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Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en

This article is an excellent summary and description of the Vendee Globe Race:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tmullen/2020/11/09/the-insanity-and-elegance-of-the-vende-globe-sailing-race/?sh=4a98143f554e



What is the Vendee Globe: It's an around the world sailboat race held every 4 years. It's nonstop and each boat is crewed by a single man or woman.

Where: The race starts and finishes at Les Sables-d'Olonne, France, and takes a southern route where each boat must round the 3 Great Capes (Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, Cape Leeuwin in Australia, and Cape Horn in Chile) heading eastward around the globe.

When: The race is held every 4 years and this year's race has just begun, having started on Sunday, November 8th.

Who: The Vendee website linked above has a tab with profiles of the skippers. This year's fleet has 35. The huge majority of them are French, with a few Brits, a couple of Germans and skippers from Finland, Japan, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. There are six female skippers which I'm pretty sure is the most there have ever been in the race.

The boats: IMOCA 60 class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMOCA_60 There have been many changes and innovations in the design of the boats competing in the Vendee over the years. The most important has been the advent of hydrofoil technology, which appeared on Vendee boats for the first time in the 2016 edition of the race. Through exerting a wing/lift effect when the boat is sailing at sufficient speed, the foils lift the majority of the boat's hull out of the water, significantly reducing drag and allowing for much higher top speeds. The top entrants in this year's race are capable of top speeds of 30 knots or so. The leading contenders are all hydrofoil boats. The hydrofoils also represent a potential weak point that can fail under sustained and heavy forces over the long course of the race. In the 2016 race, Brit Alex Thomson had the fastest boat with the Hugo Boss entry, but one of his hydrofoils broke during the race. He was able to finish, and during the last leg of the race while sailing on the remaining good hydrofoil made up most of his deficit and came in just hours behind the winner. Other major changes involve the constructing very enclosed structures where the sailors now spend the great majority of their time sheltered where they would have been getting battered by the elements while on deck in the past. Some boats are now equipped with recumbent bike setups for grinding winches and lines in addition to the traditional arm driven winches.

The rules: The detailed rules are in the "Notice of Race" document on the race website. Importantly the sailors cannot go ashore or receive assistance. So if they anchor or moor somewhere to make a repair they cannot go ashore and I don't believe they can receive any material or assistance from anyone else. The race has a southern boundary exclusion zone designed to reduce the risk of collision with icebergs. There are other exclusion zones such as for commercial activity and fishing as the boats near the coast of France and the finish. The sailors incur severe penalties if they enter these zones.

What to expect: Typically only about half the fleet completes the race. It's a long race under very grueling conditions. The 2016 winner set the record with a 74 day time. Retirements generally occur due to structural damage to the boat the preclude continuing, or illness or injury to the sailor. Structural damage can come from failures due to wind and water forces, or from collision with objects or marine life (increasingly common). Some damage can be repaired while underway while some other damage requires a stoppage, and some can't be repaired at all and requires retirement and/or even rescue. It's not unusual for one or more entries to require rescue, and it's happened more than once that a boat that has had its mast damaged or destroyed has finished the race under a jury rigged makeshift mast, including in 2016. Racers have had to complete the race eating seaweed and caught fish due to dismasting and creeping home under jury rig, and at least one racer has had to do surgery on themselves in front of a shaving mirror.

Conrad Colman's dismasted boat sailing to the finish under jury rig.

People to watch:

Alex Thomson (HUGO BOSS)- possibly his last Vendee at age 46. Always a top contender, has finished 2nd and 3d. 2016 was a bitter disappointment for him as he had what was almost certainly the fastest boat but due to one of his hydrofoils breaking lost a great deal of ground, making almost all of it back up on the last leg. The Hugo Boss entry he's skippering is considered to be one of the fastest boats in the fleet.



Jeremie Beyou (CHARAL) https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skippers/103/jeremie-beyou - a very accomplished top competitor in one of the top hydrofoil entries - unfortunately has suffered serious structural damage early and is returning to the start area to repair his rudder and restart.

Charlie Dalin (APIVIA) - a top competitor representing a campaign run by the 2012 winner

Samantha Davies (INITIATIVES-COEUR) - Very accomplished ocean racer, competed in the 2012 Vendee but unfortunately retired due to her boat becoming dismasted. One of the top female entrants. Her partner, Romain Attanasio, is also competing in the race but she has one of the hydrofoil entries and he does not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG6qJnEVYkU

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/sports/sailing/sailing-vendee-globe-yachts.html

Following the race:

The Vendee's website linked above contains news releases and links to various media. The racers upload brief videos periodically. There is a Vendee Globe 2020 mobile app.

Vendee Globe Youtube Channel: Contains profiles of the skippers, tours of the boats, and periodic uploaded video from the race

https://www.youtube.com/user/VendeeGlobeTV/featured

Tracker: Graphically displays the most recent position of the racers. Hydrofoil boats are indicated with little horizontal lines on their icon. Hovering over the boat icons will give information such as the skipper, name of boat, current place, current speed and heading, and statistics over the last 24 hours. There is an option to overlay wind information.

https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Dec 15, 2020

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Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Some updates on events since the start of the race:

Most notably, top contender CHARAL suffered major rudder damage and is returning to the start location to effect repairs.

