Vendee Vincent….

Unless his mast falls down or his boat sinks, it looks certain that Vincent Riou will be the first across the Vendee Globe finish line tonight. He’s got a lead of 97.4 miles over Jean Le Cam on Bonduelle with just 162.7 miles to go. Pretty hard to screw that up. Latest report here; latest positions here. Mike Golding is another 90-plus miles back, and resigning himself to a hard-fought third. Golding wanted a win in this race in the worst way and is torturing himself with “what ifs” before he even hits the docks. Here’s some of what he said during his last radio interview:

“It’s a shame, I would have liked to have won this race in particular and we have worked very hard towards that, but it’s quite clear that whatever you do, no matter how prepared you are there is still an element of it which is not fully in your control. It is a long race and lots of things can happen, and the good thing for me it is that I have competed in the Vendee twice and had major problems on one and very few on the other, but both times I have been successful in completing the course and there are lots of less fortunate people than myself, and again this race has been no different in having a very high rate of attrition…My regrets are obviously all linked to the halyard saga, and that is just a twofold regret and one is whether we made the right choice of what to carry as a spare, and that is a matter for us to discuss when we hit the shore, but secondly the fact that I did find a resolution that is working and that I am comfortable and confident with and so there is a slight annoyance in my mind that if only I’d elected to make this change on the first occasion then I wouldn’t have had to go through two of the halyard failures, one of them which was very expensive in terms of miles I had to give, so that is the only regret and that is remarkable that that is the only regret, because this is a long, long race, and yet I have had lots of other things happen to regret and yet I don’t regret them, so I feel very lucky to be in the situation where my regrets are so few, and I can say with honesty that I have been honest and true to myself and that I have sailed the best race that I can.”

Golding also spoke generously about his competition:

“I think that both the other guys (PRB and Bonduelle) have sailed a fabulous race. PRB I think I noticed very quickly how sharp he is tactically and I think that my first recognition of that was actually at Finisterre on the way out, when he took a little hitch down to Finisterre and got a little boost off it, and I remember thinking then he was really on the pace, and prepared to do whatever it takes. Jean: Jean has been extremely talented, extremely reliable and just consistently fast. I think that they have both done a fabulous job and I am honoured to be here amongst the two of them.”

It’s been quite a race…



Gloomy Golding: “Sigh. Stupid halyards…”