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

And the water ballast can be used for drinking water as it's purified.. a safety measure ..

Food though, nah that's all there is.

I remember that days when the Ice Exclusion Zone wasn't in place, ohhh the days of the Whitbread ( Volvo ) Ocean Race hacking into the roaring 40's through the Ice fields.. I have a signed original painting of Maiden from Tracey hanging in my hallway with her and her crew onboard, and Amanda still makes bags at PigBags.. 😀

Great bits of video. The main move able mass is the keel, that water helps but I think is also about trim, rather than just pure righting moment

I'm still enjoying the game but the free version is showing its limits near the ice exclusion zone. Last night I went to bed think I had until 10:00 the next day to gybe. I got to the PC 3 hours early but was only 1 hour from being disqualified.

So tonight I'm sailing at a slightly less good angle to make sure i don't cross the line. But the aim is to learn and see if i still stick with it. I'll buy all they toys for the Volvo if I continue to enjoy it

@ampthill - you're still doing better than me 😕

I think I'm now about 300 miles behind - lets see how it goes!

My current tip for down wind sailing when the goal is make as much ground East as possible

Use something like a post card with a right angle to form a vertical line on the screen (I'm on a PC monitor). Adjust your heading to see which gives the greatest distance traveled East. Use the vertical edge to evaluate this. Check both gybes

From memory of dinghy sailing is that if the wind is continually changing direction we get a good tack (or gybe) and a bad tack. I think the rule is bad tack then good tack. I think that this is because it makes the good tack longer.

nickb KAPOOW SAILING? We both seem to be cutting through the fleet. To many people sailing straight down wind?

Always take the loss early in the manoeuvre, take the hit for the shortest time possible then tack/gybe.

Alex still slightly ahead at 15nm, but neither have gybed yet.

Ice exclusion. Indeed if you go back to the days of Ellen the footage going through the bergs was pretty scary

Vendee Live had Tanguy and Mark Turner (Volvo CEO / shoreteam mgr for Ellen) he said currently Boss has no significant disadvantage as we are not really in foiling conditions (those will come after Cape Horn ?) and he suggested Alex's strategy will be to push Armel faster than he may really want to go and hope he makes a mistake or breaks something. After all that time trying to convince people he is not crazy maybe now is the time he is trying to donthe opposite 🙂

Update from Alex with BP in sight

Alex seems to be going for a bit if a split, higher and faster than Armel ?

Japanese entrant dismasted, lost the top. 40-50 front people are juggling with. Mainsail damage on another boat. Alex seemed to lose a lot then gain most back.

Belting down towards the Kerguelen islands at 25.6kts (which seems as fast as it's possible to go according to the polars)....weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
On the 3d view....why do the waves always seem against me?I wanna SURF 😀

Alex seems to be going for a bit of a split, higher and faster than Armel ?

Maybe it was a spliff not a split as he's 100 miles back now 😐

BP seems better placed to dive South too if that pays (kink in the ice exclusion zone)

Shorter distance in that bit of the zone, even if the winds slightly less it's worth dropping.

Seb Josse has bowled down a wave and hit the next one very badly and has backed off to inspect damage, another competitor has backed off too and heading for Cape Town..

These boys are hard as nails ... major keel damage, boat likely to sink and Kito is making a video and sending it !

Not looking good is it.

Keel off, 'significant ingress of water' 40 knot winds, 5-6m swells and asking to be rescued.

[url= http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16889/huge-concern-for-the-skipper-kito-de-pavant ]http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16889/huge-concern-for-the-skipper-kito-de-pavant[/url] http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16889/huge-concern-for-the-skipper-kito-de-pavant

“I hit something hard with the keel. It was a violent shock and the boat came to a standstill. The rear bearings of the keel were ripped off and the keel is hanging under the boat kept in place simply by the keel ram, which is in the process of cutting through the hull... The keel housing has been destroyed and there is a huge ingress of water there, but for the moment, it is limited to the engine compartment. I currently have forty knots of wind and 5-6m high waves. The boat is stopped. I brought down the mainsail so that she is heeling less. The situation has been stabilised for the moment. I have my survival kit alongside me. Someone is going to have to come and get me. I am trying to contact the Marion Dufresne to ask them to come here.”

[edit] Missed the update:

[url= http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16913/kito-de-pavant-aboard-the-marion-dufresne ]http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16913/kito-de-pavant-aboard-the-marion-dufresne[/url]

Zut alors.....

[s]Let's hope this ends well, he is about as far from outside help as you can get.[/s]

Amen for supply ships...