There have been other minor to major episodes including a couple of boats snagging fishing nets, and various damage to tackle and rigging that have required repairs on different boats.

Conrad Colman, one of my favorite entrants from 2016 who didn't secure enough funding to get into this year's race, with some commentary on early happenings:

https://yachtracing.life/vendee-globe-expert-analysis-from-conrad-colman/

Conrad Colman posted:

Butcher’s Bill

Fabrice Amedeo (NEWREST – ART & FENÊTRES) was the first sailor to report damage and made a U-turn on the first night of racing. He appears to have had a lock failure on his big gennaker that caused significant collateral damage, including a crack in the mast. His team has been working around the clock in Les Sables d’Olonne for two full days and last night he was able to head back out to see with a fully functioning boat.

Arnaud Boissiere (LA MIE CÂLINE – ARTISANS ARTIPÔLE) also had a lock problem and had to climb the mast all the way to the top to manually disengage his big gennaker. When he dropped the sail it fell overboard and got wrapped up in his outrigger. This surely made a big mess, slowed him down and used a lot of energy but he hasn’t reported further problems.

Kevin Escoffier (PRB) had a drainage valve on his foil case fail, which lead to significant flooding on the inside of his boat. Any time there’s a lot of water inside the boat it’s really scary because it’s often hard to find the source of the problem and there is a significant risk of secondary damage of computers, electronic systems, to say nothing of your sleeping bag and spare socks!

Thomas Ruyant (LINKEDOUT) also had a problem with a sail, although in contrast with Arnaud Boissiere’s problem where a sail wouldn’t come down, his came down too early.

Normally a furled sail can stay hoisted for a long period of time without problem while the skipper evaluates the changing circumstances and decides whether to drop it definitively or redeploy it in the near future.

Alex Thomson in particular seems to sail with a lot of his sails hoisted, which creates significant aerodynamic drag but does allow him to adapt to changing conditions more efficiently. Seemingly, he has decided it’s worth it.

In Thomas’s case, one of the sales he had hoisted in standby mode bounced off the lock and fell to the deck. This risks the sail becoming damaged while dragging in the water and, if the halyard was damaged or snapped, could require a dangerous and costly mast climb to run a new one. Looks like he got off lightly.

Armel Tripon (L’OCCITANE EN PROVENCE) also had sail problems, this time with his J3 or smallest jib. It appears that some component of the sail, the lock, the furling cable or the textile strop that connects it to the mast has failed. In contrast to the above cases, the problem is more severe, and he is heading to Spain to seek sheltered waters in order to repair the problem.

One concerning problem is that the J3 forestay is required to be tensioned when sailing in rough conditions in order to support the mast, even if the sail is not in use. I hope this relatively small problem doesn’t lead to a bigger one before he makes it to shelter.

Damien Seguin (GROUPE APICIL) Felt his boat slow and looked underneath it to see what the problem could be. He found that a large portion of a discarded fishing net was wrapped around his keel.

All Vendée Globe sailors prepare for this moment and carry a small diving bottle along with mask and snorkel and flippers. He was apparently able to cut the net away without a problem, but spare a thought for Damien, born without his left hand, and imagine not only sailing an IMOCA 60 literally single-handed but also swimming underneath it with a sharp knife on the open sea!

BREAKING NEWS As I write this update the news has broken that Jérémie Beyou (CHARAL), race favourite, and one of the fastest and most prepared sailors on the circuit, is heading back to Les Sables d’Olonne!

Early this morning Jeremy contacted his team to say that he had struck an object and was evaluating the damage. It initially appeared to be minimal and concentrated to the rudder blade, but he recently announced that the damage is more significant and is beyond the scope of what he can repair at sea. He is returning Les Sables to meet with his technical team and they will do their best to return him to race-ready condition.

One note about all this damage at sea and both returning to port either in Spain or back at the start finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne. The three key tenets of the Vendée Globe are “Alone, Around the World, without Assistance” so how is it that Fabrice and Jérémie are able to return to port and Armel is seeking shelter in La Coruña? Firstly, there are two different rules at play here. The start line stays open for 10 days following the initial start and boats are free to return to Les Sables and have access to their technical teams during this time.

Once out on the racecourse however, they must be completely autonomous and while they are free to consult their teams as to how best fix the problem, no one is allowed to come on-board or otherwise render any physical assistance. In the case of Armel seeking shelter, he is able to anchor his boat in a bay by himself and repair his damage so long has he does so by himself.

Important to note that the fleet is heading in the general direction of a storm system southwest of the Azores:

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Quick preview on some of the sailors to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhPcBk1QV90

Kevin Escoffier aboard PRB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeROcJ_El14&t=6s

This is, uh.. a lot more water than I think anyone would be comfortable seeing in the bottom of their boat, especially at the beginning of a race of thousands of miles. But if he's confident the source is a specific valve that he identified, he can fix it. But he's elected to do so while underway and racing.

