, but it's tough!

A real reed as in La Fontaine's fable… It bends but does not break.

It remains to be seen what is the moral of this story.

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Vendée Globe: Yannick Bestaven widens the gap on the 50th day of racing

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