Day 3 of the Vendée Globe dawned this morning, Tuesday 12 November, with much of the fleet having gone through their first bout of testing conditions around Cap Finistere.

Though the margins are still small, it’s British ‘rookie’ sailor Sam Goodchild, competing in his first Vendée Globe on Vulnerable that is currently leading the pack according to the race tracker.

After Sunday’s light winds start, the 40-boat fleet remained closely packed for a gentle Biscay crossing – with just 50 miles separating first and last IMOCAs after the first 24 hours of racing.

Charlie Dalin and Macif, tipped by many to be one of the race favourites, took the early lead. Macif was first to Finistere, passing inside the TSS (traffic separation zone) along the Galician coast yesterday evening.

High boat speeds and stronger breezes for the fleet around Cap Finstere. Photo: Benjamin Dutreux/Guyot Environment/VG2024

He was followed through by Sébastien Simon (Groupe Dubreuil), Sam Goodchild, Jérémie Beyou (Charal) and Yoann Richomme (Paprec Arkéa), with Goodchild’s team mate Thomas Ruyant (Vulnerable) leading another group on this inshore course some 20 miles back.

Meanwhile the last race winner, Yannick Bestaven (Maitre Coq V) and Justine Mettreaux (Teamwork Team SNEF) were the first boats to break west. By opting to sail outside of the TSS they were clearly hoping to reduce the number of manoeuvres needed and seek stronger winds.

Even those boats that went ‘inside’ however reported over 30 knots in the acceleration zone off the headland, with a messy sea state of 2m-plus.

“There was the TSS – and I passed it on the wrong side. A dumb move! I tried to play it safe, and calm things down with two reefs in the mainsail – I did dismast two months ago. But that choice did not help me. I thought that passing on the outside of the TSS at Cap Finisterre there would be fewer gybes, but in the end the wind was very strong- it is still 38 knots,” reported Roman Attanasio from Fortinet this morning

“The seas are acting crazy, it’s still bombing along – I’m making 18-20 knots.”

Goodchild in the lead

Once south of the TSS in the early hours of this morning, Goodchild and his team mate Ruyant both opted to hug the Portuguese coast to great effect, Goodchild taking the lead – though just some 7 miles ahead of Dalin according to the race tracker. Meanwhile Ruyant pulled up to 3rd overall.

Sam Goodchild has had a fantastic start to his first Vendée Globe, taking the lead on Day 2. Photo: Sam Goodchild/Vulnerable/VG2024

Yoann Richomme has headed the most west of the leading group, and has one of the fastest boat speeds with at least 10 knots more pressure than those inshore.

Meanwhile Nico Lunven (Holcim-PRB) has taken one of the most radical routings – heading some 180 miles west of the TSS before gybing south. At the moment the tracker has him in 28th place, but Lunven is a highly experienced and well rated navigator and router, so his move is definitely one to keep an eye on.

In the bigger breezes, Boris Herrmann’s Malizia-SeaExplorer is also coming into its own. Sailing outside the TSS, the German skipper moved up into the top 10 this morning after a tricky start dealing with some problems with his steering system in the very early stages, ranking 40th at one stage.

A big shift

For all the skippers, after the emotional rollercoaster of the start, followed by a tense first night of close quarters manoeuvres – many of the skippers in constant contact on VHF to avoid collisions – the stronger breezes around Finisterre required a big shift – not only in mindset, but in physical set up of the boat.

View inside Yoann Richomme’s Paprec Arkéa as the fleet picks up speeds around the Cap Finistere TSS. Photo: Yoann Richomme/VG2024

With many of the IMOCAs carrying from 800kgs up to 1 tonne of additional weight in food, gear and spares, shifting the carefully stowed stack of bags from their light wind start position to the back of the boat for bigger breeze trim is a major job. For the boats opting to sail inside the TSS, with repeated gybes, there’s then the additional physical challenge of shifting that gear across the boat.

“Approaching Cape Finistere, the wind’s starting to pick up and the sea state is starting to get a bit gnarly. So the ride becomes rougher and I’ve got a bit of work to do,” explained Pip Hare from onboard Medallia, surveying the stack of bags she had to move. “The trick is not to do it all at once.”

Not coming back

For the first time in the Vendée Globe’s history, not one single boat has yet returned to the start port of Les Sables d’Olonne. Under race rules, skippers may return and restart within the first 10 days, but once they have left Les Sables, must complete the rest of the course unassisted.

Avoiding collisions was key in the early stages when light winds saw the fleet stay tighly compressed. Photo: Benjamin Dutreux/Guyot Environment/VG2024

Often strong conditions in the Bay of Biscay sees some skippers return to effect repairs (Michel Desjoyeaux most famously returned in 2008, restarting some 40 hours later, but went on to win), but this year’s light conditions have not – so far – seen any report major damage.

However, Thomas Ruyant’s team has disclosed that he has discovered some water ingress in the forward area of his IMOCA Vulnerable. In the strong conditions he is currently sailing in Ruyant is pumping out the water and monitoring the situation.