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Nov 12, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Pip Hare climbing the mast to repair a line:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez1EpGnFiek&t=4s

Pip is on the oldest boat and is not considered to be a contender to win, but I think her uploaded videos are my favorite among all the contenders so far.

Update after the first 5 days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zixbEEn7HjE

Can't sleep because a competitor is in collision range, and also showing process of transferring the weight of stored sails after a maneuver in order to balance the boat for the new heading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSNk801hYmo

I'm a little sad for the relative lack of content that is understandable or even subtitled in English, the fact that there were more English speaking competitors in 2016 made it not that evident.

Anyway the fleet have mostly passed the storm system south of the Azores. Amazingly there are no retirements yet despite most of the fleet going through 40-50 knot conditions during the first night or so.

Wily veterans Alex Thomson/Hugo Boss and Jean Le Cam/Yes we Cam! are trading the lead back and forth after having taken the chance of sailing very close to the eye of the storm system. This allows them an advantage in sailing closer to the first Great Cape, the Cape of Good Hope, which they must round, and any advantage of higher winds from the system, but carries a greater risk of breakage of gear on the boat from the higher winds.

Hugo Boss and Yes we Cam! passing near the center of the storm (HB in black with the foils/sticks on each side, YWC the white nonfoiling boat):



Most recent position:



The thing to keep in mind here is that the boats are optimized for specific sets of conditions. The hydrofoil entries have to ride up on their foils in order for their speed advantage to come into play. So in heavy conditions with high waves where the hull of the boat is in and out of the waves the foiling boats may not be faster or may even be slower than their nonfoiling competitors. But in moderate conditions with a smoother sea state the foilers can build up huge leads or make up huge deficits over thousands of nautical miles. So while Hugo Boss and YWC are trading the lead, HB will likely open up a huge lead once the leaders enter conditions more ideal for the hydrofoils. Likewise there will likely be a split between the foilers and nonfoilers in the fleet that will open up at some point.

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Nov 14, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006



Having gambled successfully on aggressively hitting Tropical Storm Theta on its Western edge first, the leaders have now entered moderate beam reach conditions (wind directly across the side of the boat) that are ideal for the hydrfoil boats, and as expected, Alex Thomson/Hugo Boss has taken the lead and is beginning to extend his lead over Jean LeCam/Yes we Cam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Hhg-7rHho

In depth analysis of the leaders, noting both have history of leading this race and either requiring rescue or losing their lead because of breakages on the boats. This guy's channel in general is very good for English language coverage and analysis of the race (he's Dutch).

Here's his week 1 coverage, with a lot of explanation about why the French are so dominant in ocean sail racing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw_4Q_PiLOc

TLDR Alex Thomson/Hugo Boss is now in an excellent position to take firm control of the lead and the race, barring any breakages.

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Nov 15, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK5bD7WuhdM
This video shows the incredible high pitched loud sound aboard the hydrofoil boats when they are doing their thing at high speeds. It's my understanding that the skippers of these boats all have special hearing protection.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Nicolas Troussel (CORUM L’Épargne) Has Dismasted NW of the Cape Verde Islands

quote:

French skipper Nicolas Troussel who was lying in seventh place in the Vendée Globe has dismasted on CORUM L’Épargne this morning. He was racing south in brisk NE’ly trade wind conditions some 260 nautical miles NW of the Cape Verde islands.

Troussel, 46, was not injured and is in the process of securing the boat before further assessing the situation after sunrise.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm9-UXeckMs&t=3s
Arnaud Boissieres making repairs from atop his mast

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006



Okay, a lot has happened.

-As the fleet headed south in the Atlantic towards the equator, hydrofoil entries Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut -light blue icon) and Charlie Dalin (APIVIA - yellow icon) recovered from the triple digit lead that Alex Thomsom (Hugo Boss - black icon) and Jean LeCam (Yes we Cam! -white icon without foils) had built by heading directly into Tropical Storm Theta, and eventually passed them, forming a trio of foiling leaders with LeCam falling ever further behind.

-Last night Alex/Hugo Boss reported structural damage to the boat. Specifically a longitudinal support beam was noted to have damage near the bow. There was no specific collision or other event thought to cause the damage. Thomson has now begun to drift/sail southwest. The current stance taken by the Hugo Boss team is that damage is thought to be repairable, and Alex is commencing with the repair with plans to continue the race when the work is complete. It must be noted that any repair must withstand the punishing conditions of the Southern Ocean for thousands of miles. I suspect depending upon how solid the repair looks, Hugo Boss may still retire from the race in the near future if there is not confidence the repaired boat can withstand Southern Ocean conditions.

-CORUM, one of the foiling entries, has retired from the race due to losing its mast, and has made landfall under power safely.

-Jeremie Beyou/CHARAL (one of the early favorites to win the race)has reentered and restarted the race after having returned to the start area and completed repairs to rigging and rudder there, and is currently at the back of the fleet but making good progress.

