Refusing to ‘waddle’ home, Hare repairs and is expected overnight (Vendée Globe update 11Feb21)

“I want to do more, I can’t wait to get back out there,” says Pip Hare, before she’s made it back. Hare was expected to reach Les Sables d’Olonne this afternoon, but after a failed halyard lock strop dropped her Fractional Code Zero to the deck and into the water, damaging the pulpit of Medallia, her race looked like it would become, in her words, ‘a waddle’, and she’d complete tomorrow.

“I am waddling along to the finish and that is not how this story ends. I am gutted to have to pull out of my fight with the foilers. I knew I would be giving them some grief at the next position schedule, maybe not enough to overtake but certainly to keep them on their toes.

“One thing is for sure, this is not over and I still have the clock to race against.”

Fans of Hare’s, those who have followed her amazing, tenacious daily updates, will already know what happened next. She fought back.

Deprived of her downwind sails Hare looked at options to get moving fast again. A few hours later, with the determination and good spirit which has kept the sailing community glued to Hare’s race, she got her offwind sail back in the air.

Estimates now put her completing her circumnavigation around 23.00 today.

“It would have been easy to say the fight’s over, I’ll just cruise to the finish. Not me. If there’s a job to be done, I’m going to do it.”

Watch how she did it here:

Hare must surely be feeling loved right now by the online community who has got behind her, calling her ‘a beast’ for the way she tackles, and overcomes, every obstacle.

Meawhile French skipper Arnaud Boissières crossed the finish line at 08h 56min 06s this morning (11Feb21) to take 15th place. In so doing he becomes the first ever skipper to complete the solo non stop round the world race four consecutive times.

“It was an amazing race, intense, I feel like I was always in touch,” says Boissières. “I expected a little more but because the level is very high and the preparation of the boats high too. Behind the leaders we were also in a fight, that’s what made the race so great, but that’s also why I’m so tired.

“Racing a fourth Vendée Globe in a row is great, I am making history, but everyone has their own story in this race. It’s so beautiful and a great story. This one will remain etched in my memory. We fought like crazy with Alan (Roura), Stéphane (Le Diraison), Kojiro (Shiraishi) and Pip (Hare). She is extraordinary, she always has a positive attitude. We don’t go to sea because we need to, we choose to go racing.”

Kojiro Shiraishi arrived this morning and is the 16th to cross the finish line. He completed this round-the-world race after 94d, 21h, 32min and 56sec.

Hear from skippers around the fleet

Miranda Merron is struggling to make progress

Although she had a “great day in the sun yesterday” she says “temperatures have dropped. It’s really cold now.

“The goal is to head north because there’s the other part of the anticyclone to cross. It’s a bit of a mess. The wind turns on all sides… then stops…. This makes progress difficult. Lots of manoeuvres for little gain on the road.”