# Vendee 2020/2021



## Arcb

Any one else watch the Vendee. I've been watching pretty consistently since early 90s. 

Exciting stuff, crazy adventures. I have read some of the books (Godforsaken Sea), I have gone to see participants speak at boat shows and been aboard one of the boats. 

Any way, I have read expectations that a foiler might win this year? 

Any one else watch the Vendee globe race? I think I will be checking in daily. Race starts in about a week.


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## paulk

Should be interesting! If the foilers don't hit things and can keep their foils on...

The "Village" has been closed for Covid, but the site continues with announcements... in English, even! 








Home - Vendée Globe - En


Vendée Globe 2020-2021 : the official website of the only sailing race round the world, solo, non-stop and without assistance.




www.vendeeglobe.org


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## cb32863

Looking forward to it for sure!


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## Minnewaska

How do you watch? I've seen snippets of this and the Volvo, but they've felt like highlight reels on the news the next morning. I'd give it a try, but it's a serious question. Do you watch a daily recap?


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## paulk

Boats will likely be using drones to take videos and downloading them onto the site. Singlehanded, there might not be daily updates. Windshifts, sail changes might keep people occupied. There's also usually a tracking page that shows relative positions and speeds.


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## paulk

This link is set up for watching the start on the 08NOV:


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## Minnewaska

Reading above that there is a foiling boat in the race, I wonder how that works single handed. No way it stays up on foil, while sleeping. Right? Also, am I right to assume these boats are permitted to have computerized tech that will adjust an underwater plane to assist in the foil?


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## Telesail

Minnewaska said:


> Reading above that there is a foiling boat in the race, I wonder how that works single handed. No way it stays up on foil, while sleeping. Right? Also, am I right to assume these boats are permitted to have computerized tech that will adjust an underwater plane to assist in the foil?


On most of the new generation IMOCA 60s, the autopilot does better than the human. They stay foiling while sleeping. The foils are designed to maintain stability (their angle of attack is not adjustable per se).

I confess I will be glued to the tracker until Hugo Boss leads them home 🙂


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## Minnewaska

Telesail said:


> They stay foiling while sleeping.


I think I'd want a seat belt in my bunk, in the event the bow stuffed along the way. This stuff is crazy.


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## jeremiahblatz3

I don't think the boats are full foiling. They can skim off the aft quarter, with like 80% of the hull out of the water. The class rules don't allow for T shaped rudders, and I don't think they can automatically adjust the fail rake, so there's no way to keep full stable flight. In practice, it looks like they keep everything forward of the foils out of the water at decent speed in flat water. I'm also told that they have a better ride in steep waves.

Per @Minnewaska's statement, they sleep with their feet facing forward in case they hit something. When Hugo Boss hit something in their Atlantic race, they said they were lucky not to have broken any bones.


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## paulk

Doesn't everybody sleep feet forward unless they're in the quarterberth? The IMOCA 60's aren't going to be as fast as the Maxi trimarans of the Brest-Atlantiques race, but they're not slow.


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## Minnewaska

paulk said:


> Doesn't everybody sleep feet forward unless they're in the quarterberth?


Underway, yes. Very, very few people make passages they must sleep underway.

Come to think of it, my fav nap spot in the cockpit, if making a long day passage, is head forward, but there's a long way to go for my head to hit anything and quite unlikely that my wife is going to t-bone anything in daylight.

Speaking of quarter berths, I was sleeping in one alone and got a muscle spasm, in my ham string. The only way to stop it is to stretch the muscle out of the spasm, but there was not enough room to straighten my leg and bend that far. I also couldn't get out, without making the spasm worse. It was like 10-15 min of hellish torture.


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## paulk

Just found this. North Sails has produced a series of videos on the Vendée Globe. Quick interview format with some fantastic camera shots of racers under sail. Here's the first one:


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## paulk

Like I said... they're not slow:





Start is Sunday 08NOV2020 at 13h02 Paris time


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## paulk

Tracking available here:





Vendée Globe







www.imoca.org





cursor over the boat to learn speed, heading, etc. The fleet's gone about 400 miles since Sunday.