-Isabelle Joschke/MACSF sustained damage when a block gave way under load, taking out some of the railing at the stern of the boat (aft pushpit, bit that keeps you from falling into the ocean). She has effect repairs and is still in the race.

-Kojiro Shiraishi (DMG MORI Global One) has sustained a large tear in his mainsail and continues in the race while attempting repair but is near the back of the fleet.

-Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) had broken one of his halyards (line that hauls the sail up the mast) for one of the smaller sails, and had been relying on a spare, but that broke as well so he went up his mast to repair the original halyard:



Both Alex Thomson and Thomas Ruyant have had experience with loss due to damage sustained in this race. Alex has had one past Hugo Boss entry run aground and retire, and in the 2016 edition his Hugo Boss entry appeared to be the fastest boat but broke one of its hydrofoils while heading south towards the Cape of Good Hope during this same phase of the race, and despite this finished a close second making up much ground sailing on his good foil during the final portion.

In the 2016 Vendee, Ruyant was under different sponsorship. He sustained a collision with an unknown object which caused severe damage to his boat and had to retire, proceeding under motor to New Zealand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpdS9k4sXak&t=4s

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Here is a broader picture of what's happening in the race:



As the fleet heads south/southeast towards the Cape of Good Hope, there are many areas of very light wind, doldrums, that are appearing. These are represented by the dark blue water on the map (wind strength is color coded from blue to green to orange to violet as it increases). So far the majority of the fleet has had very generous wind conditions and speed, possibly too generous for those that have suffered damages.

Already the rear portion of the fleet is beginning to get stuck in doldrums that didn't exist or were much smaller when the leaders passed through. The leaders themselves will have a narrow band of decent wind with light air/high pressure systems surrounding them at all sides. They will have to pay very close attention to the forecasted weather to properly plan their sail route to avoid getting stuck in these.

You will also note that there is a dark shaded area in the southern part of the map. There's a big chunk of the southern portion of the globe that is an exclusion zone for the race where substantial penalties are incurred if the racers enter. This is to reduce the risk of iceberg collisions. This southern exclusion zone is very large this year due to global warming resulting in more chunks of ice breaking off and being seen further north than in the past. It is a complicating factor in that it sometimes makes it difficult for the boats to avoid severe weather conditions in the Southern Ocean.

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

How do they decide the open ocean routes they're supposed to take while heading south/north?

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

ilmucche posted:

How do they decide the open ocean routes they're supposed to take while heading south/north?

It's primarily based on weather projections. They will have weather modeling that will project what wind strength will be over time. What the racers want is to be able to harness high wind strength for greater speed and avoid areas of high pressure/low wind. If they get stuck in a high pressure system and are barely moving it can take a long time to get out of it to even get back into good wind. So far the race fleet has largely avoided getting stuck in doldrums (low wind), but as the leaders head south there are high pressure traps all around them. So the choice of routing is becoming more complicated and risky.

There is strategy involved also. If a boat is far from the lead, they may need to take a chance and take a different route from the leaders in the hope that they can hit a more favorable weather pattern because following the same path as the leaders, even if it turns out to be the optimal path, guarantees they stay behind the leaders since they're in the same wind.

Staying in high wind also increases the risk of boat breakage, for rigging or other fixed structures on the boat to break under sustained heavy loads. If the leader is far ahead, they may wish to choose a less aggressive path with a little less wind and be willing to give up a little bit of their lead in order to decrease the risk of a breakage that can end the race for them, or cause a serious delay.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

The tracking map is the best way to follow the race:

https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map

You can zoom in or out, move the map around, home in on the leaders, overlay the wind information, and get information on the individual boats by hovering over them.

If you hover over an individual boat you will get a summary:



This will show their current heading and speed, and the distance from the leader (which is not calculated by direct distance but I believe it's the difference between how close the leader is and the current boat is from the next cape or waypoint). But the columns to the right show what the average speed and total distance covered over the previous 4 hours and 24 hours which gives a much more complete picture of what is going on.

Note that the lead has changed once again and Charlie Dalin (APIVIA) is currently in the lead. APIVIA and LinkedOut are close enough that in the process of changing leads they were probably visible to one another if the conditions were clear enough.

It's important to note that not all the boats are "in it to win it". Less than half the fleet are contenders to win the race based on the boat and the skipper and how well funded the campaign is. Completing any solo nonstop unaided circumnavigation, much less in a race like the Vendee, is an incredible accomplishment in itself. Some of the less competitive boats are in competition with each other, where if the skipper does a really good job managing the boat and race they might secure funding or a spot on a more competitive campaign in the future, or make a name for themselves helping their efforts in other races. There are usually some old rich guy vanity campaigns where there is no expectation of winning, although there is less of that this time. The boats and skippers only have to meet certain standards and they can enter.

