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donradcliffe · 19-01-2017, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

proven again: french are best boat architects, builders and sailors.

Everyone else just improvises

First Trump, and now this!

I suspect that if Alex had finished first the French would have saved the fireworks for Amel.

I chose Bank Pop for the colors on my virtual boat before the race start, because I thought Amel would be the winner.

Polux · 19-01-2017, 10:19

I am looking at Armel...and I am truly amazed. He really looks in great shape and not tired at all. That is one of the secrets of this race, the ability to manage effort and stress without reach exhaustion and keep always a reserve of strength.

It is even more amazing after the big and hard pursuit that Alex had managed to put on and the big fight between the two. He looks like he is ready to start another one

As usual he said nothing about the problems he had but it seems he had lost the possibility to use the best sail to go upwind with light winds and I would say that explains why in some occasions, going upwind on very light winds, up the Atlantic, he was not going as fast as Alex, even if the diference was not big. It seemed odd to me. I think I had refereed that, I mean the possibility of Armel having lost a sail.

robert sailor · 19-01-2017, 10:32

All these guys are cut from some very unique cloth, there are just a handful of sailors that can operate at the levels they do and for the length of time they do, truly unique individuals.

Polux · 19-01-2017, 10:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by arsenelupiga

proven again: french are best boat architects, builders and sailors.

Everyone else just improvises

And you are not French?I guess not, I wonder if you were

I would say that regarding boat building, meaning top racing boat building there are some other places where you can find about the same expertise. Comanche was built in the USA even if it was designed by the same French that designed Armel's boat and many of the ones that arrived on the first places. There are also top boats built even in China by an Australian firm.

Regarding boat designers and racing I would say that the French have by far the greater number of talented NA and top yacht cabinets but there are other top cabinets in GB, Italy and US even if not many. Australia and NZ had great NA that were ahead of their time but it is hard to have a big cabinet when the main races are somewhere else, on the other side of the world, specially in what regards solo or short crew races.

Regarding sailors, the French have by far the biggest number of professional sailors but most of them are solo or short crew sailors. When they won the last decent VOR (made with different boats and top crews) they used basically solo sailors that had take some time to learn the ropes of top crewed ocean racing.

There is a big number of NZ and Australian top crew sailors too, certainly better than the French in some types of racing, for instance the America's cup and I don't mean only the last ones.

Particularly regarding the population of the country I only know one place that has so many great sailors as NZ: Brittany.

**JPA Cate** · 19-01-2017, 12:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by blu3534

Bravo à Armel !!

(and thanks to Polux - it was sometimes more interesting to read your comments than browsing the official vendée globe site

)

I couldn't agree more. Three cheers to Armel, who made no mistakes!

Thanks, Polux. I've been coming to this thread first.

Ann

Polux · 20-01-2017, 04:17

Alex arrived near sunrise and even with below 0 temperatures, on a very chilly morning, was deservedly escorted by a big number of boats to the finish line.

He looked a lot more tired than Armel, understandably since he said that on the 3 last days only had sleep 5 yours, but with a big smile on his face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYW07SYw5Mw

A great guy besides a great sailor, that talked about Armel saying that he was a "machine", a great sailor, a very modest underrated one that had deserved to win the race, after being two times 2th on the previous editions.

At the quay among the many that were waiting for Alex to cheer him was Armel clapping his hands and congratulating Alex for a great performance.

Both boats were handicapped, Armel without the best upwind sail, unable to be raised, not because the sail was damaged but because a piece on the halyard broke and Alex without a foil.

Would it be different if Alex had his foil intact? It is something that we will never know. Alex talked about it and he said how he was pissed when he had to sail on the side of the broken foil, not so much a question of speed but because the way the boat sailed.

The truth is that all the final part of the race, for many days, just before the last small tack, Alex was sailing on the "good" side of his boat and he was not able to catch Armel or gain significantly over him and it is also true that if Alex had bad luck in what regards losing the foil, the luck come to him after in what regarding having several times, since the horn, more favorable wind conditions than Armel.

A pointless exercise to talk about what could have been a race if something had been different, but the truth is that Alex come out of it a better sailor and I have no doubt that his reputation has grown hugely and deservedly.

