Vendée Globe 2016-2017

AT has been sailing as fast if not faster than Armel but he is further North and therefore needs to sail more miles just to keep the same distance from the leader who is much closer to the rhum line. There are a couple of holes in the wind coming up - a bigger one to the North and could affect AT adversely.
 
He has been on starboard for a few days so I am surprised he has not caught up are the winds too strong for the foils to work?

They are both sailing very conservatively in those conditions to keep the boats in one piece. They might even have the foils retracted in order to save them for better foiling conditions later in the race.
 
They are both sailing very conservatively in those conditions to keep the boats in one piece. They might even have the foils retracted in order to save them for better foiling conditions later in the race.

I didn't realise they could be retracted.
Does that mean Alex could retract his broken stub and save him a % of a knot?
Or is the stub jammed and he can't get at it/retract it?

Well done Didac Costa, no longer in last place having started so far behind them all.

And well done to Rich Wilson (no relation ;)), the oldest in the fleet.
 
If conservatively is still doing 20 knots then yes they are. looking at Armel it looks like if he kept pushing he could make it to the front and possibly through it pretty soon but it will all depend on what speed he can maintain when he hits the light winds and how fast the front is moving. next update should be interesting. Alex looks like he is in the worst of it for a while yet.
 
Yes .... and despite being able to move the windytv view along by one hour or twelve hours, it seems impossible to guess how it is going to play out :nonchalance:

Today's official VG site makes interesting reading : observations & damage reports (antipodean duel) and speculation on the leading duo (first big blow for the leaders).

Brilliant stuff ... :)
 
Wow! There's a worried man. He looks incredibly stressed and tired compared to the last few updates.

Well. Video shows that he IS human after all .

"Wonder why I do it sometimes" . Sounds familiar ?

I suppose you can make yourself super fit but mentally it's always going to be tough.

No idea how boats like this could heave- to , not good I would have thought, but I would be tempted to get a few hours sleep.

Fascinating to watch .
 
I hope the measuring tool on the VG website is not accurate. AT is 124miles north of JLC however if you measure the distances between the longitudes at each latitude AT has to sail an extra 20 miles a day to keep pace with JLC. If these figures are correct then AT has taken a big gamble moving north so even if JLC runs out of wind he has built up such a buffer the odds are that he will still come out on top. There is a long way to go and I can't see that staying north is going to work out, the extra distance is simply to high a price to pay.
 
I hope the measuring tool on the VG website is not accurate. AT is 124miles north of JLC however if you measure the distances between the longitudes at each latitude AT has to sail an extra 20 miles a day to keep pace with JLC. If these figures are correct then AT has taken a big gamble moving north so even if JLC runs out of wind he has built up such a buffer the odds are that he will still come out on top. There is a long way to go and I can't see that staying north is going to work out, the extra distance is simply to high a price to pay.

The only obvious advantages of being further north is see is, that you don't get restricted by the ice exclusion zone, just a thought ?
 
run the wind on 48hrs. ALC will have to come north. I'm sure that Tommo has decided to position himself to go over the top of the low which will move from the north.
 
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