Winners and losers

As Michel Desjoyeaux begins to savour his Vendee triumph it might be an idea to assess the fortunes of other competitors as a race like this has many winners and losers when you look at its impact on their careers. For some it will not be evident yet since some changes will only occur in time. But here is my assessment of twenty of them. The rest either retired early or simply didn't register enough as racers:

Michel Desjoyeaux: an obvious winner, his reputation is enhanced and his future can only be defined by his remaining ambition.

Sam Davies: Another big winner, came to public attention in the UK, and popular with race followers, should help her get a a state of the art boat if she chooses to do the race next time.

Jonny Malbon: Failed to enhance his reputation and will leave a question mark for sponsors. Will Artemis stay with him in the long term? On the other hand he has built a good relationship with his sponsor who knows that his boat probably needed longer to establish itself.

Brian Thompson: Looked after his boat and enhanced his reputation as a reliable sailor. But does he have the potential to challenge the fastest French skippers in the long run?

Alex Thompson: Can he shake off the reputation of a "crash and burn" sailor? He needs to finish more often. While he came second in the Barcelona round the world race he was sailing with the immensely experienced Andrew Cape.

Mike Golding: Has nothing left to prove as a round the world sailor, but does he believe that? He knows what it is to be beaten by a Frenchman. Has it happened once too often? Sponsorship assured so he can go on as long as he feels.

Roland Jourdain: his already excellent reputation has not suffered, could easily have won and would have liked to have pushed Desjoyeaux harder in the later stages had he not suffered keel damage. Should be back next time.

Jean Le Cam: Will want to return one more time because he knows he can win it.

Yann Elies: Still young, will have learned a lot, will almost certainly want to come back. His retirement was cruel bad luck.

Marc Guillemot: A fine seaman, again with nothing to prove. A top five spot looks to be his. Again he may question whether he wants to come back in four years' time.

Loick Peyron: Knows he can win this race, still young enough, so I'm sure he'll be up for another go. Sponsors know they will get value for money.

Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty: Has youth on his side but needs to improve to keep his sponsors happy (and possibly to keep his sponsors).

Vincent Riou: A past winner, would have chased Desjoyeaux all the way to the line had he not damaged his boat going to the aid of Jean Le Cam. His reputation is secure and he will be back.

Steve White: Steve who? Some may have asked this before the race but not any more. He gambled everything on this race, scrambling together his entry at the last minute. If White set out on a wing and prayer that prayer must surely be answered with some solid sponsorship in future. He deserves it.

Dee Caffari: In spite of her previous circumnavigation she was one the least experienced skippers in the race at this level of competition but has done herself a lot of good, preserving her boat so far (if not her mainsail). Her sponsors should be happy.

Dominique Wavre: He was 53 when he set out. A fine sailor who acquitted himself well before his retirement, but will he want to return in four years time?

Sebastien Josse: Probably pushed too hard but will have learned much and should be back with confident sponsors. Could win this race next time.

Armel Le Cléac´h: This is a great result for Le Cleac'h who may yet secure second place in his first Vendee. In showing he can race fast and preserve his boat, he has to be a hot tip for the future.

Raphael Dinelli: Simply doesn't have the pace to win. Is it enough any more just to take part?

Bernard Stamm: Did enough to confirm his reputation as a solid performer. Will probably want and should get the sponsorship for another crack at the race.

Heavy weather takes its toll

Bernard Stamm's boat ran aground in heavy weather last night so his Vendee race is run. I expect he'll be keeping Dominique Wavre company for quite a while until technical help arrives. Someone saw the funny side.

The top five followers are just about holding on to Jean-Pierre Dick but they're having to sail fast to do so. Expect another breakage soon among the front runners. It's not a question of "if", but "when" and "who"?

Down the ranks, Sam Davies is still charging on Roxy, 90 miles ahead of Brian Thompson. Jean-Baptiste Dejeanty, on the other hand, has slowed right down. He was among those caught in the heaviest winds over the past two days, suffering a series of technical problems: autopilots, torn genoa and damaged mainsail halyard on Maisonneuve.

Over the past 48 hours, all of those at the rear of the fleet have suffered two big depressions with winds of 45 knots, gusting to 60 knots. That's a lot of wind.

It was noticeable that although Loick Peyron is under jury rig and out of the race (although he has not yet been posted as officially retired) he was making better progress in the last session than Steve White in Toe in the Water and has maintained consistently faster speeds than Pete Goss, slowly heading for Capetown in his Cornish Lugger.

Roxy rocking along

Sam Davies must be cock-a-hoop that she has moved in to 11th position in the Vendee Globe, overtaking both Bernard Stamm, now in the Kerguelen Islands, and Brian Thompson.

Davies has a proven ocean racer in Roxy - a former Vendee-winning yacht - but its design has been overtaken by the newer, faster designs, including Bahrain Team Pinder. The Pindar yacht is powerful but it seems that Thompson has been finding some limitations in performance although it isn't clear from his reports what these may be.

Stamm has steering problems that have forced him to join Dominique Wavre in the Kerguelens. Thompson, meanwhile, seems to have lost out, opting for a route to the north of the Islands, the only boat to have done so, so far, although others following.

At the front of the fleet Jean-Pierre Dick has made the biggest break in the race so far, pulling more than 70 miles ahead of his nearest competitor, Mike Golding. Golding and the others must stay with Dick if they are to maintain their place in the same weather system. The boats are steadily becoming less packed than they were, as would be expected. It's extraordinary that they remained so tightly packed for so long.

