Vendee Globe and Alex Thomson / Hugo Boss

how did he even have time to don his survival suit ? i think ,, ( hope ) that there is more than we are hearing , surely he has means of sending a satelite signal and not relying on something which can be blocked by the waves . i would have thot with todays technology he could have been sending a youtube stream from the life raft .
 
Ravi said:
One thing that surprised me about this incident is that the survival kit in the life raft did not include a PLB type device.

I am pretty sure that the top of the range liferafts that I see when fantasy chandlery shopping include these as part of the kit.

I suppose that these racers obsess about reducing weight in the boat but still......

I am also surprised that they don't have personal EPIRBS permanently attached to their seasuits.

The events also give me the idea of having a handheld GPS that can run on batteries in my grab bag. I sort of assumed that Ii would have time to pick up the boat VHF but - 4 seconds!
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He couldn't get to his first choice life raft, which may well have had that sort of gear. He could only get to the one at the back that's primarily there in case of inversion.
 
flaming said:
He couldn't get to his first choice life raft, which may well have had that sort of gear. He could only get to the one at the back that's primarily there in case of inversion.
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Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense, now.

I just watched some interviews and it turns out that he had a plb in his suit. It sounds like the shore base only got intermittent signals and that one of these was the prompt for Le Cam to make the approach that eventually led to the recovery.

Ta.
 
RivalRedwing said:
......is he making his extra ballast earn its keep on the windward rail? ( :) )
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I hope he's getting KE to do the housework.

And, the French frigate La Nivose normally embarks an AS565 'Panther' helicopter, which is equipped for S &R winching. This a/c can be launched/recovered in up to Force 5 conditions, but the sea state may hamper a winched recovery.... as may the mast height and the aircrew's qualifications.

50668264403_b0b533d5b9_z.jpg



.....La Reunion is a far more attractive place to be based than Kerguelen IMHO.
 
zoidberg said:
I hope he's getting KE to do the housework.

And, the French frigate La Nivose normally embarks an AS565 'Panther' helicopter, which is equipped for S &R winching. This a/c can be launched/recovered in up to Force 5 conditions, but the sea state may hamper a winched recovery.... as may the mast height and the aircrew's qualifications.

50668264403_b0b533d5b9_z.jpg



.....La Reunion is a far more attractive place to be based than Kerguelen IMHO.
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I suspect the helo will drop a one man life raft for Kevin - let it drift away from the boat and recover with a swimmer on a winch.
 
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Ravi said:
One thing that surprised me about this incident is that the survival kit in the life raft did not include a PLB type device.

I am pretty sure that the top of the range liferafts that I see when fantasy chandlery shopping include these as part of the kit.

I suppose that these racers obsess about reducing weight in the boat but still......

I am also surprised that they don't have personal EPIRBS permanently attached to their seasuits.

The events also give me the idea of having a handheld GPS that can run on batteries in my grab bag. I sort of assumed that Ii would have time to pick up the boat VHF but - 4 seconds!
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Wouldn't a personal AIS have been more use that the a personal EPIRB? It would have made locating him much easier once in the right area guided by the EPIRB.

TS
 
Hermit said:
Le Cam makes the actual rescue seem very easy which I doubt it was. Does anyone know what the 'transmission' is that he mentions in the video? Possibly a translation error or actually a thing?
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It is the outrigger compression bar - "transmission d'efforts"
 
Tomahawk said:
If Alex is headng for SA... he is pointing in a very funny direction to get there at present.. 140 degrees..
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Maybe he has changed his mind and has decided to continue? I really hope so.

It must be gutting to have started as one of, if not the favourite, and suddenly no longer be a contender to win. But he is still ahead of many in the fleet, still is making good speed, and there will be many miles ahead on starboard tack where loss of starboard rudder is not a handicap at all. I think some of the legends of the Vendee are those who have gone through the greatest hardship to finish - Yves Parlier, Mike Golding, Conrad Coleman.
 
ridgy said:
If you overlay the wind you'll see that he's trying to avoid a big area of light winds.
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If you go to windy.com and load the regatadata plug in for VG, you can click on the boats to see where they might be in 24 hours according to polar data and routing prediction. Now I doubt the clever windy plugin has modified the HB polar for the loss of one rudder, but this is not really relevant as he will be on starboard tack for the next day or so, and it predicts he can make some serious distance. Maybe he has changed his mind...
 
tudorsailor said:
Wouldn't a personal AIS have been more use that the a personal EPIRB? It would have made locating him much easier once in the right area guided by the EPIRB.

TS
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I read on one of the sites that the sea conditions (5m waves) meant that the AIS signal being transmitted could not be detected until JlC was right on top of him
 
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