No more Alex, the fast but mad boat breaker, but Alex, one of the greatest solo sailors of his generation. Contrary to several on this race he has not on his curriculum a single victory on the many races and transats with IMOCA boats. I bet that is going to change on the next years.

I believe Armel is going to leave IMOCA racing for now and probably will focus on the biggest accomplishment a sailor can have: To be the first man to have simultaneously the two solo circumnavigation records, the one with monohulls and the one with multihulls. What a dream!!!!

Pelagic · 23-01-2017, 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polux

Well, I enjoy to be in good company so it was a pleasure to share it with all of you

I will keep commenting, there are several races on this race, one very interesting is the one from what the French have already named the three Musketeers, the 4th, 5th and 6th, three very good sailors, three friends with many races between them since they were kids. They are having fun with a fight of their own and from the first to the 3th, only 10 nm separates them.
.

OK...which of the Three Musketeers will finish in 4th place ?

Polux · 24-01-2017, 06:41

And finally a very happy Jeremie Beyou arrived at the finish line being the first with older generation boats (2010) even if it was retrofitted with new foils.

To understand why he is so happy and why either Armel and Alex come to celebrate with him you have to understand that this is one of the best solo French sailors ever with an incredible list of victories and achievements, between them being two time French solo offshore champion winning the Figaro race 3 times, the last one in 2014, winner of several races on IMOCA, including two transats and like Armel a polyvalent racer with a even bigger race record in multihulls since he was ORMA (60ft offshore trimarans) Champion back in 2005.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A9r%C3%A9mie_Beyou
Jérémie BEYOU - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

And he is so happy and Armel and Alex share that happiness with him, because he had been victim of an incredibly bad luck on circumnavigation races and records in such a way that this year it was the first time he managed to pass the horn. He had been in 2 more Vendee Globe races, on the Barcelona race (duo non stop circumnavigation race) and on sail attempts to beat circumnavigation records and always the boat broke before he arrived to the horn, stupid things, like collisions with objects, problems with the rigging and stuff like that.

So, being him one of the best Solo racers, he was still trying, for the 5th or 6th time, to finish a solo circumnavigation!!!!! That is rather odd and I bet he was feeling that he was escaping some kind of curse

That explains not only is big enjoyment but also the huge reception a knowledgeable crowd had given to him. They, like me, are really happy to see Jeremie Beyou, a big champion, breaking his bad luck on circumnavigation races. I would say he will be among the favorites to the next edition if he can get on his hands a new boat.

For my part, a big Cheer to Beyou, if there was somebody that deserved to finish this race it was him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7tQZ6t5iUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrI3vfDJnhM

Polux · 24-01-2017, 07:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pelagic

OK...which of the Three Musketeers will finish in 4th place ?

It seems it will be Jean Pierre Dick, but really those 3 deserved all an honorary 4th place. They have being fighting since the beginning of the race, always very close adl always in a great mood. They are the three great sailors and also good friends.

Just look at the face of jean Pierre Dick....maybe he deserves to win on account of that. That should be very painful, with the staples and all!!!! and he kept pushing on, hurting or not.

Look at the video:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5...ee-globe_sport

Polux · 26-01-2017, 06:55

Jean-Pierre, Elies and Le Cam finished the vendee on this order and separated by few hours. With this ones, that had a big reception ended the race 1st division, meaning the surviving top solo races even if they had not all the same boats.

Armel and Alex had new boats Beyou with an older generation boat (retrofitted with foils), managed to beat jean Pierre (4th), that had a new boat and that managed to very narrowly beat Elies and Jean Le Cam that had older generation boats without the new foils.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Jcp9o7ryo

That was the first time on the Vendee Globe history that 3 boats arrived so close. With these three finished all that were on the 1st division on this race, the surviving top sailors, I mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2P1lNMixv0

For me one of the great disappointments of this race was Riou having to abandon since he was by far the fastest with the older generation boats without new foils and I would had loved to see him battling with Armel and Alex while going up the Atlantic, where his boat would have advantages over Armel's and Alex's boats.