I remember the 1st gen Volvo 60's having the same issues with keels BITD, and IIRC there should be a lock mechanism to jam the keel in one position to stop it flapping around, clearly that's not working in this case.

Mike Golding turned around to pick up Alex in the 06' version of this race when Alex's keel fell off and inverted....

Crazy, but I love em' for it.

The rear bearings of the keel were ripped off and the keel is hanging under the boat kept in place simply by the keel ram,

It's a bit beyond a simple ram failure bb.

Yes, the early swinging keels had ram failures which allows the keel to continually swing and eventually destroy the keel box. They seem to have sorted the ram systems now.
This issue is seemingly that the keel has been ripped off the front bearing - it's now held on by the rear bearing and the ram which could fail at any time and then it's time for a swim 🙁

Scary stuff. He cant load it up by sailing closer to safety so he's just got to sit there and wait.
Sad that such an amazing boat will be allowed to die but then this isn't a round the cans race.

And...

Seb Josse has retired from the race, about 15mins ago the team announced his retirement but without a reason, yet.

Awe, more than a race of attrition, it's becoming a demolition derby.

😐

Historically attrition is about 50% I think

Seb twisted his Rudder stock or mechanism. He was due to replace it in daylight, with the spare he carried. I'm guessing that's not worked.

Just watched Alex's day 32 video:
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16971/the-pacific-and-half-way-for-the-leaders

Excellent feeling to how rough it is, and like he says, how difficult it must be to cook, sleep or use the toilet.

Didac Costa says he has no roof on the cockpit, what's going on there?

That squeaking would've had me abandoning ship. Bloody mad the lot of them.

The Alex up date in the middle of the night shows just how tough this event is. The very real danger combined with isolation and sleep deprivation

With KAPOW on my tail and gaining all the time we continue to cut our way through the fleet

This is what I've learned. Must have been really dim not to have spotted it as we headed for the Cape of Good Hope

We are aiming to sail East. So as a rough rule of thumb winds with any Northley component (Wind bearing greater than 270) favour Port. Any Southerly wind (Wind bearing less than 270) favour starboard

Next problem. It looks likely that the wind will swing through 270, meaning I need to gybe, during my morning ride.....

With KAPOW on my tail and gaining all the time

Rorschach whats your boat called?

Mamasita.

Sometimes you've got to sail the 'wrong' tack or even at a worse VMG if it means getting to stronger breeze earlier.

I got that. What I hadn't got was If the wind is uniform every where what do I revert to

Mamasita

So about 3 hours ahead and 10,000 places. Its crowded out there. This is quite intresting

@Ampthill and @Rorschach - it's all a bit close isn't it! Every time I think I'm getting closer, you manage to eek out a few miles... I suspect catching you, let alone passing, will prove elusive. But I'm still trying!

Nick (Kapow)

It is great fun. I have to say it is ll made easier by passing others. That makes worry less about you catching me. Tonight looks awful. Looks like the wind swings through 270 between now and when I get up, ho hum its only a game....

Alex seems to be going for a bit if a split, higher and faster than Armel ?

That was 2 weeks ago and Armel had been in sight, Alex is now 500 miles back and Armel looks likely to catch the back of another depression in which case he will be gone. Sadly I think barring a breakage its all over as a race for 1st

Phew, a week away with no internet and I expected to come home to a boat languishing way back. Seem to have had a bit of luck with the weather.

'kin 'ell ... that must have been some collision

😯

I sacked it off....got fed up at looking at the laptop constantly.....

Sadly Thomas is limping to New Zealand, hoping his yacht doesn't break in half. Looking at the pics, it's only the backbone and keel box holding it together..

Probably hit a shipping container, it's the most logical reason for the damage. Container ships disguard them all the time, more so in the Southern Ocean since the boxes are rarely strapped down.

Shame Thomas didn't get a look at it, it'd have an ID/name on it and could be reported.

Thomas R nearly there, hugging coast of NZ

[img] [/img]

Sharkbait what happened? Away for a few days? Is that it no way back?

Eh, what have you seen???

Last night I forgot that I'd set a course that would put me into the exclusion zone - I meant to change course again a few hours later but forgot.
This morning I found my speed had been reduced massively while in the zone and I had to get back out. Lost about 100 miles which is annoying as I'd just made about 70 miles on the little group I'm near 🙁

Do you still have a place. I saw you over the line

What happens if you go over the line? May have done it for an hour or so a week ago

You just go really slowly.

OK stapleford flyer does still have a place, few