Who's heard of the Vendee Globe? Tony Bullimore? Well it's big on both sides of the channel and a Brit has never won the Vendee Globe, always a Frenchman. But currently, 6 days in, Alex Thomson is in the lead.
www.sail-world.com/news/233128/Vendee-Globe-Day-6-Hugo-Boss-leads

It's a solo race for 60 foot monohulls. 33 entrants, mostly French, about half on foils. The race record is 74 days 3hrs 35 minutes and 46 seconds.

(They are not the fastest class of boats, that's the 100 foot trimaran class, the record for those is 42 days solo and 40 with a crew. French again)

Makes the Sydney to Hobart race look tame.

crustysailor said..
I hope Clarisse on BP goes well:
www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20236/clarisse-cremer-i-m-freaking-out-a-bit

And Jean Le Cam. Currently running second.

To quote the race leader.
"But my god, Jean Le Cam, he is unbelievable. Unbelievable. To be where he is with that boat, at his age, it is unbelievable, brilliant."

WOW, those LT's really are a big bit of gear.
Pretty cool they come with autopilots though so you can just set it and go for a nana nap.

18 days in, days of light wind, but they have travelled the length of Africa and are about to turn east. Frenchman Charlie Dalin is leading. Boris Herrmann from Germany is 4th. Alex Thomson, the great hope for someone to beat the French, has dropped back to 10th. After bravely taking the biggest slingshot through storm Theta, Alex discovered some serious cracks and delamination in the longitudinal beam hidden upfront behind a waterproof bulkhead. More damage than you'd see in 6 months of scouring seabreeze repair threads. (It's all detailed in half a dozen youtube videos, start here



finish here.)



Don't know how he did it? Working in such a confined space? He swears off ever becoming a boat builder in one of his transmissions. He's 678km behind the leader but Hugo Boss has downwind foils rather than the reaching foils of the leader. See what he can do in the southern Ocean.

The running repairs are half the battle. Can't find video of 2nd placed Thomas Ruyant amputating the cracked port foil on Linkedout, I assume he was hanging over the gunwhale, mainsheet in one hand, electric chainsaw in the other? The foil succumbed to fatigue rather than a UFO apparently. The engineers back in France calculated he will lose 2 to 4 knots under conditions allowing for top speed. It looks like the main factor is loss of righting moment sailing on starboard.

Read all about it here www.imoca.org/en/news/news. The Southern Ocean is where it's at. "Catapaults", "Slingshots" and "Conveyor belts" ...(Are they proper meteorological/sailing terms or just something picked up in the translation from French?)

Meanwhile it looks like 2 of the 100 footer trimarans with crews of 6 have left at about 2 days ago competing for the Jules Vern trophy. You can pick the start time for this competition, timed from when you choose to cross the line. They are catching up fast, Edmond De Rothschild currently doing 32.5 knots, averaged 26 over the last 24 hrs.

( They run under various sponsers names so it's hard to follow who's who but it looks like 2 boats left pretty close together so it can be called a race.)
www.gitana-team.com/fr/tracker.aspx

With Kevin safely onboard with Jean Le Cam the race has resumed. I suppose they turn a blind eye if Kevin helps out while Jean gets a bit more of a snooze that expected of a solo sailor. The course is pretty simple, go south from Vendee, turn east and pass the 3 major Capes, Good Hope, Leeuwin and the Horn then head north to Vendee. They are required to stay north of the regularly updated ice limit.
www.imoca.org/en/races/imoca-globe-series/vendee-globe (Click on the show weather tab)

Some of the fleet have sailed along the ice limit. Clarisse Cremer is well south, dressing appropriately.


Arkea Paprec retiring to Capetown with damaged foil and casing.







Meanwhile one of the two Ultime Tris has been damaged leaving Sodebo going it alone, still on world record pace.

myusernam said..
they should make em just a bit stronger so they can finish. whats the point if your boat can snap in half and sink within minutes thousands of miles from help

They have to build them light to have any chance of winning. Apart from PRB all the retirements have been due to hitting UFOs. And it's mostly the appendages that are damaged. Better the rudder, keel or snap leaving most of the boat intact. PRB apparently just folded up, but it was launched in 2009 so has survived plenty of ocean miles up until now. Carbon fibre fatigue? Samantha Davies has just hit a UFO, damaged the keel mounts and is heading to Capetown.

An exciting week of racing. Plenty of lead changes, still anybody's race. 6 weeks in they are just over half way. Have just passed below Australia, coast to coast in 5 days. (Though the longitudes are bit closer together as far south as they are ). The foilers are hoping to get a break in the Pacific with its long rolling swells. The chaotic 6 metre chop that the indian Ocean is famous for levelled the playing field for the non-foilers. Yannick Bestaven is currently leading. Charlie Dalin ,who was leading for weeks, lost ground repairing a foil case and is now in second, 103 nm back. Thomas Ruyant, pushing on without his port foil, is 3rd 176nm behind. The "group of four" are still in a bunch 420nm behind. 27 of the 33 starters are still on course.
Vendee Globe is not as big as say the America's cup over here but in France it's a big deal. A larger following than the Tour De France. Girls compose songs for their favourite sailors and beam them across the planet.






Meanwhile both Ultime Trimarans are off the course. Sodebo pulled out with rudder problems half way across the Indian Ocean. Edmond de Rothschild/Gitana may make another run this summer if they get another good forecast for the Atlantic.

OMG Alex Thomson's a nutter, Xtreme nutter... my favourite kind.

^ start time 20:13 ^

Yannick Bestaven still in the lead. They've just passed point Nemo about to round Cape Horn in the next few days. Not much change in the groupings, hard to break through to surf the next weather system hemmed in by icebergs to the south and the need to clear Cape Horn. How's your French going following this race? Is Sean the only one who gets the jokes?



A bit on the history of Cape Horn for those who don't have an aversion to Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn

The lead's chopping and changing. Charlie Dalin has regained his earlier lead and last week's Yannick Bestaven has dropped back to 6th. The top 6 are within 100 NM of each other. However, Jean Le Cam, the ancient mariner, in 9th, will have a 15 hr time correction for his rescue of Kevin Escoffier applied at the finish line. Calculations allowing for this put him in the lead! Gitana set out once again on a the round the world speed run last Saturday. Was ahead of IDEC Sport's record pace and doing 30 something knots every time I checked the tracker. Until now. 5 knots and behind pace. Don't know what's up, all the latest is in French. IDEC had a dream run across the southern Ocean so they reckon a successful challenger needs to be 400-500 NM ahead of its schedule rounding the Cape of Good hope. Maybe next year.

edition.cnn.com/travel/article/syroco-sp80-fastest-sailing-boat-scn/index.html

Frenchman Charlie Dalin first over the line and wins the Vendee Globe in 80days 6hrs 15minutes and 47 seconds. A close finish with Boris Herrmann who had 6 hrs compensation up his sleeve for assisting in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier. Boris was in with a chance of being the first non-Frenchman to win. Unfortunately Boris collided with a fishing boat in the final hours.