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## Barquito

paulk said:


> Boats will likely be using drones to take videos and downloading them onto the site. Singlehanded, there might not be daily updates. Windshifts, sail changes might keep people occupied. There's also usually a tracking page that shows relative positions and speeds.


I would think a drone would have trouble keeping up with one of these boats.


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## paulk

You may be right. Drones managed to keep up with the maxi foiling tris on the Brest-Atlantiques up to what looks like about 20 knots: Vidéos, photos et audios. But the boats in that race reportedly carried several drones... just in case. Other videos of the tri's seem to switch to hand-held shots on board when they get going over 25 knots. Boats in the Vendée Globe aren't in optimal heavy air yet, but are positioning themselves to take advantage of Tropical Storm Theta if they can. Should get interesting soon! One boat had its rudder hit something and is returning to France.


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## Arcb

These daily updates by Alex Thomson are entertaining. Seem to be about a minute or two in length.


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## paulk

One boat dismasted: Corum L'épargne heading to the Cape Verde Islands. Good thing it happened before they got to the Southern Ocean! Charal restarted today after fixes completed. 32 boats. Some approaching the Equator about a week after they started. Foilers don't seem to be outpacing all the standard boats at this point; winds have not been optimal for them. Web TV - Vendée Globe


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## paulk

Alex Thompson still #1, but says he's worried since he and many of the competitors have the same mast as Corum L'épargne...


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## paulk

Alex spent the weekend repairing a "structural problem" at the bow with one of the stringers. Back to 3rd place, moving slowly. If this is happening in the South Atlantic, what's going to break in the Southern Ocean?


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## Jeff_H

It has been a fascinating race. I am surprised at the bleeding edge, pre-race favorite boats which have had to do pit stops or drop out entirely. Its not like these boats are untested. Alex's structural issue especially surprises me since that boat has been sailed hard and he has a very large and competent shore crew. 

On the other hand, I don't know if you are enjoying that a 14-year-old, non-foiling, Farr Design is in third place and mostly holding its own (gained on both of the leaders yesterday) in the Vendee Globe. I know I am getting a big kick out of that. 

My sense is that this goes towards my belief that a well-rounded design, even if dated, given the right tactical moves should be able to do well in variable conditions relative to a more specialized design that can fly when in a narrower range of ideal conditions. I suspect that it will get much harder for Jean Le Cam to hold on once the foilers get into the steady heavy winds of the Southern Ocean, but his performance certainly has been impressive so far. 

Jeff


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## paulk

Getting the weather right and being in the right place at the right time make a big difference. Will Jérémie Beyou catch up? How will breakage impact the leaders? Overall, the boats seem to be holding up better than earlier fleets.


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## Jeff_H

I am still amazed at how spread out the fleet has become this early in the race. I would have expected that the latest generation foilers would have been way out front, with the non-foiling boats at the back, and the older foilers in the middle. The thing is that the new foilers not only have advanced foils but better hull designs and rigs.
I have been surprised at the number of current gen boats which have had structural issues. I get that the impact loads are huge, and beyond anything that had been seen before, but it seems like they should have been able to get the engineering right before the boats were actually racing.
But the mix of generations of new and old IMOCA 60's really talks to the skills of the skippers.
I am still really impressed with Jean Le Cam with an old non-foiling boat in third place and slowly gaining on the second place boat. I don't think he will be able to hold that in the Southern Ocean. But I still think that is quite an accomplishment.
Jeff


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## Arcb

Looks like Alex Thomson might be out. Alex Thomson out of Vendée Globe >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News


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## Jeff_H

I saw that. It will be interesting to hear what they think happened.


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## paulk

PRB started taking on water today and sank. Jean LeCam was in 4th place 20 miles behind and tried to pick up Kevin Escoffier from his life raft. They saw each other, but Jean LeCam lost sight of the raft when he went to turn back for another pass in the 5m waves and 20 knots of wind as night fell. Two other boats are adjusting course to help. Kevin apparently has a MOB locator on his raft. Sunup is at about 0500.


