Golden Globe Race

[SV Kittiwake]

Anyone know what the two chainplates either side of the backstay are for? Would he use them for extra support for the mast during heavy weather maybe?

 

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Anyone know what the two chainplates either side of the backstay are for? Would he use them for extra support for the mast during heavy weather maybe?

Extra chainplates are sometimes added as anchor points for drogues, but I would have expected them to be on the quarters.

 

[Seajet]

I can't get the picture up at the moment; Backstay tensioner ? Emergency rudder lines ?

 

[zoidberg]

Anyone know what the two chainplates either side of the backstay are for? Would he use them for extra support for the mast during heavy weather maybe?

I've made inquiries, and the answer this morning - from Barry Pickthall of GGR Media - that the two chainplates are for attachment of a boarding ladder. This is used when J-L needs to get outside the boat to fix something and has been used in quiet conditions, together with a tiny inflatable dinghy, off Lanzarote when the Hydravane gear needed some attention.

There are running backstays, apparently, which go to blocks on the quarter-decks aft.

 

[capnsensible]

Those watt and sea generators are the dogs dooh dahs. Pricey, though.

 

[SV Kittiwake]

Thanks for finding that out! I wonder if any of them do add extra support in case of knockdowns.

 

[Seven Spades]

The boat looks amazing, you would think he has just done a cruise to the west country not sailed ½ way around the world.

VDH followed the Southern limit which must have reduced the distance sailed by a huge amount and I do not understand why no other compettitors have done the same.

 

[zoidberg]

I do not understand why no other compettitors have done the same.

Speculation - The worst weather of the storms down there have rolled along at or below the Southern Limit of 42°S, except for the BIG one that did for Tomy and McGuckin. VDH, being well ahead/further east, avoided the worst of that ( seemingly ).

The others have chosen to track along further north, so hoping to avoid the worst winds and seas further south, which would slow them considerably. There also less chance of sustaining damage, which would slow them further.....

Guessing which route to follow for best progress will always be 'of the essence' of those racing skippers' judgements, just as it is elsewhere.

One might note that Mark Slats is now angling down towards the corner of the 42°S limit. Do remember these guys and gals are using astro-navigation to determine their latitudes ( and other t'ings ) which is far from easy or accurate in continuous roiling, lumpy seas and obscured skies.

 

[Motor_Sailor]

. . . The others have chosen to track along further north . . .

But this is simply not true. If you activate the continuous trails on the tracker, it's obvious that no one has had a monopoly of going north or south. There's quite a few who have spent more time south of VDH's track.

The shortest route isn't the fastest if there's headwinds. Most of the boats have operated close to the northern limit of the exclusion zone, but have also taken 'fair winds' where necessary. At one point, VDH's course has been the most northerly of any of the front runners.

 

[zoidberg]

One can argue all one likes, from a safe distance. The fact remains that VDH is tonight 2850 miles ahead of Mark Slats - according to the reported DTFs.

2850!

I'm not going to bother getting our my venerable copy of 'Nories' to check that. 'Twould be seriously geeky..... ( I'd put a wry 'smilie' in here, but somehow that doesn't seem to work on this wonky software. )

 

[Motor_Sailor]

The really striking thing about VDH's track, isn't where he's been, but rather quite how smooth it is compared to everyone else's.
His track has far fewer radical alterations in course. This would suggest he's been experiencing a much higher proportion of 'fair winds' that haven't required him to tack.

Now this might be purely luck as for a lot of the time he's been in a different weather system to the others.
But alternatively, I suspect that he's made a much better use of his SSB radio to garner better weather information and has been anticipating the winds rather than simply reacting.

I think his career has been long enough that he remembers when SSB shortwave was all there was and quite how much preparation and skill it takes to make effective use of it.
He's now reaping the rewards of being well prepared in this and obviously many other aspects as well.

 

[zoidberg]

Interesting that Jean-Luc is now about 50nm off the SW corner of NewZealand's South Island. He should shortly be able to see the snow-covered peaks of Fiordland ( the 'etak of sighting' in Pacific Navigators' lore ).

There's a really big storm to the south of him, likely to persist for some days. I'm wondering if he'll duck through Foveaux Strait, behind Stewart Island, as others have done, which might give some respite. Besides, he may enjoy the very green scenery - the last for many thousands of miles.

 

[Yellow Ballad]

My cynical mind does make me wonder how much outside assistance some people get (more the people on the other end transmitting having much better information to pass on than back in the day). I'm sure when the Tomy rescue was going on there were statements saying people were advised to head north away from the storms which you can understand but not really true to the original race. I would much rather have seen the race allow sat phones gps etc but just restrict the boat type.

I'm loosely following the race but it's never really seemed true so to speak. I do take my hat off to the competitors though, the amount of time and money they have put in is crazy.

Lot's to learn for us displacement sailors.

 

[zoidberg]

My cynical mind does make me wonder how much outside assistance some people get......
I do take my hat off to the competitors though, the amount of time and money they have put in is crazy.

Lots to learn for us displacement sailors.

Yus.

The competitors did not, as I understand it, have much of a hand in shaping the Rules. They were a 'committee effort'.... and we all know that a zebra was a horse designed by a committee.

The more that committees have a controlling hand in shaping sailing events such as these, the more costly and artificial they become. Consider the wodge of Special Regulations and expensive hoops to jump through in order to be accepted as an entrant for e.g. the GGR, the Fastnet, the SingleHanded Transatlantic races. Then there are the media and sponsor pressures, which played such a huge role in the actions of competitors in the last GGR some 50 years ago.

That's why I have a decided preference for the concept and practice of the 'Jester' events - which are 'non-races' with no rules other than where/when to start and where to finish ( and even that is not a fixed issue, provided one makes it safely to a haven ). All the rest is the skipper's responsibility.....


Edit: Don McIntyre, the Race Director, has just penned an interesting few words : https://goldengloberace.com/how-safe-is-safe-imagine-it/

 

[Kukri]

Very good point.

 

[Yellow Ballad]

I do take my hat off to the competitors though

I should add, I do respect Don and the rest of the team for organising it and I'm sure there's reasons I'm/We're not privy to to why they have the rules they have. I do enjoy his commentary, especially with Robin Davie.

 

[Kukri]

Unquestionably, part of the appeal of this event is that the competitors are using “ordinary” boats. It’s a saloon car race, not a Grand Prix, so all of us who have ordinary boats hope to learn something from the competitors.

 

[zoidberg]

.....so all of us who have ordinary boats hope to learn something from the competitors.

Very much so, and there's an active exchange of ideas - derived in part from observing the GGR boats - on the Facebook 'Jester Challenge' page. ( not the one here, which is moribund ). I myself get some info and answers from GGR Media/Barry Pickthall, which I copy-post in here if relevant.

It is perhaps inopportune to use the phrase 'strong and stable', but it might otherwise be used to describe what J-P VDH is sailing. And, so far, much the same could probably be said of Susie's 'DHL Starlight'.....

 

[capnsensible]

Painful day for Mark Slats. Couple of quick succession knock downs resulting in a cracked rib.

Having sailed for a while with a cracked rib myself, I unfortunately have an idea about how much thats gonna hurt.....except I wasnt on my own and not at the bottom of the world.

 

[Robert Wilson]

Ouch! Been there, got the T-shirt (not the Southern Ocean!)
Poor guy, no quick remedy.