Vendee Globe 2016 - 17

[DeepFrz]

Thanks Barnie. So, its over for another 4 years. Well done to all the skippers and their shore crews. I've witnessed so much courage during this race by finishers as well as by many who had to withdraw.

[barnakiel]

To me the big takeaway is the fact that the foilers did deliver. So for the next edition I think we will see more conversions and all new builds to deploy foils.

Interestingly, the new Figaro 3 is a foiler too. And it is a single-handler too. So ... the future is now ;-)

Off course, the HUMAN factor is paramount. It always is the ruling factor in extreme sports. I think today's vid with Seb's interview as well as many earlier videos including the one with Armel's arrival tell us this one thing: sailing is emotion as much as it is motion.

I am great fan of sailing far and fast and would love to have one their boats. One can always slow down if such is our whim, but one can only accelerate to exhilaration in a boat like theirs.

Cheers,
b.

[DeepFrz]

Those boats are fast even when they are going slow.

The foils worked for some, not so much for others.

[DeepFrz]

It's just been confirmed that the collision that destroyed Kito de Pavant's boat was with a sperm whale.
News - Footage of Kito de Pavant’s collision - Vendée Globe

[DeepFrz]

from Sebastien Destremau's press conference “I’m the last one to finish. Well done to the winner. That was an incredible performance from Armel and from Alex. People come here to support the adventurer rather than the sportsman. I didn’t treat this Vendée Globe as a race but as an adventure to share with others. I wouldn’t have bought this boat if I was aiming to win the Vendée Globe. My goal was to finish the Vendée Globe. Some think it is a race. It is, but it is also something that we share with the public. Eight skippers have finished first. Eight second and so on up to eight finishing sixth, but I’m the first skipper to finish eighteenth!”

What a fabulous way of looking at his performance.