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## Arcb

paulk said:


> PRB started taking on water today and sank. Jean LeCam was in 4th place 20 miles behind and tried to pick up Kevin Escoffier from his life raft. They saw each other, but Jean LeCam lost sight of the raft in the 5m waves and 20 knots of wind as night fell. Two other boats are adjusting course to help. Kevin apparently has a MOB locator on his raft. Sunup is at about 0500.


Fun, spend the night in a 1 man life raft in 5 meter seas with 3 single handed 60 ft boats with tired skippers sailing around 😮


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## Minnewaska

I just watched season 6 of Alone. A documentary show (reality, not fake reality) of 10 people who were left alone, separately in the Arctic, without food or shelter. They can bring 10 survival items. You then watch a season of their struggles, health/life threatening weight loss, as they only occasionally eat fish or rabbits and endure sub freezing temps, in makeshift homemade shelters. The last one not to tap out or to fail a medical check wins $500,000.

I enjoy survival documentaries, but this was like watching gladiators being force to fight the lions. It wasn't educational, it was sensational and dramatic. Maybe they are very skilled survivalists, but the odds are horrible and the audience is engaged by that drama.

These round the world solo sailing trips are starting to make me think the same way. Very skilled participants, with poor odds and lots of drama.


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## Jeff_H

I must say that I went to bed heartsick when I heard that Escoffier's boat had sunk and Le Cam had found him but lost sight of him. I awoke to read of the rescue and was greatly relieved. It adds to my admiration of Jean Le Cam's amazing seamanship, first for staying in the hunt in a 14 year old non-foiling boat, then executing this rescue in these difficult conditions.

For me, I am conflicted about the race itself. I like the idea that it serves as a test bed to advance sailing science and technology. I admire the skill, dedication, athleticism, and courage of the skippers who do this race.
But I feel that maybe, the sailing world's willingness to use a series of technologies that are so early in their infancy that the use of those technologies are purposefully putting they racers at perhaps too high a risk.

Jeff


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## Arcb

Storey on when Le Cam was rescued from a capsized Vendee boat in 2008.









French skippers describe rescue from capsized boat | Taiwan News | 2009-01-08 00:47:54


French skippers describe rescue from capsized boat | 2009-01-08 00:47:54




www.taiwannews.com.tw


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## paulk

It seems Kevin Escoffier was cruising along on PRB in 5m seas and 32 knots of breeze when he heard a "crack". He looked forward to see his bow pointing to the sky, wrenched 90º from the hull forward of the mast. He set off his EPIRB, grabbed his survival suit and was setting up his aft life raft when a wave washed him and the raft out of the cockpit. Two hours later he & Jean Le Cam saw each other and spoke, but Le Cam lost visual contact when he had to tack back again. It then got dark, but Le Cam figured that would make Escoffier's light easier to see, so he kept looking, with multiple passes. When Escoffier heard luffing sails he stuck his head out of the raft saw Le Cam drifting down towards him. Le Cam tossed him a buoy with a line attached and managed to get him aboard shortly after. Ouf.








Web TV - Vendée Globe


Tout le contenu vidéo des différentes éditions du Vendée Globe, résumés quotidiens et hebdomadaires, interviews, images embarquées...




www.vendeeglobe.org


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## Jeff_H

The seamanship involved is unbelievable. To be able to maneuver a 60 foot boat single-hand and get it close enough to bring another person aboard in 16 foot waves and 25 knots winds is absolutely outstanding and seemingly super human.

Jeff


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## paulk

Two more dings: Initiatives Coeur and Arkea Paprec have both hit things today 02DEC. Both seem to be heading north, for calmer weather, to take stock of things and see what to do next. Paprec's starboard foil is bashed up along about 3', and the collision has also damaged the foil trunk, which is leaking. He looks really bummed.


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## MarkofSeaLife

There are many things to hit at sea...

When I was racing in another persons beautiful timber boat we came off a wave and heard a tremendous bang on the hull. Fearing a shipping container it was a few months before we hauled the boat out to see the imprint in the antifouling of a turtle shell. RIP turtle, no doubt.

As what happened in the Fastnet Race disaster in 1979 and the Sydney Hobart 1998, we have, imho, erred in having many very light boats doing extreme speeds in dangerous waters.

At 25 knots having the leading edge of a rudder hitting a coconut could spell damage... let alone a decent bit of stick.

