Transat Jacques Vabre 2019, Hugo Boss first test

[Roberto]

No mention so far of the Transat Jacques Vabre? The first serious test of AT new machine
About 30ish Imoca and 30ish Class40 left le Havre a couple of days ago, arrival is at Salvador, Brazil.
A low pressure system has currently split the fleet in two, Alex Thomson took a hell of an option with a western route together with a few others, whereas the other racers are struggling with southerly winds around the Spain/Portugal area.

The tracker is here
https://player.georacing.com/player_tjv/index.html?event=101861&race=97515&application_id=12

 

[Old Harry]

https://gcaptain.com/securite-securite-securite-transat-jacques-vabre-2019/

 

[matt1]

Alex always seems to go his own way when it comes to routing but I am surprised he didn't just shadow Charal. His media interviews downplayed his prospects Vs Charal and pitched the race as a learning opportunity rather than a competition. I would have thought there would have been valuable info to be gained by sticking close to Charal rather than making a bold tactical move that I wouldn't have thought would provide much benchmark data given the different weather experienced?

 

[Kukri]

Good point. But I think he actually wants to win.

 

[flaming]

Alex always seems to go his own way when it comes to routing but I am surprised he didn't just shadow Charal. His media interviews downplayed his prospects Vs Charal and pitched the race as a learning opportunity rather than a competition. I would have thought there would have been valuable info to be gained by sticking close to Charal rather than making a bold tactical move that I wouldn't have thought would provide much benchmark data given the different weather experienced?

Ah, but if he thinks he's faster than Charal he probably doesn't want them to know how much faster...

My read on the pre event statements about testing etc was that it was less about testing in terms of speed, and more about testing how the boat is to live and sail on etc.

 

[flaming]

Also, this is not a good look from Macif...

 

[Roberto]

Also, this is not a good look from Macif...

Hello Flaming,
tiny detail that's MACSF, not MACIF.
"MA" stands for Mutuelle Assurance, and there are a number of different companies (all insurance) with very similar names/acronyms: MACIF, MACSF. MAAF, MAIF etc etc

cheers
r.

 

[flaming]

Hello Flaming,
tiny detail that's MACSF, not MACIF.
"MA" stands for Mutuelle Assurance, and there are a number of different companies (all insurance) with very similar names/acronyms: MACIF, MACSF. MAAF, MAIF etc etc

cheers
r.

Ah yes, so used to seeing Macif sponsoring sailing!

 

[alex_m24]

Even though he's taken a different route there are still other boats who have tried the same thing that are ahead of him.

Hopefully once the wind picks up he is a lot faster than the others

 

[bbg]

As interested as I'm sure we all are in his boat, he is not the only Brit in the race ... I'm looking forward to all of them doing well.

 

[mdonnelly]

Looks like he’s moved up several places

 

[davidaprice]

Hugo Boss has hit something and damaged the keel; they're retiring. Both sailors OK. More details (not much) on Twitter.

 

[xcw]

The guy really doesn't have much luck...

 

[Daydream believer]

Over the years I have hit quite a few things with my keel & i am sure that most forumites have stories to tell. So Alex hitting something, considering the mileage he does, is not really that surprising. - Is it?

So should one not expect the boat to be designed to expect such things? After all it is going to go round the world & it will be in some difficult environments. Speed may be one thing, but if the boat is not capable of completing the course then it is pretty much useless.

I know that he is going to be doing 30kts, but I suspect, from data I saw earlier, he was not actually going that quick. Of course I may well be wrong on that one, as I have not been following that close.
But in any event he lost a foil last time round & lessons should have been learned

 

[Roberto]

I think if one designs a boat with scantlings appropriate to withstand a collision with a floating object while going at 15-20-25kt, all hopes of victory would concentrate in hoping the other competitors smash into those objects and destroy their boats while the happy remnant would take 3x the time to cross the arrival line.
Meanwhile, I think a big achievement has been to make the boats mostly unsinkable after those types of accidents, which at least reduces human risk.

 

[Daydream believer]

That may be so but with his record!!!
Would that now be 4 races in which he has retired (or suffered penalty) due to collision of one sort of another?
Fishing boat
Foil broken off
Ran aground- is that correct?
Now the keel

 

[Kukri]

I’m wondering what the draft is, with the keel canted and the boat foiling?

 

[Wansworth]

What is the object of building his boat.Asatest for speed better a straight course in protected waters sonodanger to boat or other sea users.Racing across the sea or round the world seems to call for another type of craft

 

[zoidberg]

Apparently the keel is held on, now, only by the hydraulic ram. They were reportedly doing 25 knots, so the 'bump' - whether whale or container - would have made their eyes water.

It's not yet clear which port of refuge - Madeira or Azores - they'll try slowly heading for.....

 

[Iain C]

Over the years I have hit quite a few things with my keel & i am sure that most forumites have stories to tell. So Alex hitting something, considering the mileage he does, is not really that surprising. - Is it?

So should one not expect the boat to be designed to expect such things? After all it is going to go round the world & it will be in some difficult environments. Speed may be one thing, but if the boat is not capable of completing the course then it is pretty much useless.

I know that he is going to be doing 30kts, but I suspect, from data I saw earlier, he was not actually going that quick. Of course I may well be wrong on that one, as I have not been following that close.
But in any event he lost a foil last time round & lessons should have been learned

Lessons were learned. The old foils were hollow, the new ones are solid.

I'm not really sure what your point is? If you want to follow a race where boats can hit submerged objects without damage when sailing flat out, then the Golden Globe is for you. However the boats are so slow they foul up during the trip and cannot outrun weather systems, and get pitchpoled and lost instead.

IMOCA boats are all about pushing the boundaries within the rules. A racing boat will be built as light as possible within the rule set, but the IMOCA class a few years ago realised there was a bit of an issue with survivability and beefed things up a bit.

Look at the entry numbers both in the TJV and the VG compared to recent years...it's clear the technological advances in the class have captured the sailors', public and sponsors' imagination alike. The IMOCA class is formula 1 on water, and we all know that they too are highly strung beasts which fail regularly and are so "down to weight" they collect rubber on the tyres after the race finish to get them legal.

I've sailed an older generation IMOCA and the power and speed of the thing was immense...and about half that of HUGO BOSS. Come up with some competitive engineering that will make a foiling keel strike at 25 knots a non-event, and I'm sure VPLP will give you a job tomorrow.

The boat has only been in the water a matter of weeks...mission here was to learn...let's hope they have learned, can get the boat back in one piece and make the required repairs and modifications.