Getting Ready For The Big One - Vend?e Globe 2024 - YouTube
IMOCA 60; Updated boat tour ahead of the Vend?e Globe

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A rundown of an IMOCA60. Semi-foilers at this stage. Slappers at the back, apparently the open ocean ride at 39 knots is horrendous. T foils for the rudder would fix this and are under IMOCA60 class consideration? They seem to be every bit as complex as an AC75.

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Why does IMOCA not like a T foil on the rudder? Might make the ride a tad smoother at times if the hull could get clear of the waves a bit more often. Tech inside the cabin was pretty impressive, I didn't realise they had load sensing in the shrouds, seems like a very good idea wheny ou are all be yourself in the Southern Ocean.

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fangman said..
Why does IMOCA not like a T foil on the rudder? Might make the ride a tad smoother at times if the hull could get clear of the waves a bit more often. Tech inside the cabin was pretty impressive, I didn't realise they had load sensing in the shrouds, seems like a very good idea wheny ou are all be yourself in the Southern Ocean.

Might be a matter of how many rescues they can budget for? The big trimarans somehow arrange auto height control but I gather the failure rate of getting around the world in one piece is pretty high. The ride looks smooth though. Vendee record is 74 days, Ultime Tris 42 days.

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The tenth Vendee globe starts tomorrow. The most-followed of all the yacht races, 22milion in France alone follow it! We maybe get half a dozen on seabreeze? Less followed here than the America's Cup? Australia did win that one once. But then our Navy did rescue Tony Bullimore and Cape Leeuwin is a notable landmark in the race.

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Vend?e Globe - Wikipedia

Sea Wolves, a youtuber who comes out of the woodwork every 4 years, has this time become an official Vendee Globe partner. Here's the first 2 editions if you want to know the who's who of it all. Will probably put out a half hour video of each day's action. (Depending on how you allocate/restrict your screen time. Hey, I didn't watch any of the Olympics )
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1 day down. Watched the start for an hour. Light wind, they all drifted away from the start line. Charlie Dalin is now leading , has done 214.5 NM, 24,059.8 NM to go. He's currently doing 23 knots in 14 knots of wind, 1.8 m seas. The race tracker is on WWW.vendeeglobe.org.

One week down and Jean Le Cam, on Tout Commence en Finistere, veteran of 6 Vendee Globes in his non-foiler is in the lead. 1779.9 NM down 22,495 to go. Well he's the most southerly of the fleet, he and Kiwi Conrad Coleman went east gambling on atypical weather patterns. The rest of the fleet went west for the best path through the doldrums and the best side of the St Helena High.

Watch the first few minutes of Sea Wolves report to see the drone video of Jean Le Cam.
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Louis Burton, one of the favourites has just cracked the deck of Bureau Vallee (The French Office Works). He's assessing the damage in the currently light conditions. He'll either retire or be out mixing resin and carbon fibre.

Watch the first few minutes here for drone footage of Bureau Vallee before the deck cracked.
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Amazing determination of the sailors to sail non stop solo!!!
Thanks Ian K for your posts with video

I used to enjoy the old round the world races with the stop overs and watching them come into, in port and leave Auckland. Those races got main stream coverage.

Repair videos are always popular with those of you who've slapped on a bit of carbon. But fixing a ding from bumping a rock vs fixing a crack appearing in normal sailing? Clarisse guarding against scurvy.
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Looks like he's laid unidirectional carbon, along the crack. If that's what he's done, I don't think that will do much good. you want fibers across the crack

2 weeks in now, all but 2 of the 39 still in the race have crossed the equator. Charlie Dalin is in the lead, he's 16 degrees South, 3998 NM down 20,296 to go. Currently cruising along at 25.7 knots, 58.3 NM ahead of 2nd placed Thomas Ruyant.

It was a relatively slow leg to the equator for a Vendee event, light winds. But despite that the 24 hr solo monohull speed record was broken. Twice! Yoann Richomme now holds it with 551.8 NM, an average of 23 knots in about 17 knots of wind. WSSRC to ratify it. Optimum conditions, a streak of wind in an overall relatively calm Atlantic. They'll get more wind in the Southern Ocean but I doubt they'll break the record there.

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There's a challenge, take the record back on the windsurfer . Loving the weekly updates on YouTube

3 weeks down, they've passed the first of the 3 capes, The Cape of Good Hope. The lead has chopped and changed a bit, Yoann Richomme is currently leading. The second half of the Atlantic was fast, the leaders surfing on a low pressure system. The 24 hour record was upped a few times, the leaders not wanting to fall behind or off the back of the low . Apparently speed is not determined by how fast the boat will go but how hard sailors are prepared to push themselves and/or the boat. Sebastion Simon now holds the record at 615.33 NM. He's a composite engineer, seems to have more faith that his boat will hold together than the others.
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Sam Goodchild is the first non-French person at 7th.
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Jean Le Cam is leading the non-foilers at 20th.

