www.vendeeglobe.org/en
This is going to be amazing.

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tarquin1 said..
www.vendeeglobe.org/en
This is going to be amazing.

Yep! can't wait!

Hard to beat a Frog. A few Brit women, a few others and dozens of French entrants. The French really follow this stuff so it isn't surprising they dominate the entries.

Alex is in with a chance. But yes the French dominate the sport. They have such a history for singled handed sailing. Good backing from sponsors etc.
These new boats are so dependant on foils and electronics its all about keeping everything working.
To win, first you have to finish!

www.instagram.com/p/CHQb58ZDfFP/?igshid=1mox7i7wztjhh

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MorningBird said..
Hard to beat a Frog. A few Brit women, a few others and dozens of French entrants. The French really follow this stuff so it isn't surprising they dominate the entries.

Some of the British entrants moved to France and learned the language. That's where the money is!

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Ramona said..

MorningBird said..
Hard to beat a Frog. A few Brit women, a few others and dozens of French entrants. The French really follow this stuff so it isn't surprising they dominate the entries.

Some of the British entrants moved to France and learned the language. That's where the money is!

Ellen McArthur did the same when she was racing.

Well they're off. The start was delayed due to fog.
This was good as they had a while to talk about the boats and teams. Francois Gabart was one of the commentators so he knew what he was talking about.
He thinks a sub 60 day race is possible!!! If the new foiling boats stay together. Thats 2 weeks faster than the record !
Charal had some serious speed after the start.

First turn around, glad to see it is only a temporary delay. That really sucks having to work back upwind when you know the rest of the fleet is merrily heading downwind under their biggest kites.

After starting the Vend?e Globe this afternoon Sunday November 8 at 1420hrs local time. French skipper Fabrice Amedeo has been forced to make a U-turn and return to the start port of Les Sables d'Olonne because of a problem with the hook (lock) of his headsail which has prevented him from dropping his gennaker.As he was already 50 nautical miles away from Les Sables d'Olonne Amedeo on Newrest - Art & Fen?tres has to beat upwind back to the start town. His arrival on the outskirts of Sables d'Olonne is expected now to be in the middle of tonight. His stopover is expected to be brief.

There are two options open to Amedeo: to return through the channel to the dock in Port Olona or to take advantage of one of the temporary mooring buoys at the entrance to the port made available to the skippers for such a purpose as having to return to Les Sables d'Olonne to repair.The Newrest - Art & Fen?tres shore team are ready to solve the problem which is simple but will be costly in terms of time lost against the fleet.

I know that halyard locks are supposedly the best thing since sliced bread as your halyard has no resting tension, but it is exactly this issue that gives me pause. I've been up a 80' mast whilst underway and I can happily attest to I never ever want to do it again.

Don't be early before the start gun.....
Louis Burton jumped the start gun by a few seconds. Under the VG rules, the penalty for being OCS is a 5 hour park-up!
I'll never complain about doing turns again .

You might as well put a set of wings on it and remove the water completely , how seaman like is it to be going so fast you can't see ahead , give me a long waterline every time.

Spectacular technology and less seat of the pants sailing. They still have to battle their boats against the sea and wind.

For thems that's interested or care

www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

What's the deal with Alex Thompson's tracker? He's been reporting only 5.1 knts speed for a few hours.

Also does anyone know what "nds' stands for with the wind speed?

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2bish said..
Also does anyone know what "nds' stands for with the wind speed?

Hiya 2bish,
Yep, it's written all throughout the pics in my user manuals....nds is knots.

Thanks Shaggy, I haven't seen that before, I wonder what it stands for?

Have a look at Alex's website and his hub, even has his heart rate! www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/boat/

The hub is reporting 23.3 knots max boat speed in the past hour, so there's definitely something wrong with the Vendee tracker.

The indefatigable Mr Thomson..
There's a reason he is yelling, a tweet mentioned 110db noise levels at something something in the high 20's boat speed.
Ugh.
Edit: coulda been 104db, can't find it. But regardless I'd want bloody good headphones.


They recorded a 4 hour average of 15 knots boat speed, not too shabby a start!

They asked Francois Gabart what the biggest differences were this time around. He said technology. Even since the last one 4 years ago there is a huge difference in the systems onboard. Communications etc. This comes at a price though. If you have even a small problem with your electronics it can be a massive problem.
The boats are dryer and the tripple furling headsail rig makes life easier. There are different types of fatigue to deal with though as the boats are faster and noisier.

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shaggybaxter said..

2bish said..
Also does anyone know what "nds' stands for with the wind speed?

Hiya 2bish,
Yep, it's written all throughout the pics in my user manuals....nds is knots.

noeuds - Frog for knots. But a tad strange as the Frog word relates to a knot in a rope not a speed in nautical miles per hour..........albeit the knot as in speed originated from counting knots in rope thrown overboard...........

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/n%C5%93ud

oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nauticalmile_knot.html

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r13 said..

noeuds - Frog for knots. But a tad strange as the Frog word relates to a knot in a rope not a speed in nautical miles per hour..........albeit the knot as in speed originated from counting knots in rope thrown overboard...........

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/n%C5%93ud

oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nauticalmile_knot.html

Hardly strange at all, speed was measured by tossing a line over the stern which had evenly spaced knots tied in it and a small piece of wood to provide drag, so if one knot passed over the stern in one hour the ship was doing "One knot" of boat speed, eg. more knots over the stern in an hour meant the ship was going faster. It then makes perfect sense for the French to call their boat speed in noeuds as that is exactly what the British and Dutch had been doing as well.
The only downside to this system is that not everyone used the same spacing for their knots on the log line therefore the speed in knots only pertained to that particular boat till a common spacing was agreed on, or at least till someone came up with a better idea.