Mark
(Yes, OK, especially if the coconut is still up its palm on an island)


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## Minnewaska

Seems to be an argument that the field is highly skilled, but the winner is the luckiest of the bunch. That's not really sporting.


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## Arcb

Luck's going to be a factor.

If I think of it like rally racing, you can't keep the throttle pinned or you're going to crash or break something. Have to use all 5 gears, throttle, wheel and breaks.

Racing these fast boats is the same, can't go around the track in third or every one will pass you by, but if you keep the throttle pinned in 5th all the time you are going to crash.

That's where the skill lies, it's not being the fastest, it's being the fastest to finish that counts. A line needs to be walked between too fast and not fast enough for ~70-75 days.


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## Minnewaska

Is the stuff that's breaking a matter of speed?


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## paulk

It's a matter of the stuff hitting things at speed. These boats are doing 20+ knots at times. Kevin on PRB said he was doing 30. If you run your car into an empty shopping cart (not a particularly heavy object) at 5mph, little damage is likely; the cart will bounce off. Different story if you do it at 30 mph; lots of things could get busted. Alex Thomson ran into fishing gear. Kevin Escoffier apparently hit a wave. Samantha Davies may have hit a whale. The French call them "OFNI"s. Objets Flottants Non-Identifiés. There are a lot of them out there.


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## Jeff_H

Minnewaska said:


> Is the stuff that's breaking a matter of speed?


Its not strictly a product of speed. obviously speed plays a role. One of the things that has happened as boats have gotten faster, the impact forces have gone up enormously. The formula for impact force is (mass of the object times the initial velocity squared) divided by (2 times the distance traveled between the impact and stopping). These boats are capable of moving 1 1/2 to 2 times the speed of earlier boats so if nothing else the forces are somewhere between 2 and 4 times those of older boats. The misleading part is when you see these boats averaging 18-20 knots, they are hitting speeds into the 20 plus knot range.

But because they are foiling, they can also be falling from 6-8 feet in the air, and because they have nearly flat bottoms, and are hitting with a more vertical component (minimizing water being able to spread out and disburse the collision in the way a similar speed collision with a wave would disburse) when the boat hits the deacceleration is over a very short length. The short lengths can quickly magnify the forces as well. Similarly, when they hit a nearly immovable object like a whale or a container, the forces are greatly increased due to the short stopping distance.

Before the 1980's very little was known about 'slamming forces' on sailboats, and so basic physics was applied. That proved in adequate. But as speeds increased and slamming failures occurred more frequently, there was a lot of attention paid to this issue.

One of the more interesting studies literally cut the bow off an aluminum boat that had been stove in by a wave. The original hull deformation was very carefully measured and the replicated based on the original drawings and observations. The new undamaged bow was mounted so it could not move and an incrementally increasing uniform force was applied until the bow deformation matched the original. The forces involved were enormously larger than had been anticipated based on the simple math.

Probably one of the most infamous early failures was the Open 60 'Imagine'. She was damaged coming off of waves during her maiden voyage. The forces separated the skin from the frames and in some tellings, some of the frames buckled. I was at a presentation by the design office who drew her at a yacht design symposium. Lars Bergstrom (the 'B' in B&R Rig) was in the audience, He was working on Thursday's Child and asked the designers about the assumed slamming forces they used for design. Once described, Bergstrom said that their initial research suggested that was roughly half what it should be.

The part that baffles me is that you would think there would be all kinds of data from the power boat world. After all, power boats have moved way more than these high speeds for decades,

Jeff


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## Arcb

Jeff_H said:


> The part that baffles me is that you would think there would be all kinds of data from the power boat world. After all, power boats have moved way more than these high speeds for decades,


As far as I know, most high performance power boats of the airborne kind are designed to land stern down on a wave. Power boat sterns are heavily reinforced to support the weight of the engines. As far as I know, the concept of a foil working as a fulcrum about which the bow could be driven into a wave is relatively uncommon on power boats (I don't know of any).