The Southern Ocean may change things. Seems some newer boats have been designed to, hopefully, do well in bigger seas. More buoyancy in the nose etc. but they have yet to be tried out down there.

In the meantime the Jules Verne Record attempt is just underway. Massive tris, crew of 6, They wait until the long range forecasts looks just right before starting. I suspect if they don't make good time in the Atlantic they'lll return to the start to await another attempt.
40 days 23 hours 30 minutes and 30 seconds is the time to beat. They are fast enough to chase weather systems, not so much waiting for the weather to come up from behind.

Tough few days coming up with a big low building. Go to the tracker www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracker and check the 72 hour wind forecast. The choice is to weather the storm or take the longer path northeast to try and avoid the worst. Of the first 3 Charlie Dalin and Sebastion Simon appear to be holding the due east line . Yoann Richomme to the NE. Wonder if they'll get to post any onboard videos?

The Southern Ocean is a wild place. Crossed it a couple of times 50 years ago on a 2,000 tonne boat at 12 knots. Rough at times but never struck weather like that that is forecast. Did get 60 knot gusts only once in 12months on Macquarie Island, ( maybe it was 70 that the met team reported? Can't remember exactly), not quite the same, very difficult to walk even on solid ground.

4 weeks down and not much sleeping. Charlie Dalin and Sebastion Simon negotiated the big Low pressure system. Charlie in fine style, kept towards the leading edge where winds were more moderate, Sebastion fell back, from leading the race about a week ago he's now 297.85 NM behind Dalin. Reports say he spent hours studying the weather models before picking his track through. (I gather they are not allowed external routing advice. As distinct from those going for the Jules Verne trophy ).
Yoann Richomme, who along with most went north to negotiate the low, is third 550 NM behind Dalin.

Tanguy Le Turquais has passed the old Salt Jean Le Cam to now lead the non-foilers, 2559 NM behind the leader.

38 of the 40 starters are still in the race. Both the big foiling trimarans that set off for a run at the Jules Verne open class round the world record have retired with damage.

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Over half-way, leaders just passed NZ. Charlie Dalin still leads, Composite engineer Sebastian Simon was holding second, lost his starboard foil. Fatigue, shipping container, whale? He didn't hear a bang. Not as fast on port tack now, just been overtaken by Yoann Richomme.


A long traverse of the Pacific, past Point Nemo, the most remote location on the planet. Then Cape Horn. Despite its reputation it's the busiest part of the trip. Check out www.cruisemapper.com/. There's about 30 cruise ships between The Horn and the Antarctic Peninsular! Bucket listers. ABC reported academics have assessed that 9% of global CO2 emissions are attributable to tourism.

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Pip Hare dismasted

She's OK, got a jury rig up and heading to Melbourne at 4 knots. In the meantime Yoann Richomme, who was 550 NM behind Dalin 9 days ago is last reported as only 2 Nm behind.

And Yoann Richomme has just taken the lead from Charlie Dalin who had held it for weeks. Here's a bump of the interview with him that got a few green thumbs last time it was posted.
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6 weeks down, well over half way. Yoann Richomme and Charlie Dalin have been swapping the lead, testing each other out, only 1 NM abeam at times.

Planet sail has a good summary of the week.
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Pip Hare's sailmaking video is getting a few views. A bit more spare time to become a youtuber now. Episode 4 on trimming for speed!
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7 weeks with very little sleep, even the English speakers are starting to ramble on.

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Yoann Richomme and Charlie Dalin have rounded the Horn and about 1/4 the way back up the Atlantic.

Jean Le Cam still leading the non-foilers 4,049 NM behind leader Yoann. Sebastion Simon is still holding third despite losing his starboard foil a few weeks back. Would be a lot of port tack heading north in the Atlantic though.

The lead is still swapping as they head north in the Atlantic. Planet Sail does a good week's summary.
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And for the speed sailors. Sodebo has been repaired, waited for a gust to fill the Atlantic and launched into another run. They've rounded the Cape of Good Hope on record pace.
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With only 276 NM to go it looks like Charlie Dalin has it in the bag. Yoann Richomme is 185 Nm back in second and Sebastien Simon, with one foil left is third. The French fill first 3, as usual. Most competitors are now in the Atlantic. There's been 6 withdrawls, 5 yet to round Cape Horn.

And in the Jules Verne trophy attempt, Sodebo has retired between the Kerguelens and Cape Leeuwin. Maybe at 35 knots your chances of something in the water not having time to get outta the way is quite high.

Planet sail goes through the tough times of competitors further back in the fleet.

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Interesting viewing. Thanks for posting. If I ever pass an iceberg, I'll make sure I pass it on the windward side

We shouldn't really stop following after the winner arrives. The first 3 came in between 64 and 67days, the next 3 Jeremy Bayou, Paul Meilhat and Nicholas Lunven, alll French in 74-75 days. Some rough going in the Atlantic.
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