Mudisox
Well-Known Member
I am sure that Alex can sleep better now, I know I will tonight!
Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss
- Thread starter RichardS
- Start date
Ravi
Well-Known Member
I appreciate that you are waving the flag for Alex, but I doubt that he is blaming his design team, (who have a distinguished record) any more than they are blaming Alex for sailing through the worst of storm Theta, (where the damage was almost certainly done), when the rest of the fleet fleet avoided it .
If they don't operate as a team trusting each other then they have no chance of winning.
Ravi
Well-Known Member
"T
There is an argument for him to push further West and follow Sam.
"To Weather" is not ideal if you are on the edge of a pressure system where there is less wind.
There is an argument for him to push further West and follow Sam.
Ravi
Well-Known Member
I am convinced that the wily old fox slows his boat and changes his course just before the time window where they take the positions and boat data.
The number of times that his boat shows slow boat speeds and strange headings on the time-shot data is suspicious - especially when you look at the four hour average later on and find that his heading and average speed was completely different!
Surely, JLC wouldn't be having a bit of fun with us?!! Cleck, cleck, cleck.
Ravi
Well-Known Member
That suggests that the lesson from this early part of this race is that the new super-fast 'prototype' boats may be vulnerable to exposure on a long hard race. Perhaps this because of disrupted opportunities for race preparation.
Although HB say that the repair that AT carried out will be 'stronger than before', even AT and his team must have concerns about whether the vessel will withstand the rigours of Southern ocean. I am sure that extra inspections of the repaired areas will be painstaking and frequent but, unless team HB are 100% confident that the problem can't reoccur, it would not be unreasonable for them to take conservative routing and sail decisions. That would be perfectly wise but will affect performance.
Discretion may the better part of valour, though.
I doubt that an older generation boat can win the overall race, (although JLC is a law unto himself!) but, if many of the new generation boats have equipment failures, it might be a case of 'last boat standing' and the trophy may go to a foiling skipper who has sailed relatively conservatively and looked after their boat. With the necessary bit of good luck, of course.
Alex nursing his fast boat around for a final sprint may not be a bad thing in the long term.
Astraeus
New Member
One is reminded of the legend of Icarus when it comes to VPLP and Guillaume Verdier. As esteemed as their records in yacht design are, the fact of De Rothschild and HB in 2016 and Charal, LinkedOut and HB in 2020 (ignoring the other VPLP/GV designs that suffered UFO or keel damage) could lead one to conclude that their newest designs have simply flown too close to the sun in their pursuit of performance at all costs.
TLouth7
Well-Known Member
It's his coffee grinder which is operating the winch with his mainsheet on. You can see the mainsheet tail which is the pink rope to port that he dumps a little, then grinds in, etc.
Frogmogman
Well-Known Member
I'm very taken with the move for the Ocean Race (the artist formerly known as Volvo) being run in Imo 60s with crews of 5. It should help to keep the budgets reasonable, as there are so many IMOCA boats out there.
On the other hand, one would imagine that some beefing up will be required, as fully crewed they will be driven really hard all of the time.
On the other hand, one would imagine that some beefing up will be required, as fully crewed they will be driven really hard all of the time.
flaming
Well-Known Member
I can't agree... The pace of development in the IMOCA field is staggering, and the boats are becoming more and more optimised for downwind sailing. The recent VORs have (for various reasons) included some long upwind slogs to get to places like China. If you were designing an IMOCA with that course in mind it would be a very different animal to Boss etc. And I'm really not sure how many of the current generation of IMOCA would actually survive being driven upwind by a full crew to China.
The idea that the boats would be capable of doing both events was maybe feasible before this Vendee cycle, but if you look at the way Boss and the other top boats are setup for solo sailing, and then try and imagine converting to fully crewed...
If it happens, and to be honest I think there is some doubt, then the teams who are actually in it to win it will be designing boats that might comply to IMOCA rules, but would be pretty useless for a Vendee campaign, except as an also ran. Teams just picking up an old IMOCA to do the OR... Don't really see it as the cost will not be a lot less than leasing one of the VOR65s, and will probably be more, but they won't have a shot of winning the race.
I think the OR would have been better bringing a new OD, or possibly box rule.
And I also think that the Great Capes race is likely to be far more interesting than the next OR...
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
It's come a long way from its grandad, the Whitbread sponsored race run by the RNSA......
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
Th e best of the wind seems to be over the boundary of the exclusion zone. Would conventional boats that could beat well have gone down the coast of Africa?
MikeCC
Well-Known Member
I've seen comments about that elsewhere, well prior to VG. Might even have been on local TV weather. The more data points they have pre- and post-forecast, the more accurate it gets. Do they still use weather balloons?
flaming
Well-Known Member
No, in a word.
Mudisox
Well-Known Member
Back in the 70s, I remember having to download weather maps from the RN, by morse, and then having to draw my own pressure maps. And navigational info was by DR, celestial or guesswork!
So most definitely having come a long way. Not sure that it always forward though, so far as skill is concerned , just different skill sets.
Ravi
Well-Known Member
The trade wind route is the undisputed faster passage for any boat. The contrary currents exacerbate the lack of wind. I asked a few people who have cruised down the African coast as it was a route that I fancied exploring. They invariably said that a lot of motoring was the only way of not drifting backwards.
Gixer
Well-Known Member
This is something I've been wondering as I'm relatively new to watching this kind of racing.
How much is the skipper in charge of the boat compared to the team, who is ultimately responsible and has the final word?
Looking at motor racing the driver is relied on to make split second decisions which can't be consulted on the same way as a long race. Saying this even in F1 the driver can get told what to do.
TLouth7
Well-Known Member
The team are not allowed to give any advice except in the case of injury or damage. Even in cases like Alex's they are only allowed to advise on the repairs, not tactical decisions about when to do them etc.
Frogmogman
Well-Known Member
If they were to revert to the original Whitbread course, with stopovers in Capetown, Sydney and Rio, then the IMOCA's would be reasonably well suited.
flaming
Well-Known Member
Home - Great Cape Race
Raced under ORC and starts next October. Could well be worth watching...
The issue with the VOR was that the sponsors wanted it to go to their key markets to help them sell their product. Which was behind the race going to the middle east (and Abu Dhabi sponsoring a boat) and China.
Although Volvo have gone, it seems very likely that the course will be fairly similar. The sponsors for that sort of event aren't in South Africa, Australasia or South America. The Great Capes race is a bit different as it looks like it's going for a mix of Private owners and teams like the IMOCA teams looking for an event to do in the "off" years.