Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss

[Snowgoose-1]

Fortunately must have been glancing blow.

 

[matt1]

Meanwhile, Alex's AIS popped up a day or two ago off to the East of Ponta Delgada. Nearly home and hopefully we can soon know what is next for him

 

[Tomahawk]

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.

When we left Sada heading north in broad daylight we found ourselves being overtaken by a Spanish fishing boat. OK overtaking vessel should keep clear.

Except he wasn't. He was on a collision course and nearly ran us down. I was a bit conflicted as to the best option as I thought that if there was any altercation the local plod would automatically find against the UK pleasure boat in favour of a local fishing thug, Somewhere I have a film of his approach.

 

[Tomahawk]

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.

And that nice white ship over the horizon bring chilled foods from the Caribbean is doing over 25 knots.

 

[Kukri]

Meanwhile, Alex's AIS popped up a day or two ago off to the East of Ponta Delgada. Nearly home and hopefully we can soon know what is next for him

I think Alex will be back for another go. Watching that video, I formed the idea that he is not of a mind to give up yet.

 

[zoidberg]

When we left Sada heading north in broad daylight we found ourselves being overtaken by a Spanish fishing boat. OK overtaking vessel should keep clear.

Except he wasn't. He was on a collision course and nearly ran us down. I was a bit conflicted as to the best option as I thought that if there was any altercation the local plod would automatically find against the UK pleasure boat in favour of a local fishing thug, Somewhere I have a film of his approach.

Had similar close encounter with another Spanish trawler at 'full chat' and NOT engaged in fishing, who came up fast from the starboard quarter, in the 'Irish Box'. Probably on autopilot and certainly not watchkeeping, but probably drugged-up to his eyeballs. My mates got out a couple of rocket flares they intended to launch at him, but the day - no, the night - was saved by the Big Powerful ex-Military Strobe we set off, which flashed off the white sails and lit up the surrounding area for hundreds of metres. He saw that all right, must have thought it was the Polis/Guardai, and sheered off pdq.....

 

[Kukri]

Where’s @fisherman ? Need help here!

This is not a trawler. No trawl gear. She’s a long liner. In East Asia, she could lose the buoys and be a squid jigger. She has good reason to tell other vessels where she is.

 

[dunedin]

View attachment 108375

Where’s @fisherman ? Need help here!

This is not a trawler. No trawl gear. She’s a long liner. In East Asia, she could lose the buoys and be a squid jigger. She has good reason to tell other vessels where she is.

Putting aside the disputed question of AIS, it does raise a big question about why Boris (or more specifically his alarm systems he wokld normally set before going to sleep) didn’t spot such a substantial steel target - if the radar alarm and the new masthead gadget (aimed to spotmuch smaller items in the water) can’t spot a biggish, high sided, steel object like that, what use are they?

 

[Black Sheep]

Do we know for certain he collided with the vessel itself, as opposed to the lines/buoys being drawn along behind it?

 

[Stemar]

There may be something we don't know but, if I'd done that without any radar, AIS or other fancy gadgets, it'd be a classic case of "sailing without due care and attention". What would make this any different?

That big steel fishing boat with loads of line making manoeuvring difficult got in my way while I was asleep, so it's his fault? Maybe, but I'm going to take a bit of convincing.

 

[westhinder]

Do we know for certain he collided with the vessel itself, as opposed to the lines/buoys being drawn along behind it?

I think so, the damage to his bowsprit is quite substantial, he wouldn’t get that from hitting a buoy, except if it was a big, great steel one.

 

[Frogmogman]

Do we know for certain he collided with the vessel itself, as opposed to the lines/buoys being drawn along behind it?

"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."

Sounds to me like the collision was with the fishing boat itself

 

[Frogmogman]

Putting aside the disputed question of AIS, it does raise a big question about why Boris (or more specifically his alarm systems he wokld normally set before going to sleep) didn’t spot such a substantial steel target - if the radar alarm and the new masthead gadget (aimed to spotmuch smaller items in the water) can’t spot a biggish, high sided, steel object like that, what use are they?

It is, of course possible that in his state of exhaustion, Boris didn't hear the alarms. After all, when Alex crashed the old Hugo Boss into Guadeloupe, his alarm had gone off; he'd just slept through it.

 

[michael_w]

IRRC didn't Mike Golding fall asleep and run into New Zealand?

 

[flaming]

IRRC didn't Mike Golding fall asleep and run into New Zealand?

I'm not even sure he was asleep. He gave a talk at the London Boat show a few years back and described it as a "minor mishap".

Time is a great healer.

 

[Tomahawk]

As of now (10:00) Clarise is 98 miles off and doing 14 knots. The wind is due to abate so she should have a comfortable landing.

 

[Frogmogman]

As of now (10:00) Clarise is 98 miles off and doing 14 knots. The wind is due to abate so she should have a comfortable landing.

Another tricky approach, timing the weather window for her arrival at les Sables.

She has sailed a brilliant race, and will have knocked more than a week off Ellen MacArthur's 20 year old record of 94 days 4 hours.

To say that she only sailed her first mini class race 7 years ago, her progress has been prodigious.

A future Vendée Globe winner perhaps ?

 

[Tomahawk]

Would be good to see.

 

[Tomahawk]

Now down to 53 miles and going fast

 

[NDG]

It is, of course possible that in his state of exhaustion, Boris didn't hear the alarms. After all, when Alex crashed the old Hugo Boss into Guadeloupe, his alarm had gone off; he'd just slept through it.

I have been wondering if it is possible to link the alarms to the autopilot on boats like this. It’s a bit like the automatic braking in my car, which takes over if i am in danger of running into a stationary car. You could have a system which puts the helm down and luffs the boat if a collision is imminent and the alarms have been missed if the CPA goes below say 0.5 mile.