Vendee 2020

[MicHughV]

true, but the cause of the breakage could be any number of things....the builders/designers try to shave an ounce off wherever that they can...if this boat were back on land any number of things could likely be done, but Alex has to fix this at sea, with whatever materials he has at hand...and epoxy takes time to set up and harden....you don't want the boat moving to quick during this curing process otherwise your "patch" can come loose before the epoxy has had time to cure...Alex is "wafting" along..imo....to allow time for epoxies to cure..better to do 5 knots than 0 knots...tomorrow we'll likely see him speed up again....

[Knotical]

I feel for Alex Thomson, it is one thing to lose a race because of yours and others' sailing skills but totally different when it happens in this manner. His attitude just makes you wanna root for him, if these damages cost him the race it would be the designers & engineers who fail him rather than his own failure. All VG skippers are winners in my mind but I especially want AT to do well.

[B23iL23]

Wow. That was quick. He's back in the race.

“I’m back sailing again! I’m super happy. It could so easily have been the end of the race for me”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnp6...xThomsonRacing

[Knotical]

Originally Posted by B23iL23

Wow. That was quick. He's back in the race.

“I’m back sailing again! I’m super happy. It could so easily have been the end of the race for me”.

This just in from Alex Down pointing backhand indexDown pointing backhand index

[ausnp84]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

true, but the cause of the breakage could be any number of things....the builders/designers try to shave an ounce off wherever that they can...if this boat were back on land any number of things could likely be done, but Alex has to fix this at sea, with whatever materials he has at hand...and epoxy takes time to set up and harden....you don't want the boat moving to quick during this curing process otherwise your "patch" can come loose before the epoxy has had time to cure...Alex is "wafting" along..imo....to allow time for epoxies to cure..better to do 5 knots than 0 knots...tomorrow we'll likely see him speed up again....

Haha nah, I was saying that a cruising boat wafting along at 5kts with no schedule and a busted shackle is very different to a VG boat doing 25kts trying to balance winning v breakages.

Alex must have been chomping at the bit waiting for that repair to cure so he could crank things back up again! Great to see him back into the race.

N

[DomPerignon]

You would think they should have a way of testing these boats before sending them racing around the world!!!!!

[MicHughV]

Alex is talking about still adding some " girders"...this is good...not sure where or how, but additional support will be most helpful....it's fortunate that the next few days are going to be optimal for this kind of work....these repairs would be next to impossible to fix in the Southern Ocean...

I have to hand it to him....he is rather chipper about the whole thing....definitely has a positive attitude...

Many miles to go yet, a 300 mile lead, while not to be sneezes at, can disappear....poof...just like that...

Just finishing this race makes you a winner in my book....you go Alex !!!

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by DomPerignon

You would think they should have a way of testing these boats before sending them racing around the world!!!!!

Ummm, are you aware of all the IMOCA racing that takes place between Vendee Globes? There is plenty of racing in the 24 months prior to the VG for teams to test their boats in races. In some cases new boats are finished mere months prior to the VG, which makes extensive ocean testing difficult.

The current Hugo Boss was launched over a year ago and had to retire from the 2-handed Transit Jacques Vabre after they hit something and lost their keel.

Every boat has to pass certain stability and self-recovery options, but those aren’t structural tests.

[MicHughV]

the structural design of these Vendee boats is a thin line....it follows along the weakest link theory...you can have a chain capable of carrying thousand's of pounds of load, but if only one link fails..the whole chain fails...

in the case of Alex's boat, I'm pretty sure one weak spot/joint/material/epoxy... something....somewhere....cascaded into multiple problems....

in my career, I've had umpteen opportunities to do forensic discoveries of failed structures, the origin of which is usually almost always somewhere else....

nonetheless, I'm pretty sure the designers of Alex's boat are well aware of any potential "hotspots"...Alex's mention of a "girder" leaves me to believe the initial cause of the problems has been identified...fix or strengthen this, and the problem may be solved.

from here on out, Alex will undoubtable be keeping a close eye on potential trouble spots....

many miles to go yet, breakages across the fleet are likely to occur at a brisk pace once these boats enter the southern oceans..

[Franziska]

Having watched his video on the damage I am not sure if this is the result of wave slamming.