No respite in the Vendee

Mike Golding has progressed well in the Vendee Globe so far, focusing only on the leader during any section of the race. But now, perhaps, he will need to focus on someone else. Indeed the whole fleet, including race leader Jean-Pierre Dick should be watching one man, Michel Desjoyeaux.

Desjoyeaux on Foncia has jumped two places in the last eight hours putting him neck and neck with second placed Roland Jourdain, just 35 miles behind the lead. If anyone can break away from the pack it is Desjoyeaux. The way he has driven his boat from a position 40 hours behind the fleet after a problem forced his return at the start of the race, has been the hallmark of a true racer.

Golding and the rest of the French skippers at the front of the pack have the class to stay with him but will they be able to match his single-minded drive and willingness to force the pace. Some will be worrying about yesterday's dismasting of Loick Peyron. How much should they push their boats with nearly 16,000 miles still ahead of them?

There may be no choice. Two skippers further back deserve a mention for the way they are trying to haul their boats back in to contention - Bernard Stamm, who is catching Brian Thompson, and Dominique Wavre. Both could yet figure in the final mix.

Peyron's misfortune is a sharp reminder to the front runners that, however well engineered their boats, this kind of racing will expose any weaknesses. These are sailing boats maintaining power-boat speeds in the world's most inhospitable ocean. The weather readings are forecasting 40 knots winds in the next day or two. There really is no respite.

A flavour of life on deck

Mike Golding's choice of a more southerly routing in the Vendee Globe - a bold move given that Sebastien Josse has retaken the lead on a northerly track - looks to be paying dividends, nevertheless, with an 18 kt average, better than his closest rivals, during the last session.

Golding is within 25 miles of the lead with five boats bunched inside this narrow gap. The Southern Ocean has provided relatively benign and near perfect sailing conditions in the past two or three days, but the ability of these skippers to maintain pressure on each other seems relentless.

Golding summed this up a couple of days ago in a short report: "Everyone is looking to do a breakaway. Sébastien Josse (BT) in the north might have a bit of leverage there, but everyone is looking for a bit of leverage to get themselves away. It is hard to imagine going around the world and not seeing someone split away. You may see the boats group up more and I am surprised that the entire spread of the fleet is quite so small back to back - whether this will continue or not remains to be seen."

He paid tribute to the skippers doing their best to stay in contention further back: "Brian Thompson (Bahrain Team Pinda) is still very clearly in play. You look at the split in the British competitors and it is not very big. Dee Caffari (Aviva) is currently less distance from the front than I was in the last Vendée Globe and I went on to lead up the Atlantic. However, the person who is sailing quite extraordinarily well is Steve White (Toe in the Water). He is doing well with the boat and has surprised a lot of people."

Golding is the only British skipper so far to be disrupting the all-French party at the front of the fleet. There has been little evidence in the last week to suggest that pattern may be altered. One of the fastest skippers further back has been Bernard Stamm who has moved in to 14th place between Thompson and Sam Davies on Roxy (15th).

Stamm has moved much further south than Golding and it will be fascinating to see whether his gamble pays off. It is the kind of move that can make a big difference, either way, in a skippers fortunes. The leading skippers have been unwilling to take such big risks but those further back have little to lose and everything to gain.

The ranking information and tracker boards can provide us with so much sophisticated information these days that the armchair race followers have almost as much information as the competitors.

But what the boards can't show you is just what it's like out there for the sailors. A coloured arrow for 25 kts of wind cannot describe the numbing wind on your face, the puffiness of sodden fingers or the cloying dampness next to your skin. Sam Davies gave some flavour of life on deck in an email where she was outlining the difficulties of making sail changes at night:

"I never cease to be overawed by these midnight manoeuvres, in a lot of wind, pitch black, up on the bow as Roxy hoons along. You get the feeling of immense solitude, coupled with the power of the boat and the wild waves. Everything is monochrome and the black silhouette of the mast and sails tower over me.

"Sometimes, when I am on the bow, and Roxy takes off on a surf, the bow is way out of the water and I almost feel like I'm flying. The down-side is that, quite frequently the surf ends with a nice wave over the deck, and that is cold! But before you say it, don't worry, when I am on deck I am always clipped on with my super Spinlock deck harness, so I don't take any risks."

Never mind what she says about being clipped on. Standing on the bow of a bucking boat in a 30 knot wind and a confused sea on your own at night, hundreds of miles from land, takes a rare inner strength. There is no-one to see you perform your heroics and you cannot expect sympathy since it's entirely your choice to be there. But you deserve admiration in bucket loads and you might attract a little envy too from those who understand that engaging with the elements at their rawest is living indeed.

Following pack fall behind

The following pack in the Vendee Globe now find themselves in a different weather system from the leaders. This one has lighter airs, meaning that it becomes ever more difficult to catch up. But there may be a little reordering in this group during the next day or two as both Bernard Stamm and Sam Davies are closing in on Brian Thompson.

Thompson seems to be struggling to get the best out of Bahrain Team Pindar which, in terms of its righting motion, is one of the most powerful boats in the fleet.

The followers, however, have the benefit of reading the strategies of those ahead and they would do well to recognise the advantage won by Jean-Pierre Dick in taking the most southerly route and stretching his lead to nearly 40 miles. Meanwhile Michel Desjoyeaux has picked off yet another of the leaders, moving to sixth place.