The GGR race, discussion and news

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

No, they are not allowed any routing advice or gribs, but they can get detailed forcasts over HF or Ham, and I suspect Peche and VdH are getting better forcasts and spending much more time routing than Slats. And it looks like it may pay off for them.

I get the impression that the broken halyards are polyester. Likely chafe, now they are loading them up on the wind. It could be a big issue for some of the boats.

This would mean a huge outfitting error. Older masts do not have soft rope sheaves and clean halyard exits. Especially on British designs of that era. To go with a soft halyard one would have to adjust the spar and its fittings accordingly. Imho.

Still, it is just so easy to make a new halyard that I expect they will not be much delayed by such minor failures. The topping lift can be used as a temp halyard to make the repair underway. Esp. if any mast climbing involved. It is best to fix anything high up with plenty of sail up. Mast steps are a huge help too but I am not sure how many use them.

I will look up their pictures see if mast steps are also on the 'forbidden' ggr list too... (OK, just joking).

We have never (touch wood) lost any halyard in our boat. All of them chafed a bit here and there and I had to shorten some but that's that. We have wire&polyester spliced ones.

Btw interesting that some posters see the entry fee as 'high'. I think the fee is ridiculously LOW given the cost of just one hour of flight of an Orion craft. And time lost by a cargo rerouted to pick up any mishap sailor can go into hundreds of thousands too, I think.

My friends paid nearly 10k in ARC fees last year. This should give some perspective to the ggr fee.

b.

[Snowpetrel]

^^ Susie's latest phone call is up. She lost a spinnaker pole. It came off the mast. Sounds like the emotional challenge of being alone is taking a toll. Her panels aren't putting a lot of power in.

Looks to me like VdH and Peche might sneak though into the westerly wind belt before the high establishes itself properly. If they do it will give them a big lead over Slats and the rest. VdH's solar panels died but he has a couple of spares that are working well.

[GILow]

The electrical issues are a bit of a surprise. I figured that this would be one area in which these boats were relatively immune from problems.

[Snowpetrel]

Both Susie VdH and Tapio look like they have semi flexible panels on deck. So not the best location sunlight wise and those flex panels seem more prone to failure than rigid glass panels. I guess the HF radio chews through a fair bit of juice as well. But I am surprised as well. Sounds like they also have tow gens of some sort so they do have a backup.

[GILow]

30 odd days to failure ain’t great. That’s for sure. While this race is shaping up as a great advert for traditional wind vanes it is not looking good for electrical systems on boats. Not that I am surprised.

Side note. I just ran the numbers on Coconut and I’m getting 80 nautical miles per day. Does this sound right? I assume they will speed up in the southern ocean.

[Snowpetrel]

80 miles per day seems a little slow. From the tracker he has sailed 3806 miles in 37 days so about 100 miles per day. While the leaders have done more like 4700 so around 127 per day. I am not sure how accurate the tracker is though. Probably in straight line figures you are right.

[er9]

be nice to get a little more detail on whats breaking/being damaged on these panels. Would love to see a post race breakdown from every sailor detailing what went wrong, what worked, what didnt, what they woud improve, keep the same etc...

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

80 miles per day seems a little slow. From the tracker he has sailed 3806 miles in 37 days so about 100 miles per day. While the leaders have done more like 4700 so around 127 per day. I am not sure how accurate the tracker is though. Probably in straight line figures you are right.

I must have goofed the readings from YB. I had 3023 miles. Oops! I trust your figures more than mine.

On the issue of the Southern Ocean, do we expect the boats to speed up much for that leg? Or are they close to their daily averages already?

I know there’s more wind down there but I don’t have a feel for how the wind angles and need to stay safe are likely to affect their averages.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by er9

be nice to get a little more detail on whats breaking/being damaged on these panels. Would love to see a post race breakdown from every sailor detailing what went wrong, what worked, what didnt, what they woud improve, keep the same etc...

Yes, what a great gear review of the sort of gear us mere mortal sailors can afford.

[Snowpetrel]

I wouldn't have thought they would speed up much overall, the Roaring 40's have a high percentage of strong NW-SWesterlies but also the odd big blocking high with very light airs, and they may need to go north to avoid severe weather, or sit it out with a drogue, so we will see. These boats will still only make about 150-160 max if everything is perfect. But it won't be perfect very often.

[estarzinger]

Right now my routing has Peche below cape hope in 5 days 21 hrs, JLvdH in 6 days 3 hrs and Slats in 8 days - According to the routing slats gets caught in a ridge while the other two manage to carry wind.

Slats: I have boxed in red the problem area for slats (there is a routing line on this pic - but the color is hard to see - just make the pic bigger - sorry about that)



JLvdH:



Peche:



Given the current forecast, Peche and JLvdH might well pass the cape a bit further south than I show here. There is a decently strong east flowing current a bit down there (Aghulas counter current) - I have not looked to see exactly where it is right now - it is worth looking for, and the winds (right now) are a bit more favorable around there.

[Snowpetrel]

^^ Thanks Evans. Seems like cutting the corner will pay off this time. Still its a very long race. They are still less than 1/4 of the way round.

https://www.facebook.com/17517098784...2166243370096/

An intereting read. Seems like a few of them a thinking of capetown... It's a tough race psychologically.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

... It's a tough race psychologically.

yes agreed.

The Atlantic is tough because it is complex and full of traps - you can start to feel like it's all plotting against you.

And then when they get to the southern ocean, it will be a different type of tough - not as complex anymore - just straight ahead violent tough alternating with moments of frustrating becalms.

And they are going so slowly, and the race will take so long, it is going to take both tough competitors and tough boats/gear to make it the whole way. I expect a whole bunch more DNF's.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

And then when they get to the southern ocean, it will be a different type of tough - not as complex anymore - just straight ahead violent tough alternating with moments of frustrating becalms.

I think that will be the challenge for them down south, they will (hopefully) be mentally prepared for the storms, but the sudden changability and possible calms and headwinds will be less expected.

One thing that really struck me about Robin Knox Johnsons approach was how he broke it up into smaller chunks. When his garboards started leaking near the equator he nailed a copper tingle over them and said to himself. "I'll see how it looks at capetown" when he got to capetown and his cabintop shifted he bolted it back up and said "I'll get to australia and reassess". Then at australia his windvane broke completely so he ditched it and said "I'll see how I go across the Tasman sea to NZ" and of course he figured out how to make Suhaili steer herself. By then he was halfway so he decided to keep going towards capehorn.

It seemed like this mental skill of breaking the task into small acheivable goals rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of the whole voyage helped him get the whole way around. Also his background as a merchant navy officer meant he was used to being at sea and away from home for long periods of time.

The leaders have the tight focus of maintaining the lead, the race. But it will be tougher on those well back in the fleet to feel as focused.

[er9]

yeah but if a couple of those leaders happen to drop out due to problems it could be a great moral booster to some of the mid packers assuming they dont perish as well.