Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss

[r_h]

Jean Le Cam's interview is worth reading. I liked the way he dismissed the (stupid) questions about whether he will do it again.
Allan

Absolutely worth a read – he said it was far worse than losing his keel and capsizing in the 2008 race. “Because on your capsize, you capsize, you are on a boat, you capsize and 18 hours later Vincent comes to get you. That is it. It is only 19 hours.
“It is not one month and a half, every day, every hour. When Kevin disembarked for the Nivoise there was a big front and I went to the bow and inside the hull, the boat was delaminating. The hull moved about 5cms and you are afraid that you are going to sink.”
Yet after all of that, he pulled off 415 miles in the final 24 hours, absolutely nailing the layline more than 100 miles from the finish, including allowing for a windshift in a front.
I was at his press conference this morning – anyone who’s been following this thread should watch it. I'd expect the (simultaneously translated) English version to go up later today: www.youtube.com/user/VendeeGlobeTV/videos

 

[Frogmogman]

Generous words of congratulations from Alex Thomson for Yannick and the other finishers, and good encouragement for those still racing.

 

[Frogmogman]

I was at his press conference this morning – anyone who’s been following this thread should watch it.

I’ve watched it on YouTube (albeit in French). To read the text as reported is good, but nowhere near as good as hearing it out of the mouth of Le Cam himself. Well worth a watch.

 

[Tomahawk]

Where is Armel going ?
Pointing south at the moment.

 

[Frogmogman]

Where is Armel going ?
Pointing south at the moment.

He is avoiding worst of the storm that's coming through.

 

[Tomahawk]

That is my thinking but nothing on the various feeds? If so what a bummer to be so close and to have to wait off Spain... The sea round there is simply horrid at the bset of times.

 

[Frogmogman]

That is my thinking but nothing on the various feeds? If so what a bummer to be so close and to have to wait off Spain... The sea round there is simply horrid at the bset of times.

Here he is

 

[westhinder]

Armel is tacking back and forth going nowhere off Spain and Portugal until Monday in order to let two lows pass in front. The storms are predicted to generate 10-12m waves in Biscay, and in those circumstances none of the harbours there has a safe entrance, least of all Les Sables d’Olonne. He has been deliberating with the race director about this. For Maxime Sorel it was deemed safe to continue, he has made it into port before the worst, Armel has to wait.

 

[Kukri]

It has occurred to me that a tide restricted harbour on a notorious lee shore isn’t the perfect place to finish a race.

 

[westhinder]

Armel has received the green light, he is currently off the Ria de Vigo, heading for Les Sables d’Olonne

 

[Tomahawk]

He will still be in front of the next arrival.

 

[Kukri]

Alex Thomson didn’t sound as if he has no plan to do it again in his last video.

 

[Bathdave]

I think it’s possible that Charal may actually have the fastest lapsed time, given how much later his restart was

that would make 3 ‘winners‘ which would be another turn up for this extraordinary event

 

[r_h]

I think it’s possible that Charal may actually have the fastest lapsed time, given how much later his restart was

that would make 3 ‘winners‘ which would be another turn up for this extraordinary event

And, despite this being a slow edition of the race, it looks as though Clarisse Cremer is set to slice 10 days off the time for the fastest woman to complete the Vendée Globe.

 

[John_Silver]

Meteo Consult has the next system arriving off Sables around 21.00 (French Time) - Armel would need to average 23 knots to be in before it. Interesting test for what that scow bow can do!

 

[westhinder]

Meteo Consult has the next system arriving off Sables around 21.00 (French Time) - Armel would need to average 23 knots to be in before it. Interesting test for what that scow bow can do!

He is deliberately sailing slowly, in order to arrive tomorrow morning in time for HW. Will still be a bumpy ride.

 

[John_Silver]

He is deliberately sailing slowly, in order to arrive tomorrow morning in time for HW. Will still be a bumpy ride.

Really bumpy......tracker has him making 12 knots in a 6 metre swell. And that Biscay swell is brutally short and steep in much less than the wind he’s in.

 

[Frogmogman]

I received a PM about the Boris Hermann collision, but think I will respond to it on the open forum, to try and satisfy the conspiracy theorists. The main point I would make is that Boris collided with a Spanish Basque fishing vessel, not a French one, the Hermanos Busto. It is a longliner which specializes in hake longline fishing.

It's skipper is quite cross at being painted as the bad guy, and insists his AIS was switched on.

Vendée Globe: Herrmann critiqué par l'équipage du bateau de pêche qu'il a percuté

Here's my translation.....

"Hey, you're at 20 knots at night, you're sleeping, you hit another ship, and you say it's his fault? Bueno...", exclaimed Aitor Badiola, contacted by France Bleu. "We saw that it was a sailing boat but we couldn't see anyone. We call him on emergency channel 16 and nobody answers. What was I supposed to do"? he added, explaining that he even thought the skipper was a "smuggler", since he never heard from him.

"Everything was in order"

But the discord is mainly about another point: Boris Herrmann's suggestion that the trawler had not activated its automatic identification system, a tool to avoid collisions, saying "I don't understand, but it's true that it seems that some fishing trawlers don't have their AIS on," The fisherman replied that "Everything is recorded, it was on, it's easily verifiable. Everything was in order,"

"We were sad to see that he was perhaps in a position to win the Vendée Globe and that he would have lost because there was the collision with us," said Aitor Badiola. But when I saw the whole story of the AIS system, well, damn it."

https://lemarin.ouest-france.fr/sec...ire-de-peche-et-un-concurrent-du-vendee-globe

Collision between a fishing vessel and a competitor from the Vendée Globe
Published on 28/01/2021 13:39 | Last Updated on 28/01/2021 19:55
While the German sailor Boris Herrmann, engaged in the Vendée globe, was crossing the Bay of Biscay to reach Les Sables-d'Olonne, a collision occurred with a fishing boat.
The navigator's sailing boat, the Sea explorer yacht-club of Monaco, and the Spanish longliner Hermanos Busto collided 90 miles from the Vendée port on the evening of Wednesday, January 27.
The Maritime Prefecture of the Atlantic confirms that there was no need for the intervention of the rescue services. The collision resulted in crumpled sheet metal for the Spanish ship and damage to the starboard foil of the race boat. No one was injured in the collision.
The metal ship Hermanos Busto, 30 meters long and 8 metres wide, was launched in 1996 by the Spanish shipyard Cajeo based in Cudillero, Asturias. In the course of it's work has sailed to Scotland and Ireland. It is specialized in hake longline fishing. It regularly lands it's catch at the Spanish port of Ondarroa, Biscay.

 

[Sandy]

"Hey, you're at 20 knots at night, you're sleeping, you hit another ship, and you say it's his fault? Bueno...", exclaimed Aitor Badiola, contacted by France Bleu. "We saw that it was a sailing boat but we couldn't see anyone. We call him on emergency channel 16 and nobody answers. What was I supposed to do"? he added, explaining that he even thought the skipper was a "smuggler", since he never heard from him.

He has a point.

Hopefully somebody will look at the satellite AIS data and see who was transmitting what.

I may "snooze" while single handed, but my hull speed is 7 knots.

 

[Kukri]

Well I for one see the fishermen’s point of view. A long liner (pas un « chalutier » - ça veut dire « trawler » en Anglais) has no reason at all to turn his AIS off and the AIS trace will be there for all to see.

The fishermen say they tried to call him and got no reply. Indeed from his speed they took him for a smuggler.

That looks like a long liner to me. No sign of any trawl gear.