Vendee Globe Starts Today, Facts, Video, Discussion

[Polux]

The last message from Beyou, one of those two that are being caught by that
huge front:

« Ambiance fin du monde avant l'apocalypse. C’est gris, on ne distingue pas le jour de la nuit. La crête des vagues fume depuis de nombreuses heures, signe que le vent a dépassé les 35 nœuds. Drôle de sentiment : peur de faire une connerie, de casser un truc et de se faire manger. Et en même temps cette adrénaline d’être là à défier les éléments. Quelle course de dingues, il n’y a qu’au Vendée Globe que tu vis ça ! »

Actualités - « Une course de dingues ! » - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

"Looks like the end of the world before the apocalypse. It's gray, we cannot distinguish the day from the night. Since many hours the crest of the waves smoke, sign that the wind has exceeded 35 knots. Strange feeling: afraid to make an error, to break something or to be eaten alive. And at the same time this adrenaline of being here to challenge the elements. What a crazy race this one. Only on the Vendée Globe you can experience this!"

[Polux]

On the next hours Rich Wilson, Bellion, Enda O'Coineen and Alan Roura will all be fighting on stormy seas.

Have a look, it seems that the windy tracker works again:
https://gis.ee/vg/

Remember saying some days back, that I was becoming a fan of Didac Costa, the Barcelona firefighter, that leave France 4 days after all the others?

I said that when he overtook the first one and at that time Pieter, the next, on a brand new boat, was almost 1000nm ahead. Now it is at just at a bit more than 200!!!!!

And a great movie of Jean-Pierre passing the Bass strait at speed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1W3W-OxAB8

[Polux]

The blow seems to have passed Rich Wilson and the international group of sailors that sail with him without problems but another one is coming and that one will catch also Conrad Colman.

The problem are not the 40k sustained winds, gusting 50K that this depressions bring, the problem are the much more violent squalls that can happen inside the depression. Here one of them (Bellion) sailing with strong winds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6vqJY8whJE

The ones that are fighting for the 3th place, Beyou and Meilhat passed the depression, that was menacing them, foot down, sailing at speed, neither of them wanting to let go the other.

But Beyou, the one that is chasing Meilhat and that I said some days ago, was on attack mode, has keep on attacking at an incredibly pace. It is worth to detail: Meilhat has "done" that big depression sailing fast, averaging on the last 24 hours 16.3K but the chaser, Beyou, had made a truly incredible average of 18.3k. You have to remember that it was in stormy conditions!!!

Plus Meilhat has damaged something in his mast rail and has problems taking reefs and that is slowing him down. He has to make repairs. On the last 4 hours he is averaging 14.8 while Beyou keeps pushing, apparently on a boat without problems, averaging 20.4K.

I hope Beyou will be able to maintain this diabolic rhythm. He had won on the last days 250nm to the first!!!

Another one that keeps pushing is the rookie Ruyant, that had on on the last days won 60nm to Le Cam and more to Yann and Jean-Pierre. Ruyant has always been a favorite of mine from his times on the mini racers and later on class 40. It seems that he is ready for the big league and he is sailing as fast or faster than some of the best IMOCA sailors and that on a boat that had given him problems after problems.

It seems that he has another one since with plenty of wind he is just making a bit over 11k on the last 4 hours.

Finally on the lead, Alex lost 100nm to Armel and is going to lose more since Armel is making a better routing. Sometime ago I said that Armel was a better router than Alex and it is there that he was going to lose this race for Armel (if this one don't break the boat).

Alex is one of the best sailors around, as good as Armel and even with a crippled boat he was able to follow Armel (probably pushing more) when things were about sailing but now that they are about routing on light winds (where the broken foil does not make a diference), Armel is going away.

In fact being them two top sailors, it is on these conditions that one can win or lose big, due to a better routing and not on muscular conditions where it is all about sailing.

[SV DestinyAscen]

Think a lot can still happen between New Zealand and Cape Horn and south Atlantic and Won't be surprised if 3-5 end up finishing first.

[Polux]

Nothing is impossible on this race but the chances of that happen are small. I would say that one between the four first will be the winner and if nothing happens to Armel I would say that this year he will be unbeatable.

It is really sad what happened to Alex's foil. It would be a lot more interesting with both boats in equal conditions even if I think Armel would have won it anyway due to a better routing.

I really would like to see Beyou closing on the two first. He is a fantastic sailor and as good as Armel in routing.

[Bleemus]

Your personal opinion on Armel being a superior router is not one that I would share. Alex has just as many years of experience and they are both using the same tools (Adena). Alex has studied extensively with metorologists to learn his craft.

In heavier winds Alex's boat is clearly faster when on a good foil. Most of this race since Cape of Good Hope has been on his bad foil. I think he would be miles and miles ahead by now had he not broken it.

[Polux]

Regarding the race I don't know if they are going to translate this:
Actualités - Vacations : "Le Vendée Globe est inhumain !" - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

It is one of the best posts about the race, with the skippers that I had mentioned on a previous post (Rich Wilson's group), talking about the stormy conditions and their "miserable" life. Very human and very rich. Just a little bit. Alan Roura says:

"We started the survival mode. There is lots of wind, lots of sea and the boat pounds. I have to keep the speed or everything will blow apart.

