Vendee Globe - the Real Race

[DeepFrz]

It looks like Francois Gabart in Macif is out of the race although they have marked him in 13th (last) place.

Alex Thompson says his fastest speed today was 31.2 knots. Beep Beep...

[Lagoon4us]

Communication, weather routing etc from races like these are the things we can use.
Stunning stuff AND incredibly hard driven boats!!!!

[DeepFrz]

Francois Gabard is doing fine. Apparently he wasn't polled at the last poll and so is showing up as Not Located. However he sent a message that he is doing fine, everything is okay.

[sinbad7]

The Vendée Globe race has changed the information display box for each boat which no longer show the boat´s geographical position.

Alas,this makes it impossible to make alternative and more detailed displays in OpenCPN and other nav. progs. Intentionally??

It is of course still possible to get an approximation,reading the lat/lon from the
cursor read-out at the top left of the page.

Tore

[sinbad7]

Today´s situation for the two lead boats.
The great circle route saves 33 nm and the optimized wind route goes too far South if they are adhering to the race rules.

Tore

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

It looks like Francois Gabart in Macif is out of the race although they have marked him in 13th (last) place.

Alex Thompson says his fastest speed today was 31.2 knots. Beep Beep...

Guess that repair Alex did on the rudder brace is holding up pretty good. 31 knots wow!

[DeepFrz]

I think they could take the optimized wind route if they want to take a chance with ice. Just so long as they pass through or North of the next Ice Gate.

They are really getting beat up in the Indian Ocean. I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see some more major damage showing up soon.

[sinbad7]

Francois Gabart is in the lead again,closely followed by Cheminées Poujoulat,both well South of the great circle track to the next gate.

Hugo Boss had an even more southerly course, intending no doubt following the optimized route, but suddenly made a course change 90° to port,presumably encountering ice? The same with Cheminées Poujoulat at 18:00 UTC

Tore

[DeepFrz]

We should know in the morning who picked the right route. Banque Populaire only has to go one way through the high to get back to the wind. The others have to go 2 ways. And the forecast doesn't show much change for the next 24 hrs or so.

I do wish they had more update during the night though.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Francois Gabart is in the lead again,closely followed by Cheminées Poujoulat,both well South of the great circle track to the next gate.

Hugo Boss had an even more southerly course, intending no doubt following the optimized route, but suddenly made a course change 90° to port,presumably encountering ice? The same with Cheminées Poujoulat at 18:00 UTC

Tore

If we are looking at the same image, then they were not following any optimized route but rather waiting for the best turning point to shoot to the gate and back. You can see Armel went to the gate up first while others delayed. Sort of Russian Roulette with the wx center just over the gate and the Southerly boats hoping for it to budge. (Which according to recent frcst it will, except the window will open first at the W end of the gate, exactly where the S group were not!)

b.

[sinbad7]

Banque Populaire seems to be sailing to his own rules,ignoring passing through the ´gate´?

Tore

[hwecken]

No,
he was the first through the gate

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Banque Populaire seems to be sailing to his own rules,ignoring passing through the ´gate´?

Tore

Yes, as said. He was the only one to touch and go rather than go and touch.

From the wx routing point of view as based on popular grib data, both groups did the right thing.


b.

[mbianka]

I was looking at the photo of Le Cléac’h holding his mug. Amazed that their are no dark circles under his eyes. Looks like he is getting pretty good sleep and enjoying the ride.

[barnakiel]

Armel seems to have knackered his nose?

If he can still hold the mug, it can't be all that bad down there South ... ;-)

b.