Vendée Globe 2016-2017

Robert Wilson said:
What's Alex doing? Heading away East, and looks to be heading into a hole.
Loosing ground on Armel hand-over-fist.
Meanwhile Mr Beyou is storming up behind him.

This does not look good.
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looks to me like he's doing the right thing now. I think he tacked north too early and has tacked back. Armel's wind is more from the east so he was getting away from Alex either way. I reckon he has to go further east until he gets the same wind angle as Armel before tacking again then hope he has a speed advantage on Starboard tack. Otherwise he is just loosing out on VMG.
 
Spyro said:
looks to me like he's doing the right thing now. I think he tacked north too early and has tacked back. Armel's wind is more from the east so he was getting away from Alex either way. I reckon he has to go further east until he gets the same wind angle as Armel before tacking again then hope he has a speed advantage on Starboard tack. Otherwise he is just loosing out on VMG.
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You get the feeling that Alex has to try something different, and gamble, to stand any chance of winning the race considering the foil issue.
Difficult for Armel not to play it too safe.

What a great race .
 
LONG_KEELER said:
You get the feeling that Alex has to try something different, and gamble, to stand any chance of winning the race considering the foil issue.
Difficult for Armel not to play it too safe.

What a great race .
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Yep, I agree with that. He's not going to catch him if he just follows. If you're at the back don't follow the pack. He does have to watch his rear though.
 
He is not going to win any tacking battles his only real chance is if he can get on to starboard in strong winds and push harder than Armel. But he does have to stay in touch i.e. within 200 miles max.
 
I hope his tacking is over for a few days now. You can see from the tacking angles on his track compared to Armel he's been suffering going up wind.
 
The race gets more and more interesting, not much change at the front with Armel doing the right things and Alex falling a further 50 miles behind him, meanwhile Jeremie Beyou has had a cracking 24 hours and has really closed the gap on Alex (just 420 miles ish) although he will hit the lighter winds soon. Alex uploaded a pretty chipper YouTube video today in a teeshirt, where he answered some Facebook questions, but he gave no information on any current sailing difficulties

Hardly a fag paper between 4,5 and 6 who are making really good progress while closing the gap on the leading pack. Louis Burton in 7th has had a belter of a day approaching the Horn and should clear tomorrow morning.

Conrad Colman (9th) is having to cope with severe challenges, in bad weather (60 knot gusts) and having to contend with the consequences of the forestay breaking. From an already reduced sailset through attrition his foresail is now shredded as a result of the rig failure. He is still in recovery mode heading downwind at 2 knots.

Sébastien Destremau (19th) is making a short pit stop at Port Esperance in the south of Tasmania and had an 'emotional time' entering 'harbour' without detailed charts. He has a carbon fibre repair to effect on one of his spreaders. Sounds like a 48 hour job.
 
Has anyone noticed the tiny islands to the East of Hugo Boss (approx 200 miles). They were Portuguese now Brazilian. Name of Trinidade (Trinity) and Martin Vaz. Population 32 soldiers.
 
That certainly was a nasty and heavy bit of kit to be flailing around - kudos to Alex for controlling it and coming out unscathed.
 
Furler for J2 broke away when a fastening failed and the furler was thrashing around potentially causing damage to the boat or worse still injuring AT. He managed to lasso it eventually. He says it cost him about 30 miles. The clip can be viewed directly on the AT racing face-book page.
 
Just absolutely amazing how upbeat and enthusiastic he still is after 50 plus days that would have killed us lesser mortals!
What a brilliant advert for sailing and Brits in general.
 
Looks as though going East is the wrong tactic. It is so frustrating that he was within 30 miles of the lead and now it is over 300. Looking ahead it looks like a calm patch is going to depend on AT and ALC will be ahead of it.
 
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