The Indian Ocean is the devil of the sea. You have to fight every day. It's winter. For three days I have difficult conditions. It's mentally challenging. we have all disconnected our brains. We are trying to keep everything in one piece and salvage our boats.

It is very hard. We are prepared for this race but you never know what will happen next. It is impossible to have a minimum of comfort. Eating is impossible, we sleep wet. Even to open the door of the boat it's complicated because we go under water a lot.

I hope to be soon out of this. I will drink a drop of rum to celebrate. We work a lot between gybes and strategies to avoid losing too much face to others.
Soon we will have 50 knots. I'm pretty happy to be with Enda and Rich. It helps to know that we are not alone.

Right now, I have 38 knots of wind. The wind is quite variable, it can go to 43 knots. The wind is almost at 90 °. The sea is very short. I will go North to have the wind downwind. The file shows 40 knots so we will have close to 50 knots. It will be very hard. We must anticipate. I hope to eat something and rest because I didn't sleep on the last ten hours.

To make things harder the autopilot malfunctions from time to time. I have to go outside with a mask and a hood. It's very, very cold. We are here for the job but if we had not to go outside, it would be better.

I have three reefs and a J3. If this continues I'll have to put the storm jib. Normally, this is something you do not want to do when you're in survival mode. This is the last resort to keep the boat speed. For the moment the boat manages well the wind, I am quite fast in the fleet. "

[Polux]

Originally Posted by Bleemus

Your personal opinion on Armel being a superior router is not one that I would share. Alex has just as many years of experience and they are both using the same tools (Adena). Alex has studied extensively with metorologists to learn his craft.

In heavier winds Alex's boat is clearly faster when on a good foil. Most of this race since Cape of Good Hope has been on his bad foil. I think he would be miles and miles ahead by now had he not broken it.

The occasions where Alex is losing more had nothing to do with foiling. On those ocasions they are sailing at slow speed. See on the last days, Armel winning 200 miles over Alex...on better routing. And it is winning more...on routing.

[Pelagic]

Tactically, Armel has been far more consistent while Alex has been more adventurous in searching for advantages.. (One which paid off big time).

I also think the boat/foil design reflects that same philosophy where Alex chose the most extreme to get top speed in optimum conditions, but is slower in confused sea conditions.

The broken foil is a factor which will put an Asterisk beside the winner, who I believe will be Armel, if he stays out of trouble.

[Bleemus]

I think the true star so far is Meilhat. A rookie sailing a non-foiling boat in third place. Granted it is the boat that won the last race (Macif) but to be ahead of the foilers in your first try is quite a feat. If he csn keep this up he will have sponsors lined up for his next boat.

[Polux]

Yes, I agree that Meilhat is doing a great race but his boat even without foils is a very recent one (2011) and the fastest of the boast of the old generation. Riou showed that a good boat of the last generation is not far in performance regarding the ones with foils.

Other that is making a very good race is Ruyant, another rookie. He is sailing an older boat a boat from the previous generation of the one of Meilhat and not the fastest boat of that generation, he had several problems that implied a lot of work and loss of time and even so he is winning time over the 5 ahead of him including Meilhat.

It seems that he took more time to adapt to the boat and the conditions but now he is going very fast, boat problems and all.

[Polux]

On non foiling conditions, on variable weather systems and lighter winds involving a lot of changes in course and routing decisions, Armel wins every day some more miles over Alex. He has now a 385nm advantage.

About routing and sailing he says:

"We have light conditions here in the Pacific, but it varies a lot, as yesterday we had squalls up to 25 knots. It’s calmed down a bit since yesterday evening, but we’re still slower than expected. There is a wind hole behind me and I can’t afford to slow down. I’m in the high after crossing the front 24 hours ago. I still have a NW’ly so am taking advantage of that. I’m trying to get to a low ahead of us and it’s going to be close whether I get there. The weather models are changing all the time."

A lot of routing work,for the ones on the lead of the race and one that has a fundamental importance regarding speed on these conditions, that will continue like this, till near the horn.

Regarding the 3rd place finally Beyou overtook Meilhat. Blemus made an interesting comment about Meilhat's boat, last year winner and the fastest boat of the last generation.

Meilhat and his team decided not to modify it with foils, estimating, like Riou, that on a design that was not designed as a foil boat, the adding of the new foils would not bring an overall significant advantage. Curiously on Beyou boat his team followed on other direction.

Beyou boat was the one that finished second last year, Armel's boat, just a slightly older boat from the same designer,was last year almost as fast (or as fast) as the one from Meilhat, but this last one has been modified to use the new foils.

The strong points and weak points on both boats are different and I would not be surprised to see Meilhat going faster than Beyou on the lighter winds they will experience ahead, but then on those conditions routing is fundamental for boat speed and in what regards that, even if Melhiat has an excellent record as an offshore racer, that record cannot be compared with the one from Beyou, the 3 times winner of "La Solitaire du Figaro", two times French solo offshore champion, that curiously was also a multihull 60ft champion, back in 2005.

