Vendee capsize - Sanso in his liferaft

Talking of "our lad" Alex, the VG website says Hugo Boss has left Sables on passage for Portsmouth. Heading over for an "event" on Sat 9th. I've tried googling all the search terms I can think of to see what that event is. Anyone know? If Alex is going to be a Gunwhalf Quays, I fancy the idea of of popping round from Poole to welcome him home....
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Last I heard he was heading "home" to Gosport. I therefore very much doubt if he would be on the "wrong" side of Pompey Harbour at Gunwharf Quays!

Very likely to be Haslar Marina where the team are based. Follow the team's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/AlexThomsonRacing for details.
 
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sailor211 said:
It would be interesting to see if a designer would increase weight/ strength and hold back speed on the basis that you have to finish to win.
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Considering that this time the two lightest boats took first and second and lead the race from the very beginning that is not going to happen. Plus they both arrived without problems so it's not really a serious issue.
 
Mavanier said:
Just seen this. What a shame for Javier. Would have been great to see a boat make it round without using any fossil fuels.
I wonder if there's any possibility of recovering the boat?
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That is the last thing we want. It is bad enough the conservationalists trying to tell us we should not anchor just about anywhere on the planet. Can you imagine if this bloke had finished, they would be insisting all boats should be made out of used coke bottles. As he has proved you can race round the world with whatever he had.
Personally the less conservationalists who succeed at anything the better. Gives them less ammunition
 
Daydream believer said:
That is the last thing we want. It is bad enough the conservationalists trying to tell us we should not anchor just about anywhere on the planet. Can you imagine if this bloke had finished, they would be insisting all boats should be made out of used coke bottles. As he has proved you can race round the world with whatever he had.
Personally the less conservationalists who succeed at anything the better. Gives them less ammunition
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Or, on the other hand, it might give sailing a bit of a boost if the general public saw it as being an inherently 'green' activity (the environmental considerations behind manufacturing the boats notwithstanding of course!)

But each to his own.
 
spent uranium keels
attachment-1_zps1bd4f78d.gif



Daydream believer said:
That is the last thing we want. It is bad enough the conservationalists trying to tell us we should not anchor just about anywhere on the planet. Can you imagine if this bloke had finished, they would be insisting all boats should be made out of used coke bottles. As he has proved you can race round the world with whatever he had.
Personally the less conservationalists who succeed at anything the better. Gives them less ammunition
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http://www.vendeeglobe.org/fr/actualites/article/12197/le-recit-de-javier-sanso.html

Sanso's description of what happened in French. Basically he was putting a reef in in 20 knot winds when he heard a loud noise and the boat suddenly listed. He fell into the water and watched his boat capsize. He managed to swim to the transom of the boat to activate his life raft but was subsequently unable to moor it to the boat. It sounds terrifying - no wonder he looks so drained on the rescue video. Glad he is ok.
 
Tomahawk said:
If and it is an IF... he hit something...

There is an important story going on here that no one is talking about..

It seems that quite a few have been hitting things .. like what? containers or whales?

Is the ocean so full of containers that it is becoming a very dangerous place?
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It is suggested that appx 10,000 containers are lost overboard from container ships each year!!!!!!!
 
ZigmundoVanDog said:
It is suggested that appx 10,000 containers are lost overboard from container ships each year!!!!!!!
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And I'm sure I read once that there are 100,000 floating awash, at any one time!! If true that is frightening. Ellen McC (now Dame Ellen) hit one?

Some have been found washed up two years after loss. I guess it depends on how much polystyrene is used for packaging inside?
 
A1Sailor said:
Disappointed that we don't have pics of the containers they all hit.
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Yes statistically for everyone you hit, two must pass close down either side and many more would miss by a greater margin.

So I would expect there to be dozens of photos taken from yachts of these containers bobbing past.
 
TimBennet said:
Yes statistically for everyone you hit, two must pass close down either side and many more would miss by a greater margin.

So I would expect there to be dozens of photos taken from yachts of these containers bobbing past.
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I suspect when you're barrelling down waves at 20kts, pointing a camera at a container may become a little problematic - at least dolphins swim with you rather than just hooning past.
 
armchairsailor said:
I suspect when you're barrelling down waves at 20kts, pointing a camera at a container may become a little problematic - at least dolphins swim with you rather than just hooning past.
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But all the boats doing three knots or so must pass close to them as well. Especially as there's many more boats doing three knots.

But where are the photos?
 
I think that a lot of them must be semi-submerged which is why they take the keel off. If the yachts hit them on the surface then they would be holed and sink. So they don't see them and peeps don't have time to photograph them even if they could see them.

I pretend that there are none in the North Sea.
 
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