To me it looks more like a result of excessive longitudinal rigging loads.
If you consider the complete hull structure as "simple girder" in beam theory, it cracked at the lower forward location where the stresses are highest when overloading the rigging longitudinaly.
Right where it would be to be expected.

Underside of total hull girder under tension, puts structure above into compression.

Let's hope his fix can repair it permanently.
Still, somehow I am feeling uneasy about it and he might too despite the positive face he puts on.

[Yellowtulip]

Prospective Vendee Globe skipper:
"Ok, designer and builder guys, you've built me this radical new boat that's super fast. But is it strong enough to withstand all the stresses and strains of a round-the-world race?"

Designer and builder guys:
"We've done loads of modelling and we have the experience of many other boats, lad. We've worked out all the probable stresses that will occur in major storms, so you can give it all you've got!"

Two weeks into the race:
"Hey, designer and builder guys, my boat's coming apart and I'm not even in the southern Ocean yet!"
"Don't worry skipper. Just stick these bits on the cracks and glue these long bits in and you'll be fine. We've done lots of modelling. Trust us."
"OK, then. See you in Sables D'Olonnes!"

These are exceptional people!

[MicHughV]

the thing about computer load testing models, etc.....it is a numbers game...

input the wrong number and you'll get the wrong answer....

NASA's famous 1999 shot to Mars got screwed up as the engineers failed to convert some imperial numbers to metric....NASA of all entities....you'd think they'd never screw anything up....but they did...

easy to do...mind drifts to what's for dinner tonite....and poof....mistake happens...

by now, everybody must be aware of some potential mast problems in the fleet, all manufactured by the same company......ie, if it breaks on your boat, what's the odds it will break on my boat...

lastly, there are many players in the design and construction of these boats, many from different countries, etc...different languages, different way of doing things, etc...many opportunities for a mistake to creep in...

when fiberglass first became a boat building material, designers and builders were unsure about this product and layups tended to the be "thicker" than needed...just to cover an eventuality...it took quite some years for fiberglass boats to thin down....and now, of course, we have all the exotic materials...a learning curve yet to be completed.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

A community member at www.windy.com has added a plugin to allow the tracks of the boats to be visible in Windy.

A big thank you to Kevin Saliou for developing this plugin

This can be used together with the Wind layer and other features for those who are interested to look at more specific weather data.

Each boat can be clicked on to view a pop up with more data.

Just some updates for those who are interested in the weather and routing aspect of the Vendee:

Originally Posted by jmh2002

There will be updates coming soon for the Regadata plugin for Windy, and it will probably be added to the official plugin list too, making loading simpler.

The Windy plugin Regadata has now been added to the official plugin list.

So you can now use this more direct method to open Regadata in Windy:

Instructions for use:

Go to: https://www.windy.com/plugins/windy-plugin-regadata

Click: Open

(Windy will jump to the correct lat/long for the Vendee automatically)

NB: At the bottom right you can also turn On:

- Particle Animation (moving wind)
- Pressure (isobars)
- Reported Wind (reported data from weather stations, buoys, & ships)

You can also click anywhere on the screen to display a dropped Flag with data at that location. This can be dragged anywhere on the screen.

[jmh2002]

Additionally:

The Windy Regadata plugin developer is now collaborating directly with Christian Dumard Marine Weather and Strategy (he is already a Windy & Regadata user) who is providing routing for some of the competitors in the Vendee Globe: https://www.facebook.com/marineweatherandstrategy/

So fingers crossed that routing data may be available to view in Windy soon.
It may even be that vendeeglobe.org starts using this in official presentations too.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Additionally:

The Windy Regadata plugin developer is now collaborating directly with Christian Dumard Marine Weather and Strategy (he is already a Windy & Regadata user) who is providing routing for some of the competitors in the Vendee Globe: https://www.facebook.com/marineweatherandstrategy/

So fingers crossed that routing data may be available to view in Windy soon.
It may even be that vendeeglobe.org starts using this in official presentations too.

Just loaded it - awesome. Much easier to view the forecast weather.

Sure looks like the group of Louis Burton, Samantha Davies, and Alex Thomson are best positioned to get around the high pressure eye. Those boats to the east and ahead look like they’ll have a really tough time in light winds for longer.

This leg from the equator must be one of the toughest on record with a really expanded St Helena High covering almost from coast to coast. Even the giant high in the 2016 race was more compact with cleaner edges. Wow.