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## paulk

What about wave piercing designs? Would that even pertain, since these things are flying above, rather than in, the water? Re-viewing Kevin's description of his sinking, he says the bow planted in a wave and the boat cracked with the bow up 90º. Would a wave-piercing bow have altered that scenario, or simply sent the whole boat underwater?


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## Jeff_H

A lot if not most of these boats basically do have wave piercing bows that quickly develop huge amounts of buoyancy perhaps 25% back into the boat. 
To me it sounded like the boat was crashing vertically against the face of a wave that hit it rising and from one side. The momentum of the aft part of the boat kept moving forward while the bow was lifting and twisting. Given where the failure occurred, it sounds like there was a major stress riser that was not anticipated by the engineering.

Jeff


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## MarkofSeaLife

Jeff_H said:


> The part that baffles me is that you would think there would be all kinds of data from the power boat world. After all, power boats have moved way more than these high speeds for decades,
> 
> Jeff


Power boats don't go racing in extreme weather. 
These sailboat have had 10,000 nms to find such weather off Cape Town. No powrre boat races ever go anywhere near extreme waves.


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## paulk

Dicac Costa seems to have hit a whale. Luckily for both of them, not going too fast. He reports no damage, though he did slow down to make a complete inspection.


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## paulk

Things are tightening up between the Kerguelen Islands and Australia. Charal is getting ready to pass the tail-enders. Wind is evening out, but catching the lows in sequence is becoming quite a ballet.


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## Jeff_H

This had been an amazing race near the front with clearly different strategies among the leading boats. I am a little surprised that the speeds have not been much higher for the foilers. I was somewhat expecting 4 hour average speeds in the low 20 knot range out of them. So far i have not seen that.

The other thing that I found surprising is that Fabrice AMEDEO on NEW REST - ART & FENÊTRES retired from the race because his computer died. I get it that someone might retire if they break the boat, But this boat retired because the computer died. Did he drop out because could not see his Facebook feed> Ok seriously, I get it that routing is done on the computer, but the boat still has GPS and the other instruments up and running. 

But beyond jostling at the very front, I must admit that I am getting a big kick of Jean Le Cam's performance. But first I must admit that I am rooting for him for personal reasons. As an old man single-hand racing an old Farr, I have to root for the old man single-hand acing an old Farr around the world. ( I think of rooting for the Farr cheering as the home team since the Farr office is here in Annapolis)

But that admitted prejudice aside, I have been really impressed with how well Le Cam has done against the newer foiling boats, I think that he was in 4th place when he changed course and rescued Kevin Escoffier. Then once Escoffier was onboard, he diverted from race course to rendezvous and drop Escoffier at the ship. At that point he was in 9th place.

Since then he has slowly worked his way back to 5th place (being in 4th place earlier in the day,) Its really been unbelievable given that he had been awake for 36 hours straight when he brought Escoffier onboard. I think that a lot of how well he has been holding on seems to do with his weather routing. Somehow he always seems to have a very high VMG relative to his speed.

I saw a discussion that they think that he will be given 180 to 200 nm credit for the time/distance lost during the rescue, That would place him in second place. INCROYABLE!!!!!! Très bon!

Jeff


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## Arcb

Le Cam is cool. 

I can't remember where I read it, but I think I read Le Cam would be credited with time lost for the rescue, which I think was quite a few hours.


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## Jeff_H

The discussion that I saw suggested that Le Cam lost around a day and that they will credit him for the time lost. But there was more to it than that. When he the SOS reached him, he was riding on a front and moving quite well. The rescue took him out of the system and left him in lighter air after he diverted to meet the French ship. Apparently, the time credit will take into account not only the time that he lost during the rescue and delivery of Escoffier, but also the light air he was in for a while afterward.

Jeff


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## paulk

Why don't we all sail 13,000 miles and have a raft-up?


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## Jeff_H

paulk said:


> Why don't we all sail 13,000 miles and have a raft-up?


That 6 boats are that close has been really amazing to me. But so has the light air in the roaring 40's. Maybe they are in the whispering 40's.


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## Minnewaska

I watched a few of their update vids. It's far more engaging, when you get those near live feeds, can see the skippers and especially seeing their unusual proximity to others. Noting all this technology and the customized boats, I take it the yacht clubs or other orgs sponsor the investment. Are the skippers paid?