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 13:40 on Nov 23, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Alex Thomson showing the damage to the longitudinal support structure aboard Hugo Boss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJfhOBJAMeU

Repair process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziNxBs7GpYs&t=3s

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EveopSODwCw

Lovely video of SeaExplorer and MaitreCoq who have been sailing right next to each other at 5th and 6th position in the race for a bit, currently in very light winds.

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

The radio here talks about a someone from a nearby town (barneville carteret pretty sure) being in 24th, I don't even know if they mention the leader. Found it cute that they're all in on their local representation.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynlUK4euMiQ

Damien Seguin (APICIL) wounds himself with a knife, by accident. Fixes it up, kind of, with stuff in his medical kit. I hadn't realized there was a guy with only one hand doing this race, pretty awesome. Not sure if the lack of a left hand is congenital or due to some trauma that happened to him in the past.

The state of the race:



Charlie Dalin (APIVIA) with a significant lead over Thomas Ruyant (LinkedOut) and the two of them well ahead of the rest of the fleet.

As you can clearly see however, there is a lot of very light air (the blue) between the fleet and the Cape of Good Hope. APIVIA already seems to be running a bit slow and will have to negotiate a path through the doldrums to the cape.

Of note: LinkedOut has suffered significant breakage of the port side hydrofoil. As there was no apparent collision this would seem to be a stress/fatigue breakage under load, also of concern to APIVIA which has foils of the same type and construction. The hydrofoils can generally be retracted so they don't create drag if they are unable to provide lift anymore, but this will put LinkedOut at a serious disadvantage relative to APIVIA and raise concerns whether the other foil will hold and whether APIVIA could suffer the same fate.

https://www.letelegramme.fr/voile/v...22ad738b7056453

quote:

"The foil is really cracked in many places"
It was around 3:00 am that night when Thomas Rouillard, while resting inside his “LinkedOut”, was alerted by a loud noise outside the boat. Without feeling the slightest shock, the skipper nevertheless rushed outside.

Using his headlamp, he immediately noticed major cracks on the “shaft” (*) of his port foil. He immediately stopped the boat and went downwind to inspect the damage. “I was about 120 ° to the wind, I was walking at 20 knots when I heard this loud noise,” he said while he was at the forefront (2nd) with Charlie Dalin. “I don't really have an explanation. I retracted the foil fully, so that it does not drag in the water. With daylight, I was able to inspect the foil and its well from top to bottom, in conjunction with my team and the architects on land. There is no waterway and the foil well is healthy. But the foil is really cracked in many places. The very structure of the foil is affected. I'm waiting for the architects' analysis to know if I have to cut it ”.

"I continue the race with only one wing"
The disappointment is immense, but Thomas Rettant tries to be positive! : “I am second in the Vendée Globe. Since Sunday I have accumulated small problems, which I managed to manage, but which are crowned by damage. I naturally continue the race, handicapped, with only one wing, but I take comfort in telling myself that I have my starboard foil left, which is perhaps statistically the most important for a round the world. The road is long. I continue, I hang on! ".

(*) The foil is made up of two parts, a "shaft" and a "tip". It is the tip that allows the boat to come out of the water thanks to the lift force it exerts. The shaft is the part of the foil that connects the tip to the boat.

What this all means is that, large leads nonwithstanding, the weather, and breakages, are serious wild cards in this race and a good portion of the fleet still have a chance to win depending on how things shake out.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

ilmucche posted:

The radio here talks about a someone from a nearby town (barneville carteret pretty sure) being in 24th, I don't even know if they mention the leader. Found it cute that they're all in on their local representation.

I'm assuming you're referring to Miranda Merron:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKzNRLhJu04

It's natural that a town would make a big deal out of a hometown man or woman being in the Vendee. It's one of the most unique (and batshit crazy) things anyone might do in their life.

It seems like most of the competitors live in France, even if they are Brits or from other countries. This type of solo long distance ocean sail racing is a uniquely French sport, and the events, teams and sponsors are all there.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://twitter.com/VendeeGlobeENG/status/1333437798620274690?s=20

https://twitter.com/VendeeGlobeENG/status/1333444947761106944?s=20

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Aside from the current ongoing rescue of PRB (which is either sinking or has sunk) by Jean Le Cam, here is what else is going on:

- Hugo Boss sustained rudder damage in addition to the support beam damage that had already been repaired and is now on the way to Cape Town to retire.

- The entire remaining fleet has now crossed the equator.

- APIVIA maintains a lead of between 270-300 nautical miles over Linked Out but is unable to extend this. Linked Out may be slowly eating into this lead as the fleet approaches the Cape of Good Hope.

- There is a large pack of boats that are very close to each other from around second to twelfth place. If APIVIA were to falter or suffer any significant breakage, it’s anyone’s race.

The sea state as the leaders enter the Southern Ocean in the latitudes of “The Roaring Forties” has very high waves and the leaders are unable to push much harder or go much faster than 17-18 knots as a result.

