Vendee Globe Starts Today, Facts, Video, Discussion

[Pelagic]

Trying to remember, how many boats retired from race due to breakage from something other than a UFO collision?

[Polux]

Armel seems to me to be making a good job controlling Alex. On the last 4 hours he even won slightly and on the last 12 hours lost only 3nm.

He only need to arrive to those light winds and upwind sailing some hours before Alex, just to be sure. I believe he is confident that on those conditions he can sail at least as fast as Alex, possibly faster.

Those light winds are now only 10 hours away. I bet that is going to be one of the best sunrises in Armel's life: To arrive to light winds, diminishing greatly the probability of damaging the boat and to finish the mad race of the last days at speeds over 20k

Jeremie Beyou, the 3rd, made some interesting comments regarding the race of the two leaders. If you can read French don't miss it but don't try the English translation on the site that is incompressible and even misleading. Here:

Actualités - Jérémie Beyou*: «Un billet sur Armel, mais...» - Vendée Globe 2016-2017

[Polux]

Great sunrise for Armel that arrived to that ridge with low winds 2 hours ago with about 75nm advance on Alex and both seem to have kept the boats on one piece.

Now he is entering the low wind zone now and Alex will be going to close rapidly but only in distance, not in time till he enters it also.

We will have 10 hours of light winds and lots of upwind sailing but it does look quite straightforward to me, nothing like those conditions they had got going up the Atlantic.

If nothing odd happens I believe that we can say that Armel will won this race coming first and leaving Alex at 4 to 7 hours.

I believe this two will have a big hug at the end of the race and their mutual respect to each other will be certainly very big.

[Polux]

The virtual vendee is amazing and a prof how accurate are today VPP predictions and in general way weather forecasts on the Ocean: the best deck sailors will be arriving at about the same time than the real top sailors.

I have to say I find this incredibly even if I know VPP are quite precise...but that precise? WOW!!!

Also very interesting regarding the race interest around the world is that for the 1st place there are three desk sailors from 3 different nationalities and two of them from the other side of the world: a French, an Australian and a New Zealander. Maybe one day we have that on the real vendee

Also a Swiss and two Germans on the top ten!

[Polux]

69 nm between them and Armel is only doing 9.6k while Alex is doing 17.1k!!!!

It will not be enough, but Alex besides being 2nd (if Armel has not any serious problem on the boat) will come out of this race with the 24 hour solo monohull record. Just look at these videos!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjFFfDxKKh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPMI1wTYgPw

[Polux]

The diference is now only 57.5nm. Alex is doing 15.7K and Armel only 10.8K!!!!! 460nm for the finish line.

They are going to arrive in medium to strong winds: That will provide great videos

[steamgoat]

Getting close, Armel has 435nm to go, Alex is 42nm behind him going almost a knot faster . A nail biter !!

[barnakiel]

Indeed it is going to be a hellish finish for two front runners: it is getting light, they are in a massive cargo and fishery traffic, Alex's AIS is not so well and Armel sure has his own set of worries.

No sleep, tight wire competition, two top shelf skippers. Add two of the best sailing boats available.

I just hope no damage and no casualties ;-).

Wishing best of luck to BOTH as they both deserve to win. (May then the better one win!)

On the edge of my virtual cruising armchair and 100% feeling for these guys. It must hurt, NO?

barnakiel

[Pelagic]

Anyone know when we will get live coverage?

[Polux]

Originally Posted by steamgoat

Getting close, Armel has 435nm to go, Alex is 42nm behind him going almost a knot faster . A nail biter !!

Not really, unless something happens to Armel's boat. Alex needed to arrive to that ridge with a difference lower than 30m to have some chances. He arrived with a 75nm difference. Alex is going to win maybe 4 or 5nm till they got the same wind and then they will maintain the distance till the end, or maybe Armel wins some few nm.

I would say that they will arrive separated by 35 to 45nm, that means about 3 or 4 hours difference, maybe a bit less depending on the average speed to cover those miles.

Substantial differences can happen when the wind is unstable and one of them can get caught on wind holes. They have some clean sailing to do ahead, no surprises that I can see. First lighter winds than medium winds to the finnish.

[Juho]

If Alex is not fast enough to sail in the wake of Armel and close the gap, maybe he could try leaving some distance to the coastline in search of stronger winds.

[Polux]

One last tack to make ad the last 330nm. The wind conditions are steady and the wind force is going to increase towards the finish and that means we will have very nice movies!!!!

Alex is now at 36.3nm and Armel is going a bit over 1k faster in speed but both making the same VMG. That was also de situation on last 4 hours where they had made about the same distance (+0.6 for Armel).

Alex should hit the stronger winds first and gain some more distance, on the next 10 hours.

They have been both great on the last hours doing what they can and sailing their boats to its maximum potential, equaling each other. Both should be exhausted by now and I would like to be there, at the arrival, to give a big cheer to both of them. They surely deserve it. What a race!!!!

[Polux]

34.8nm is the distance that separates them. Alex won 1.8k on the last 4 hours. Armel will reach the stronger winds in 8 hours and should be making the last tack very soon.

They are entering a zone with heavy traffic and they have to look at it but that is hard when someone had not sleep on the last 48 hours (Alex).

309nm to go and about 24 hours. They should arrive tomorrow afternoon.

what they said:

"Thomson revealed that for several days now he has been battling problems with the wind instruments on his cutting-edge 60ft race boat Hugo Boss, which in turn have prevented the yacht's autopilot from working properly. In spite of knocking miles off Le Cléac'h's lead overnight he said he had not slept for two days and was now dangerously tired.

Speaking to the Vendée Live show today Thomson said his thoughts were on getting Hugo Boss' anemometers working again rather than the impending finish in Les Sables d'Olonne, France. "I don't think I can catch Armel," he said. "The routing is very clear – we will go nearly to the Scilly Isles, wait for a left shift and when it comes we tack. There are no real options for me any more, I think my options have run out.

It might be possible to catch a few miles but it's difficult for me at the moment. Until I can get my autopilot driving on a wind angle it'll be very tricky in the conditions I have. I can't imagine another few days like the last couple of days. I don't have any tension about the finish. I have tension about trying to make the autopilots work. I've got an anemometer in my hand and I'm trying to splice wires. I don't care about the finish right now, I just want to sleep.”

Armel: “For the moment I’m holding my own against Alex,” the 39-year-old Breton said, “but the final 24 hours are going to be complicated. I'm going to have to be careful as there are a lot of dangers - we have been seeing fishermen and cargo vessels since yesterday. I’ll be passing the tip of Brittany tonight, then going along the south coast of Brittany. I have to remain cautious to avoid doing anything stupid.”
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/1...leac-h-s-grasp

[robert sailor]

Considering that Alex has closed in so close it says tons about his abilities as a sailor, wasn't that long ago that he was hundreds of miles behind. I hope that neither of them have any problems in the final hours of the race. It's been fun to keep track of them.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Considering that Alex has closed in so close it says tons about his abilities as a sailor, wasn't that long ago that he was hundreds of miles behind. I hope that neither of them have any problems in the final hours of the race. It's been fun to keep track of them.

Yes, I agree that those two had made a fantastic race but it is good to remember than Armel was the involuntary victim of the worst bad luck with the weather on the long history of the Vendee, regarding the one that was behind him, while sailing them on different weather systems.

It is also good to remember that when they Alex catch Armel and they started to sail on the same weather system, 21 days ago, Alex was at only 34.5nm, about the same distance that is between them today....and when one is chasing another normally the advantage is to the chaser, not to the one that is running since the stress is much bigger on the hunted than on the one that pursues.

In the end two magnificent performances