Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss

dgadee

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" old " ?? he is only 60

I wouldn't have done it at 60 even with a new boat. And I think he's 61. Alex Thomas is in his 40s, with a boat fitted with cameras on the sails to make it easier to sail etc. etc. yet incapable of coping with mildish seas. Le Cam is still going.
 

Ravi

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20 or 30 minutes to dive down an check the bilges ?? , 2 or 3 more like it , its not the bloody queen mary ,,, longer yes if he has to do anything

If you can .......
- set up a boat running downwind at 20 knots in 2+ metre waves so that there is no risk of broaching or jibing.
- squeeze through a tiny hatch narrower than your shoulder blades, (which necessitates taking off your wet weather gear).
- Use a torch to search both sides of a 3m square panel for hairline cracks (that could result in your bow falling off in the Southern Ocean with no warning and your almost certain death) while being buffeted around like popcorn in a pot.
- Emerge confident that you haven't missed any cracks and squeeze your way through the hatch and put on your sea suit ...

....... Al in 2 or 3 minutes, you are a better man than I am Gunga Din.
 

Spyro

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From a few minutes ago;

TEAM STATEMENT:

At approximately 7pm UK time this evening (Friday 27th November) Alex notified the team on shore of damage to the starboard rudder of HUGO BOSS.

The team immediately advised Alex to disconnect the rudder to regain steerage. He now has control of the yacht with one rudder, and is safe and in no danger onboard.

The team is working to assess the extent of the damage.

A further update will be released tomorrow.
Heartbreaking after all that work he put in
? Not a lot of luck, does he new boat have warranty
Take if back not fit for purpose
 

anoccasionalyachtsman

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I mentioned on the other thread - he may have a spare rudder. I have a feeling that I read that they all do - Googling says Escoffier has, so I may be right. If so, then hopefully no collateral damage.
 

Ravi

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Luck is not the Issue. Highly developed boat with inadequate testing and a boat breaker at the helm.


AT may break boats but he has lot more fun with them than anyone else before he breaks them, which is good enough for me.

Maybe he has been born a generation too late and needs to be sailing boats that can take more than their crews. Give the man a Westerly Oceanlord for the next Vendee.

On a more serious note - "Boat Breaker" is a bit harsh in the context of this particular race.

(a) Any boat should have stood up to the worst of Storm Theta, (Wind 35 gusting 50 and no big seas), without breaking its backbone, if it is going to compete in the Southern Oceans.
(b) A broken rudder is unlikely to be a skipper's error. (Especially, in the relatively benign conditions of 18 knot winds and 2m seas)

Arguably, he maybe could have taken the limited testing into account before pushing the boat through Theta when he could have followed the herd and avoided the worst of it. But, where does that stop? Does he reef down in the Southern Oceans to reduce speed - just in case?
You will have read Moitessier and Knox Johnson writing about the joy of piling on sail and trusting the boat in wild seas and winds. AT has the same romance. Let's not fail to appreciate that.

Ultimately, failure lies with the skipper. But there is something uplifting in glorious failure.

If AT is out of the race, it is a shame because he is undoubtedly a good sailor.

In (a sort of) defence of your point, I think that it is significant that the two sailors I mentioned above both built their circumnavigating record breaking yachts, themselves, and had leisurely time to get to know their limitations before putting them through their paces and achieving their individual honours. Alex, in his repair video, the other day, was quite emphatic that he didn't profess to any boat building knowledge - which in this era of innovative and highly complex material science and structural engineering boat design is only to be expected. As such, how is the skipper to know where the trust in the boat starts and stops? The obvious answer is to err on the side of caution........ but will that win a race?

You refer to "inadequate testing" and this would undoubtedly mitigate the problem to a large extent but in this age of constant evolution and development, it is hard to test how a whole system works effectively when individual components are constantly being refined and upgraded - which will affect the whole shebang. When things are tuned to a zillionth of a Newton, increasing something like the stay tension can lead to the whole boat being imbalanced.

The implication of this is that the engineers who design boats would be best served by robots who were programmed from the design phase of the boat through trial sails and sea trials to operate the boats exactly as the designers intended in the races. This would make equipment failure extremely unlikely - but do we really want that?

There are probably some sailors (probably not in ocean racing) who would conform to that robot model. Fortunately, Alex Thompson is not one of them.

Good luck to the lad.

May he continue to break boats as long as he is having fun and someone else is willing to pay for it!
 

Skellum

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And let’s not forget, he did finish the previous two editions - and on the podium on both occasions- so he knows how to manage a boat around safely, and quickly.
 

Keith 66

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Though the skill of the sailors will put them at the front & win ultimately its a lottery. Think how many lost containers are bobbing about, plus all the wreckage from various Tsunami's, look at the 2011 one in japan, whole towns & ports erased & everything in them swept out to sea. You can bet a lot of it is still floating about the oceans. At the speeds these boats are racing at you hit anything bigger than a 4x2 & its going to break.
Lucky indeed if you dont clout something.
 

MoodySabre

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Well I was being a bit harsh. I’d love to see AT win and will watch with interest. Sam Davies is going well and the other Brits with less experience are keeping their boats together. Plenty to play for. Maybe AT is just getting his problems in early.
 
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