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

I knew you'd have made a vendee globe thread zwabu. Despite not sailing myself i absolutely love it. Always awesome to see competitors abandoning their race to help each other

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20690/news-flash-kevin-escoffier-rescued-by-fellow-vendee-globe-competitor-jean-le-cam

quote:

At 0118hrs UTC the PRB Team was informed that their Vendée Globe race skipper Kevin Escoffier (PRB) has been rescued by fellow Vendée Globe competitor Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!).

Escoffier had to abandon his IMOCA 60 PRB following damage yesterday afternoon around 1346hrs UTC and took to his liferaft some 840 nautical miles SW of Cape Town.

The rescue mission was coordinated from Les Sables d’Olonne by Vendée Globe Race Direction in collaboration with CROSS Griz Nez and MRCC South Africa. The President of PRB, Jean-Jacques Laurent was at the Race HQ with race director Jacques Caraës and the race direction team assisting through the entire process.

"He's on board with Jean!" These short words came as a huge relief for the whole team, for Escoffier’s family and all those involved in the Vendée Globe

Kevin has so far only been seen aboard YesWeCam via live video as Jean Le Cam had his video system connected during all the search operations. No one has yet been able to talk with the PRB skipper who just appeared smiling, bundled up in his survival suit alongside Jean Le Cam.

Vendée Globe race director Jacques Caraës outlined, “We sent Jean back to a position received by the CROSS Gris Nez, the position sent by the onboard EPIRB distress beacon. Météo France's drift simulation also delivered a trace. Jean set off at OOh15 UT (1h15 French time) on our request to reach this point at reduced speed. He found no one at the given location. He then resumed its journey southeast for three quarters for between 45 minutes and an hour - an hour. As he was making headway at 1.5 knots in a 20-25 knot wind under very reduced sail (3 reefs in the mainsail and no engine), he disappeared from the screen when suddenly we heard him talk. We no longer saw anyone. Then, a few minutes after 1:06 UT or 2:06 French time (time at which he had precisely to retrieve Kevin on board), Jean went back down to the chart table and then we saw Kevin arrive behind his back in a survival suit. They both appeared fit seconds before the video cut. He is fine. Everyone is well. They are recovering!

On January 6, 2009, during the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe, Vincent Riou, the then the skipper of PRB, rescued Jean Le Cam from his upturned IMOCA 60 which capsized at Cape Horn.

This time 61 year old five times Vendée Globe racer Le Cam has reversed the roles delivering Escoffier, the 40 year old skipper from Saint Malo, from a potentially lethal situation.


The whole TEAM PRB and the Vendée Globe community sincerely thanks Jean Le Cam and the three other skippers, Boris Hermann, Yannick Bestaven and Sébastien Simon who have worked heroically and tirelessly to find Kevin, as well as the race director, the CROSS Gris Nez. and the MRCC Cape Town which coordinated the search



More information to come.

(Apparently the PRB vessel involved in rescuing Le Cam in 2009 was a different boat, but still, pretty cool.)

I hope there is some video of the rescue.

A singlehanded sailor performing a rescue in such conditions is no easy feat. Even turning away briefly to try and manage/start his engine, Le Cam lost sight of the life raft. The boats are not designed for rescue or maintaining a position. The engines are likely underpowered for heavy seas.

Onboard video from Boris Herrmann, who was nearby and also diverted for the rescue effort, gives an idea the conditions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B_Xcn62_as

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Dec 1, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Jean Le Cam on the rescue, translated by some guy on the sailinganarchy.com website (he lost sight of the raft, but nightfall actually helped him reacquire it due to the flashing strobe on the raft):

quote:

was at 2h of PRB, more or less, so I was the closest to the objective. So I go to the position that the beacon indicated. So voilà. Then I arrive at the zone. Superb, I see Kevin in his liferaft. So I tell him, as I have the position, all is well... I tell him I come back, we are not doing anything stupid, you see. So at this moment I have 2 reefs in my main, main only, but two reefs. With the seastate it was not easy, not easy to maneuver. So I come back where I left him, and there was no one, ohlala... I came back to the place at least 5 to 6 times. That means tacking every time. With the seastate and everything. So I went into standby state, waiting, waiting for daylight. But then I tack again, as I tell myself that during the night I might see the light better than during daylight. One moment I was on deck and I can see a strobe. A strobe, I mean it is not a strobe, it's a light that appears in the waves. I tell me that it is not real... I continue and I see the thing. I see the light appearing more and more. At this stage you tell yourself OK that's it. You go from despair to joy. So I head into the wind and ... I tell Kevin to come, let's do it right now, I am not coming back. I throw him the red buoy. And he can get it. So we suceded. He attached it and we won.

Interview with JLC, Kevin, and Jean-Jacques who is the CEO of the PRB campaign:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqfehHiBlA8

Kevin's account here (apparently the boat literally fractured and folded in two coming down off a big wave and filled up with water so quickly that he barely had time to get a message out and wasn't able to even get his ditch bag, a pre prepared bag of supplies for survival):

https://sport.prb.fr/en-mer/actus/250-le-recit-de-kevin-escoffier-sur-sa-terrible-avarie-et-son-sauvetage-par-jean-le-cam

JLC describing deciding to rescue Kevin at night once he'd reacquired his position by spotting the raft's light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lExF5sARPQ

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Dec 1, 2020

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

Amazing rescue in those conditions.

