Cruel blow for third-placed Jean-Pierre Dick in Vendee Globe After two months of full on seat-of-your-pants racing, having completed all but 2,000 miles of the gruelling 28,000nms round the world epic, the French skipper felt his boat heel violently and realised immediately his race was over. He has yet to retire officially but for the popular 47 year-old skipper from Nice, the 2012-13 race is over. Only last week, Thomson told Telegraph Sport he was surprised the newer generation boats, Macif, Banque Populaire and Virbac Paprec 3, which are much lighter than the rest of the fleet, were still in the race. I expected some attrition among the newer boats," he said. Dick's rotten luck is Thomson's opportunity and with less than two weeks of the race remaining, he could be on track to finish in under 80 days which would be a new British record and also claim a podium place, for the first time since Mike Golding came third in 2004-2005. Golding now moves up into fifth place in the current race and was shocked to hear the news of Dick's failed keel. "That is really bad news," he said. I feel for Jean-Pierre because he is a lovely guy and really wants to finish this Vendée Globe. He has got so far and really wanted that podium finish.