He should be very motivated to make a good result on this race because even if he had won the last IMOCA transat before this race, he never finished the Vendee, that is his third. He have to abandon on the two previous ones, one with keel problems, other with rig problems.

A word for Ruyant, that continues to win over everybody, including the first. His confidence has been growing and even if with a boat from the previous generation of the ones ahead he manages to sail at the same pace. A pity that confidence not to be there since the beginning of the race, the problems he had and the distance he is from the first.

[Polux]

At first it seemed to me that Ruyant had more problems. He was almost stopped this night, but looking at the weather report he seemed to have been caught on a hole without wind. We will know soon if everything is alright, since he is been caught by a lot of wind on the next hours.

A lot of no previewed wind was what Meilhat and Beyou caught. Meilhou talks about 50K winds and a problem in what regards the depression being moving at about the same speed they are. It seems that doing that with 40k is alright, with 50k it is just too much.

He made a movie after the worst of it and we can see that he is still nervous about the weather and the boat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl3IkGFzN4Q

(translated)
"Infernal conditions today: 50 knots ....and they were not on the forecast. I'm side by side with Master CoQ. We talked a lot after the gale. No breakage a priori. It was very hot!

We cannot get around the depression that is advancing at the same time as us. And turning back, jibing in 50K, is not something we want to do. We will wait with patience, following the center and hoping for a good weather evolution. It would be necessary that the depression goes faster and leave us out of it."
Actualités - Paul Meilhat : "Conditions dantesques aujourd'hui !" - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

But the performance of the last 24 hours goes to Jean-Pierre Dick, the one that escaped last storm making a "touristic" tour around Tasmania, by the Bass strait. Everybody, included me, thought he was going to lose a lot of time but it seems we had made the right maths in what regards routing because he come down, like an arrow, from the Australian coasts and overtook Le Cam, that all thought it was the one that had take the better strategy in what regards not losing time and avoiding the last storm. Chapeau

[Polux]

STÉPHANE LE DIRAISON boat has lost the mast. All is well with him.

"The skipper was not injured and sounded in good health on the phone, when he called. He is currently in the process of sorting out the rig and will then carry out a complete check-up on his boat.
He was sailing in a 30-35 knot NW’ly wind, when the incident happened and is currently located 770 miles from the coast of Australia."
News - Stéphane Le Diraison’s Compagnie du Lit / Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt has dismasted - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

He was on the 10th place.

Changing subject: I was not understanding what Ruyant was doing, now I can see it, he is running away from a nasty depression.

Le Cam said some hours ago that he (Ruyant) was going to cry, referring to the storm that was catching him but it seems to me that Ruyant, even losing a lot of time, managed to put himself on a relatively safe position, but that storm is going to block him the passage between NZ and the ice zone.

I don't know what he is going to do because even on the South of NZ the conditions are pretty bad and passing by Cook strait, on the North, he will have no wind. Very curious to see what he is going to do.https://gis.ee/vg/

[Polux]

News from the front

Sthephane that had the mast broken in 3 pieces, had got rid of the remains and is slowly motoring to Australia taking the opportunity for sleeping.

Ruyant that has going North tryng to escape from a storm with 60 to 70k winds had managed that, being just a bit off the worst part of it. Got 45k winds and will try to pass with the storm near South coast of New Zealand, sailing with 40K winds.

I said I was curious about what he was gonna do. I have the answer, he is already sailing South. Big balls, not the safest solution but the one that will limit his losses in time. With a bit of luck, if the seas are not monstrous he will be sailing South like an arrow, at speed.

More changes on the classification, Paul Meilhat overtook Beyou. The fight between those two has been great. Beyou come from behind, some days ago and passed Meilhat but since then they have been sailing together at short distance. Meilhat seems better positioned (more to the North) regarding the next yours.

And more changes with a trio that they alredy call "Les trois mousquetaires". Three great sailors with boats with a very close performance: Le Cam, Jean-Pierre Dick and Yann Elies. They keep changing positions, now it was Jean-Pierre that after that big detour around Tasmania come down at speed and overtook the other two.

Some words for other two that are making a great race: Louis Burton that slowly but effectively had leaved behind all semi amateurs and is now solidly on the 9th place of the race, sailing a 2006 sailboat that was never very competitive (Farr design) and sailing it fast and to Nandor Fa, that at 63 years of age sails like a young man, sailing now in 10th place.

If you want to have a very fast performance cruiser, one with racing potential but with a comfortable cruising interior, between 27ft and 45ft, not very expensive, one of the best options is to have a talk with Louis Burton. He does not know one or two things about sailing but he was a small shipyard that makes now not only a 40class racer but almost all the line from Archambault. If you are curious look at one recent post on my blog about the A35. There is one making the ARC with a Spanish couple.

About Nandor Fa, the man is becoming a legend.

If you are following this thread you can imagine the physical effort of sailing these boats, with storms after storms and can imagine what it would be like to do that with 63 years of age. Nandor does not only that but he is also leaving behind a lot of "kids". Chapeau to Nandor, double chapeau since the man designed and built his own boat!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rWe8HVebLE