[Closed] Vendee Globe Yacht race starts this Sunday, great footage of the new gen yachts

@jambalaya appreciate the advice on terminology. Currently doing splendidly well in 83 thousand two hundred and something and not hit land. Have you got off the start line yet?

Great thread, great images. Bookmarked!

Bloody hellfire.

Starting to look like F1 cars with bits sticking out all over the [s]shop[/s] ship.

Woohoo.In 24 hours I've lost 100,000 places.And then gained them all back and then some.Now sat in the top 5000 (about the same as my mtb results) after taking a flyer through the Canaries.

Top 5000 respect

Dropped back to 200,000th

nice job Rorschach ..... is that the boat name also? (need to keep an eye on you!)
I to up to about 4500 by going east but then lost a load in the canaries .... currently about 50k but hopefully climbing.

Alex back into 3rd, took a bit of a detour for a while but made hell of a lot of positions back up. I'm following them on twitter too, loads of onboard footage and 1/2 hr updates from most of the skippers. Some amazing shots folks, just about to settle with a bottle of wine and scan through them all...

The problem with hugging the coast is at some point I've got to gybe and start heading towards Cape Verde ,lest I run headlong into the centre of the doldrums.And at this point I'll lose about 100,000 places....again.

59938th at the minute, I'm wondering how best to get away from the coast as well.
I'm going away for 2 weeks on Monday so it'll be interesting to see where I've ended up once I get back.
I'll have to look some of yous up, I'm crousti no-mates at the minute

Coastal route looking dodgy in about a days time but of course it can all change. There is a reason why the actual skippers are all staying offshore though!

All looking for low pressure systems, so East or West of the Cape Verde's?? Hmmm most look West...

Alex back into 3rd, took a bit of a detour for a while but made hell of a lot of positions back up. I'm following them on twitter too, loads of onboard footage and 1/2 hr updates from most of the skippers. Some amazing shots folks, just about to settle with a bottle of wine and scan through them all...

Alex ... glad for him he has got back in the game, as much as I want a Brit to do well imo he is no where near the level of the top French guys. If he wins it will be by boat design choices.

Twitter feeds sound good .. so maybe finally I should sign up, I need more social media distractions like a hole in the head though 😐

Virtual Race - my setup never worked in time for the start so I gave up.

Only cost me 48,000 places......woop 😐

Just seen that the first place VR boat is currently stuck off the coast of Africa doing under 6 knots

I'm heading West of Cape Verdes as the wind is looking very light inshore over the next couple of days

At the moment I'd rather do badly doing my own thing for my own reasons. Than do better following the auto suggestions and learning nothing

edit

Hmm. There is a boat off the coast of Africa that is slightly South of me but well inshore. Its 80,000 places ahead of me. Clearly I must take these ranking too seriuosly

Hola Cape V' 😀

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxEO3_1WEAA6XjD?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

Late starter but I have set up a group called "stw" if anyone would like to join.

@bike shows you how powerful these boats are - double reef (?) in fairly moderate breeze. I recall a fried who has a Class 40 say first reef on that boat was at around 14 knots

I have applied to the stw group

These things are shifting! Surely, as long as wind or breakage doesn't muck it up, we're in line for a record?

Also applied to group.

One tweet from Alex stated "I've been clocking 30knts ave for the last 2hrs"

😯

That is mental

I should have had Hugo Boss as my virtual boat. I thought I'd chosen a foiler but I haven't

'kin 'ell !

No foiler here either. I just assumed all the VR boats would be equal unless you paid for the upgrades.

So now I just have to hope I can claw back the 24 to 36 hours I am behind the rest of the STW group. I still think some of you are too close to Africa though.

How do I join the stw group - can't see a group option, just the option to find individual boats?

Edit - ah, got it! Community for chat stuff, not on the game itself. Just applied to join.

Heading towards the doldrums.. overheard on the radio "ere Mum, I can see the Sea from ere.."

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxObRkIXUAA3GFW?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

And Alex playing "peek a boo"

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxOiHOKXEAAs5Te?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

Paying the price for going too far east......lost 60,000 places in 24 hours 😥

There are so many playing it though, you only need to slow by a couple k an hour or change course by a few degrees and tens of thousands pass you immediately. Over 400,000 on it now.
P.s. what's a foiler? I know nowt about sailing except the names of a couple of sails, and that only from playing VR in the past

See the big wing thingies sticking out the side of Boss in the photo above....thems foils. Hydrofoils (the windward one is usually retracted) create lift,partially lifting the boat from the water reducing drag and therefore increasing speed.They also increase the righting moment (how much force it takes to make the boat heal over) meaning they can use more sail area (though this is somewhat nullified by the rules restricting the beam and amount of ballast they can use).
They are faster downwind but possibly slower upwind (not that there's much of it in the Vendee) but the issue is how reliable they will turn out to be especially how they handle the southern ocean.
They are pretty scary beasts capable of 30knots plus and demanding to sail.....ON YOUR OWN!!.....For 75-80 days.Bonkers.
[img] [/img]

Years ago all the fuss was about canting keels, still fail occasionally now after all this time. How times have changed.

I can imagine a few scenarios where the foil would fail, extreme lean angle in rough seas where constant bashing off short chop would make the foil bend and fracture. Then theres the scenario where the foils under too much load "gripping" the water and trying to force the boat upwind or the more obvious one where the foil won't retract back in the box...

Gotta love this technology, all the time testing in Weston Tank simulation to then push it to the extreme.

Fabulous.

Biggest worry is them hitting stuff in/on the water.The have designed them with shear points as they'd do a LOT of damage to the boat at 30knots!!

Tangy Lamotte has lost the top part of his mast, now back at Cap Verde for a little "bricolage" (diy) no help is permitted inc any outside materials not aboard. He let people know they cannot come within 5m of the boat. It's going to be a project to rig something to allow him to fly any decent headsail. Bon courage

Thanks Rorschach, great explanation.

Still Boss'ing it.. 65nm in the lead, and pulling 5knts more boat speed the two behind him..

[img] :large[/img]

And JLeC at full chat..

[img] :large[/img]

These photos are current or library ?

Not sure, pop up on the Twitter feed every hour..

As my dad says when we're doing 16 knots in a 14ft dinghy- "whole-eee shit".

😯

Still Boss'ing it.. 65nm in the lead, and pulling 5knts more boat speed the two behind him..

Yes, good point SB. I do wonder how it will go in really light wind..what with the Doli's coming up.. There's little information about his design knocking about freely..

Will be a fascinating transition through the Doldrums, starting to look like he has enough of a gap now to balance the expected weaker light air performance.

Photos. I did see some recent drone footage taken from one boat down the fleet a bit buts it's my view these photos are all library shots.

They are well through the Doldrums. Infact they were almost not their as they passed through

I'm just about to hit the really slow part with winds down to sub 3 knots in the next 6 hours

But I've made up a few places. Think leaving the Atlantic will be the first real test of how we are doing. The lead VR boat is stuck on he coast of Africa North me.

I'm keeping an eye on your position there Ampthill ..... looks decent. I'm struggling along with just 5km wind right now but I think I may start pulling out the other side in about 3-4 hours.

@sharkbait - what is your boat name? I can't find you under your stw name

Stapleford Flyer
😯

Ah - I got you! I'm on KAPOW... and you're about 400 miles ahead of me :/
Thanks!