Joyon V Ellen

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duke

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Yachting Monthly web page LATEST NEWS observes that Joyon is so far ahead of Ellen at the Equator BUT Ellen's boat was 22 ft shorter!

Is this fair comment for either of them?
 
Sounds like sour grapes to me. The record is for round the world singlehanded. Not round the world singlhanded in a certain type/size of boat. If he takes the record, good on him. That won't take anything away from her achievement, which was awesome.
 
Isn't the point of Record Breaking Attempts to beat the record? If the rules are clear about what the record is - what's the problem?

I also agree that Ellen's feat was brilliant but it may yet prove to be just a stepping stone to something even more amazing!
 
Yes its a fair comment. A 98 foot boat will be much faster than a 76 foot boat.
There is also a lot of luck involved in the weather routing when going all the way round the world. I remember Ellen lost a fair number of days against the previous record on the final leg up the Atlantic when she finished just over a day in front.
When she had her tri built the size was limited by what she felt was the limit she could handle. Having never sailed a tri I can only imagine that the amount of brute strength required is incredible.
Whatever happens it just proves that sailing boats go round the world faster than mobos. Ellen MacArthur goes round the world non stop via the capes in 71 days. It looks like Joyon will beat the 70 day barrioer by a considerable margin. The only powered craft that can get anywhere close to it is a nuclear sub! hardly a singlehander. As for Earthrace....

It takes a very special (probably slightly mad) person to even try to do this kind of thing and we should all wish them the best of luck.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yes its a fair comment. A 98 foot boat will be much faster than a 76 foot boat.

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The comment might be factually correct, but that doesn't mean it is relevant. The record is for fastest round. Period. You could do try it in a Laser or a Hobie Cat if you wanted.

And it is also possible that a 98 foot boat being singlehanded might be slower than a 76 foot boat becasue it is so much harder to handle. One could equally say that Dame Ellen only had to manage a 76 foot boat whereas Joyon is handling a 98 footer, making his circumnavigation even more impressive.

When EM beat Joyon's record, I don't recall the stories saying "... although Joyon's boat, IDEC, had not been built for single-handed sailing" (as Ellen's was).

The additional comment implies there is something unfair about Joyon using a boat that is bigger than Ellens. But there isn't anything unfair about it at all.

I remember when RK-J and Peter Blake broke 80 days in a fully crewed boat, and that was considered amazing. Now singlehanders have broken that time by more than a week, with the record set to fall further.

They are all amazing, IMHO.
 
To my mind it is far more about technical development in the intervening time. And this would cover weather routing and sails, but mainly the ability to build bigger lighter boats that are capable of lasting the distance.

B&Q was detuned for Day Mellon in that the hulls would have taken a bigger more powerful rig. But at least she could push it hard with the knowledge that there was possibly an inbuilt safety margin.

The other factor is the human one; the ability to manage with little sleep for protracted periods. In my book anyone who is able to drive one of these boats is on a par with F1 drivers and others at the absolute pinnacle of their sport.

So good luck to all of them. There are so few capable of doing such extreme sailing.
 
These attempts take years of planning and many things have to be decided in that time. The size and overall design of the boat has to be right in so many ways. I think what Ellen did was fantastic and if he continues, so is what Francis is doing. We should aplaud them both and both of their teams. Records are made to be broken. I would not be surprised to see Ellen on the quayside just as there were other sailors in Falmouth when she arrived.
Allan
 
Sailing Records

From the World Sailing Speed Records organisation today - a small essentially-British outfit with zilch budget, staffed by mad-dog Englishmen who do a superb job, for nuttin', and without a squeak of personal publicity for the excellent job they do.

[ QUOTE ]
The WSSR Council announces the ratification of a new World Record:

Record: Outright Singlehanded 24 Hour World Record
Yacht: "Sodebo" 105 ft Trimaran.
Name: Thomas Coville FRA
Dates: 5th to 6th January 2008.
Start position: 49° 05.73'S; 23° 05.35'E on 5/01/08
Finish position: 48° 50.52'S; 38° 50.19'E on 6/01/08
Distance sailed: 619.3nm
Average speed: 25.8 knots


Comments: Previous record: 2006 "Brossard"60ft Tri, Yvan Bourgnon, SUI,
610.45nm, 25.76kts



John Reed
Secretary to the WSSR Council


[/ QUOTE ]

* Maybe one of our pro staff journalists might care to do a profile of this secretive - no, self-effacing - ( but much-appreciated internationally ) tiny outfit. There are some excellent chaps there.....*



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