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

“Erm, lads..oi lads!!.. over here.. anyone seen my foil?”

Alex creating his own rainbows..

Made up 40k places!! Not heading to far west worked.. for now

I’ve been as high as inside the top 5000.Ans as low as 160,000.
Currently sat somewhere between the 2.

Its weird. I’m loosing places to people on here but gaining hugely overall. No idea where everyone else is going…..

What is the big red line at the bottom of the map?

Edge of the world.. Don’t sail off the edge

>>What is the big red line at the bottom of the map?

Ice exclusion zone. Don’t go below the line!

@ampthill – looks like we are on a collision course – will be very close in the morning!

Nick (Kapow)

Vincent on PRB is out – hit something/fell off a wave/something gaveway and his keel is separating from hull it seems…. 🙁

Merde !!!

Tres merde!

Becoup de la tres merdez, innit.

It really is a race of attrition…

I do wonder if a non foil boat will survive better. Certainly the skippers will….the noise and motion on the foilers must be awful for three months…

Matt PRB was an old style foiler, ie they are straight down rather than sticking out. TBH so far Riou had done a brilliant job and shown that perhaps the new foilers wouldn’t have it all their own way.

In more positive news Thompson/Boss is doing a stellar job holding his position

Duuffff!
New record to the Cape, 17days 22hours…

Bosch 😉

Like a Boss has new meaning…

That mainsail ^ has a wicked shape.

Back in our race I’m currently taking a hitch down south to try and catch some big winds that seem to be on the way ….. I’ve lost about 12,000 places today!

And Safrans out after hitting another submerged object..

@sharkbait – I’m watching your hitch south with interest, and I see ampthill is doing the same.
I’m tempted to follow, but for now will continue on my current course – be interesting to see where we end up in a couple of days!

Nick (Kapow saling)

I’m reasonably confident as the winds theoretically going to go a bit light up on the track I was taking before. You never know what’s going to happen next though!

I’m amazed that these boats don’t carry spare foils. Maybe that will be the next development? I can see that the main foils maybe aren’t possible to change alone, but the rudders?

Foils weigh 100kg I believe. People have changed rudders before but as they typically have “a pop up” mechanism if they hit something they don’t break as often anymore. Its also another reason for having two smaller rudders one each side vs traditional one large centre one which as its under the boat is very difficult to change and can sink the boat if it fails. A spare rudder is possible to carry (rule requirement on the volvo race I believe) but spare foils infeasible (weight and they are not symetrical anyway)

Alex is back on the other tack and foiling again but his lead has dropped to 35 miles.

Have these Guys done less than 10knts yet?

Amazing.

Well that went pretty well….. Dropped to about 20,000th but now back to 7500th going quickly in the right direction!
Get south guys.

BPop has caught Alex, now they are (and will) match race each other until the finish..

Not been following this, but the photos are fantastic!

It’s a photogenic sport !

Sailing Anarchy did a call with Alex. Audio below or on FB

And Armel take the lead this morning..

Look at the keel ! And this maybe a fluke but he’s even got both woolies flying..

Yep, I bet Alex can’t wait to get back on starboard so he can use his good foil.

Sadly I am of the view his chances are toast. Armel has overhauoed a 130 deficit and turned it into a 30 mile lead and is frequently going 2 knots faster. Unless Armel has a problem he can just sail safe and every time he is on the foiling tack/gybe Alex doesn’t have he is going to step away. Josse had one problem (rudder) which cost him 75 miles and now he’s 500 back as he fell into different weather

Amazing how many people turned out to see Tanguy back into Les Sables on a cold Monday afternoon (his wife is English, didnt know that, he lived in Lymington for a while I think)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=947671372032098&id=197426247056618

Just got my first advert on the free version

Waiting for it to load

This may take the edge off things

OK I saw no advert, just a count down. I think it thinks I was using an ad blocker but I wasn’t

Plenty of time still for stuff to go wrong Jamba.

JeanLC, you can almost hear him on the radio “Hello, hello…..this is JLC… calling…… a n y o n e!”

A French Navy ship did a rdv with Armel / BP and took some helicopter footage. Saw it on tv but should be on the sites

That is insane. I have no idea how they remain focussed for that length of time with that level of sleep

This is worth watching, I’ve played it 3 times. ‘Kin ‘ell that’s arc’d up 🙂

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x542qr7_j25-armel-le-cleac-h-et-alex-thomson-filmes-par-la-marine-nationale-vendee-globe_sport

[grump on]
Even in this edit they’ve cut in stock footage, watch for different headsails on BP 😐
[grump off]

Good find Jam.

The heal angle on Hugo… bloody hell… those canting keel rams must be under so much pressure..

Awesome, the way Alex just bounces around the boat whilst heeled right over… 😕

Hugo Boss looks over canvassed to me and slower than Banque Populaire, but there again rumour has that he has lost his starboard foil, or has he?

That Alex geezer with the union jack is clearly ‘kin barking !

What’s supposed to be wrong with his boat (in terms your gran would comprehend, please) ?