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

https://twitter.com/VendeeGlobeENG/status/1334045623255961600?s=20

Charlie Dalin remains well out in front but there's a big pack of boats behind. Interesting looking at his route, he almost touched the ice exclusion zone and then tacked much farther north than anyone else.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Loving Africa Chaps posted:


Charlie Dalin remains well out in front but there's a big pack of boats behind. Interesting looking at his route, he almost touched the ice exclusion zone and then tacked much farther north than anyone else.



So currently the big pack of leaders has passed the Cape of Good Hope, and stayed with the weather well south of it and towards the ice exclusion zone.

As you noted, Dalin is in the lead but his lead has diminished. It used to be almost 300nm over linked out, but now is around 200nm over his closest two pursuers, and most notably Louis Burton (Bureau Vallee2) is now in second place, running neck and neck with Ruyant/LinkedOut.



Louis Burton has sailed one of the most impressive races so far, he came from well back in the 8-10th place neighborhood to get to this point. He was running neck and neck with Samantha Davies for quite a while, not sure what he's done differently to make up so much distance over her as she's still in 11th place. Perhaps he's just pushed the boat harder, and/or made wiser navigation decisions.

On the breakage front, Simon Sebastien (ARKEA APREC), currently in 4th place, has had a collision with a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object) and suffered damage to his starboard foil that looks pretty significant:



He's retracted as much of the foil as he can into the boat (what you see in the picture is the retracted foil sticking up out of the deck) and it's unclear as yet whether he will need to cut part or most of it off, and whether there is further structural damage to the hull.

Earlier, Thomas Ruyant (Linked Out) did indeed cut off part of his foil to reduce drag and risk of collateral damage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am7HVd2ryJU&t=68s

So the real question right now is whether Dalin/APIVIA have taken their foot off the gas a bit whilst in the lead to reduce the risk of breakages, which I suspect to be the case, or whether they are actually not quite as fast a boat as their pursuers!

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Dec 2, 2020

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22IDI1ntXhk

This channel has some good analysis of IMOCA boats including a really good video on why Alex Thompson's boat might have failed. Really recommend viewing all 3.

Simon Sebastien's damage seems worse, he's having to heel the boat over to prevent water ingress and apparently is about to enter a storm system

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

It's a shame sailing is not more popular because it's a really good warning about pollution. There should be no way these boats have a chance of hitting anything but Britain's last hope has hit something too

https://twitter.com/VendeeGlobeENG/status/1334252769226739714?s=19

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Loving Africa Chaps posted:

It's a shame sailing is not more popular because it's a really good warning about pollution. There should be no way these boats have a chance of hitting anything but Britain's last hope has hit something too

https://twitter.com/VendeeGlobeENG/status/1334252769226739714?s=19

Bleah. We're dumping too much crap in the oceans.

I still don't think we've reached the attrition rate of past Vendees yet, but the carnage seems to be mounting up quickly.

Of the new design foil boats only the leader APIVIA has been unscathed so far (as far as we know). It does call into question whether the boats are designed sturdy enough to hold up under the stresses that the increased speed puts on them. These are new designs, the sailors are kind of test piloting them.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dTPHSOSg_k

Sam Davies explaining and giving a tour of the damages to her boat.

You can set the translation to English subtitles but it's not great. The images tell a story though.

There is water ingress, and significant structural damage.

It's hard to imagine that this can be assessed and fixed to a degree sufficient to trust the boat the rest of the way around the globe without hauling it out of the water and ending her race. It's a shame because Sam had been running an excellent race.


Loving Africa Chaps posted:

Britain's last hope has hit something too

Pip Hare says Hey! (she's not going to win but her videos are the best.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXdROk3am_c

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Kevin Escoffier has been transferred from Yes We Cam! to a French naval vessel, and Jean Le Cam has resumed racing, video of the transfer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6An7gUpkPL4

Meanwhile, the total retirements from the race so far:

CORUM (dismasted)
Hugo Boss (structural damage, rudder damage due to collision)
Initiatives de Coeur (structural damage to keel and bulkhead after collision)
ARKEA PAPREC (structural damage to foil and attached areas)
PRB (sank due to catastrophic structural failure, boat crumpled/folded in half)

The Hugo Boss, Initiatives de Coeur and ARKEA skippers have now safely made it into Cape Town and are presumably having a pint before figuring out their next move.

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Dec 6, 2020

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Transfer from naval ship and RIB POV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygz6XQSwGJQ

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Some inspiring footage of Isabelle Joschke/MACSF just FLYING across the Southern Ocean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLjQk73sEzs


There is a huge difference in the type of conditions and speed the various boats find themselves in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUQzuHBOOTE

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

Charlie Dalin's lead over LinkedOut has reduced a ton, he's now just in front of the pack of chasers. Going to make for a good race

Cannon_Fodder
Jul 17, 2007

"Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc
This is really cool. I didn't know it existed.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Cannon_Fodder posted:

This is really cool. I didn't know it existed.