I watched the start with my older daughter,14. She was amazed by a few things. Less than 200 people have ever entered,even fewer have finished. Some have entered 3 or 4 times and only finished once or twice. Since it only happens every 4 years thats some dedication.
Sleep deprivation and hallucinations are normal.
They showed some of the older footage of boats in the southern ocean and rescues etc.
Then she understood.
There are not many things less than 200 people have done these days.

This is the north Atlantic, which has a nasty reputation all to itself, but it's great video of big seas.
For the time poor, have a look at the following time positions on the vid for some impressively large seas.
- 44.00 to 45.00 mins; and
- 50.00 to 51.00 mins.



I'm trying to imagine the southern ocean in shudder..seas like this...solo...in a 60'er. Those seas are survival mode on my scale, I don't know how you could even think about racing.
In seas like this, what would you do in your boat?
Bare poles?
Run with everything on the quarter?
Heave to?
Drogue?

The Imocas are fast enough to change weather patterns, so they'd be running I'd hypothesise. I'm beamy and stiff, so I'd go for running with seas on the quarter.
Heaving to just always makes sense, but breaking waves...I'd defer to having steerage to get around those bits.
Breaking seas are bad anytime, but big breaking seas...

I love the way he casually reaches around and picks up a cup of tea while staring at a wall of water ...

K.

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shaggybaxter said..
The indefatigable Mr Thomson..
There's a reason he is yelling, a tweet mentioned 110db noise levels at something something in the high 20's boat speed.
Ugh.
Edit: coulda been 104db, can't find it. But regardless I'd want bloody good headphones.

They recorded a 4 hour average of 15 knots boat speed, not too shabby a start!

He's been pretty consistently enduring 120db. All these metrics are available on his website hub, pretty awesome to see all this: www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/environment/

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LooseChange said..

r13 said..

noeuds - Frog for knots. But a tad strange as the Frog word relates to a knot in a rope not a speed in nautical miles per hour..........albeit the knot as in speed originated from counting knots in rope thrown overboard...........

www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/n%C5%93ud

oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nauticalmile_knot.html

Hardly strange at all, speed was measured by tossing a line over the stern which had evenly spaced knots tied in it and a small piece of wood to provide drag, so if one knot passed over the stern in one hour the ship was doing "One knot" of boat speed, eg. more knots over the stern in an hour meant the ship was going faster. It then makes perfect sense for the French to call their boat speed in noeuds as that is exactly what the British and Dutch had been doing as well.
The only downside to this system is that not everyone used the same spacing for their knots on the log line therefore the speed in knots only pertained to that particular boat till a common spacing was agreed on, or at least till someone came up with a better idea.

The European terminology which I took a few days to sort out in the mid 80s was PS for power. So hp and kw were obvious - PS is European for power and stands for pferdestarke (literally meaning horse strength).

1PS = 0.986hp

See

drivetribe.com/p/whats-the-difference-between-ps-IFDMV69jS6icLs9_UyeQkg?iid=BiseaZabTuGuekhPyyr3Vw

Update: 40 knots in a foiler, this'll be interesting!

Heading west this afternoon and encountering building winds, skippers of the many of the faster foiling IMOCAs are preparing themselves for an overnight pounding, set to last five or six hours, when they punch through an active weather front which is forecast to bring them 40 knot gusts and big seas.

The reward for looking after their boats and themselves as best they can tonight will be some faster, albeit bumpy miles in a more direct, southerly direction.

While 30 year old Les Sables d'Olonne hometown favourite Benjamin Dutreux tops the afternoon classifications due to his more southerly position, some 50 miles north west of the Ria de Vigo on the Galician coast, so also Nico Troussel on the new Juan K IMOCA Corum L'?pargne has broken from the other foiler and taken this southerly option which is considered to be safer.

Dutreux on OMIA-Water Family (which was built in Cowes as BT), Troussel, Maxime Sorel (V and B - Mayenne) and Jean Le Cam have led a southerly pack inside the Cape Finisterre TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme no go area). Troussel's option may be related to taking a more conservative safe option, sailing more miles but with the benefit of less severe winds, to safeguard his boat which is in its first race. But the 46-year old double La Solitaire du Figaro champion was renowned in the world of the Figaro for taking flyers away from the fleet and often coming out smelling of roses. Such gambles and big gains gave rise to rise to the expression 'doing a Troussel'.

Troussel was lying fourth on the afternoon standings, almost 100 miles south east of rivals J?r?mie Beyou (Charal), Charlie Dalin (Apivia) and the hard driving Kevin Escoffier on the older PRB who is just seven and a half miles off Beyou's leeward quarter. The worst of the conditions will be tonight between 0200hrs and 0300hrs for this foiling peloton with average windspeeds above 30kts and gusts over 40, but by the morning they should be able to tack into the NW'ly wind and make faster miles down the track, albeit still in bumpy seas.

Jeremie Beyou on Charal turns back after a series of problems. Exploded a headsail block that then damaged the Stbd runner. He also hit something and has damaged one of the rudders.

Another (of many) interesting thing about the IMOCAs is the hull. I recall Alex saying his hull is only 2mm thick but it is as strong as 10mm steel? Or something along those lines.
It is in this video which is a good watch.

Just came across this. No idea if its from the actual race or before. But it rocks!
www.instagram.com/reel/CHcBlpklXQ4/?igshid=jx8zlc011jrj