Glad you like it. Be aware that the YouTube video clips on the VendeeGlobeTV channel can have English translation subtitles/captions, but it's a bit wonky, sometimes you have to choose French(autogenerated) captions and then go back and you get an option to translate to English or other languages. I really wish the race and its marketing weren't so France based because even if you know NOTHING about sailing (and I'm biased because I sail), I think it's got plenty of interesting characters and no lack of drama, no need to invent adversity and crazy events when so much of it happens in the normal course of things. Of course even though I'm certain you could sell the race to a much broader audience, the reality TV demands would probably ruin it in a bunch of other ways.

Hourglass Dolphins see from Pip Hare's Medallia:



https://www.instagram.com/p/CIbhXMygGfK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The current state of the race:



There are 3 distinct groups now, the leaders, the middle and the rear group. Ruyant/Linked Out has maintained their dogged pursuit of APIVIA in the lead. Burton/Burea Vallee 2 seemed to be having problems for a bit, they appeared poised to catch and possibly take the lead for a while but then spent some time going slowly and in the wrong direction, but now appear that they might have it sorted and are moving fast again but have slipped to 4th place, with Maitre Coq now in 3d. Basically the positions behind the leader have been pretty close and fluid and changing around quite a bit.

The pack of leaders is now about midway between Africa and Australia, with the middle pack just passing the southern tip of Africa and the rear group now having reached the southern latitudes and approaching the Cape of Good Hope.

I think a lot of the fast foiling boats have had to take their foot off the gas for a bit to minimize the chances of breakage, the chaotic waves and sea in the Southern Ocean have made going full speed untenable, it causes the boats to wipe out or nose down hard into the water over and over and we seem to already have seen that they can't sustain that level of punishment.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Developments:

Newrest - Art et Fenetres (Fabrice Amedeo) is headed into Cape Town to retire. The boat is undamaged AFAIK but he suffered failure of his primary and his backup computer (no idea whether there were issues of his cabin getting a bunch of salt water or whatever causing this) and has decided it's not safe or prudent to continue. Of course he presumably still has working GPS and the boats are required to have paper charts, and he presumably has some kind of basic working chart plotter, but without the computers he might not be able to receive the detailed weather projections that form the basis of their navigation planning, and whatever navigation software he uses.

Also it's unknown if the computer system is in any way integrated into the self steering mechanisms on the boat or other things like planning when and how much to retract or deploy the hydrofoils.

So given navigating in and out of weather systems is not only critical for race competitiveness but also safety in a very inhospitable part of the world, seems reasonable. He could continue around with crude old fashioned methods available, but it doesn't seem wise.



Dalin's lead over the front pack gets ever more slim. He had the misfortune to fall into a high pressure system for a bit and was going very slow for a while. He's now back in good wind and going about twenty knots but his pursuers have drawn closer: Linked Out and Maitre Coq are both inside 100nm of him now, they smell what he's cooking on the stove. They're at 71 and 84 nm off the lead, respectively! There's also a pack of three that are right around 200nm including Jean Le Cam!

I don't believe the race has ever had such a large group in real contention for the lead this far into the race before, the leader pack is now approaching Cape Leeuwin, Australia.

L'Occitane en Provence (Armel Tripon) continues to keep on keepin' on, has left the middle pack in the dust and continues making up ground towards the lead, he was at 1800nm off the lead just days ago and now at around 1500. If he hadn't had to stop early on in the race to fix some rigging failure damage he might be in the lead.

If you look at the tracker map, it has a "play" bar at the bottom where you can review the whole course of the race so far, you can speed it up and slow it down too. It's amazing the path that Occitane en Provence has blazed through the field since getting back into the race, and sad for them having been one of the favorites.

The appearance of the albatross heralds entry into the realm of the Southern Ocean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ojYPxbxAH4&t=2s

Here, have Kojiro Shiraishi enjoying the simple pleasures of life: some sardines and mayo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7RYLieB2h0&t=1s

Zwabu fucked around with this message at 06:28 on Dec 12, 2020

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

Absolutely incredible le cam is still in touch with the leaders after taking part in the rescue.

Cannon_Fodder
Jul 17, 2007

"Hey, where did Steve go?"
Design by Kamoc

Zwabu posted:



Here, have Kojiro Shiraishi enjoying the simple pleasures of life: some sardines and mayo:


:chloe:


No. Nooo. NONONO.

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Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.



race at the front continues to get tighter, it's now down to 60 nautical miles! Going to be a huge battle for the win.

L'Occitane continues it's amazing charge through the field, definitively the fastest boat at the moment. What's interesting is it's very different to many of the others in design. While most of the top boats have wave piercing bows this one is designed to go over waves and avoid the deceleration's of all that water on the boat each time it hits a wave. Charal is also charging at the back, such a shame 3 of the top boats have had issues or we might have had an even tighter race at the from but that's the vendee

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