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## paulk

General thought is that it costs about 5000000 euros to run a 4-year campaign for a Vendée Globe boat. Half that if you buy or charter an existing boat. There has to be a line in there somewhere for salaries, though I couldn't find out how much they were. The weather gurus, routers and media crews are not volunteers either. There's also prize money 800000 euros divided up among the finishers. The winner gets 200000. How much does the winner of the Vendée Globe win? Sponsors feel that they get perhaps 5x as much publicity from the event than it costs them -- a good return on investment that they think outperforms their regular advertising.


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## Minnewaska

paulk said:


> Sponsors feel that they get perhaps 5x as much publicity from the event than it costs them


That's interesting. What publicity beyond social media?


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## Arcb

I am sure some of the sailors must own their own boats. 

I know Derek Hatfield owned Spirit of Canada and kept it at Bridgview Marina in Sarnia on Lake Huron when I lived there. It was more or less like any other boat there if you didn't know what you were looking at.

I know the 60s are pricier than the older boats, but there are lots of people who have the money and time to have nice racing boats.


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## paulk

These boats are REALLY nice then. Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss cost almost $8,000,000 and broke - twice- before he could get to Australia. He's had to withdraw. Jérémie Beyou's CHARAL is 18.28 m long with a mast 29m high. She has 600 square meters of downwind sail area to push her 8 ton carbon fiber hull. ; they're purpose-built planing dinghies, built to withstand the Southern Ocean, where lighter conditions than normal are keeping their speeds down to the upper teens right now. Foils (which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars) skim them across the water even faster when conditions are right. Accommodations are minimal for the sole crew aboard. They are nothing "like any other boat there",


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## paulk

Minnewaska said:


> That's interesting. What publicity beyond social media?


The Vendée Globe gets major French TV coverage. They routinely have hundreds of thousands of people visiting the boats before the start at Les Sables d'Olonne. Putting a boat like Banque Populaire on your advertising, along with a shot of her skipper, Clarisse Clemer, is better than having your face on a Wheaties box. It promotes the bank, shows you're not afraid of risk, makes you a player in a major French sporting event followed by thousands (The Fédération Française de Voile has about three times as many members as US Sailing does, btw.), that goes on for THREE MONTHS, and supports women (Clarisse), all at the same time. What's to lose?


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## Blewtooth

This race is a big Wow!

Though I am not a follower of NASCAR I can't help but think about how much like this it is when it comes to endurance even though something like Nascar or formula a or Formula 1 last a day or two this thing goes on for well over 40 days and 40 nights but the technology is just as extreme or even more so and all of the challenges are so fascinating things like the design of the boat, the talent and competence of the skipper, the weather forecasting, the routing and above all the determination and endurance of the skipper is unbelievable.
So cool!
I guess there is also the factor of the fabulous Venee coverage with all of the tech and graphics. 
Just got to say, I am really enjoying it!


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## paulk

Nothing like 6 knots of breeze in the Roaring Forties to show the impact of climate change, too. How are the guys two depressions back ever going to be able to catch up unless something screwy happens to the leaders in the Atlantic?


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## paulk

Looks like all the leaders got stalled off the coast of Brazil. More mixing it up coming up in the doldrums. Should make for some interesting finishes!


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## paulk

North Atlantic breezes are shuffling the fleet. Leaders change, change back, drop back, forge ahead. Jean LeCam still has 16 hours and 15minutes of redress time. He may finish 10th and still win.


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## paulk

Looks like boats will be finishing soon- likely Thursday. Many in the top ten will be only hours apart - after racing since November. Quite the nail biter. not much more to go...No clear winner yet


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## rbrasi

Congrats to Charlie Dahlin for first to finish, now we wait for time corrections.


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## Jeff_H

That was some very cool footage of the Charlie's boat crossing the line. At one point they said he was doing close to 20 knots and the beach was only 2 1/2 miles from the finish line. At that speed he had 15 minutes to get the spinnaker furled and turn the boat. 

It looks like Besthaven could get him. My take is that Besthaven will be in heavy air all the way to the finish, has been pretty consistently at 17 to 20 knots speed, and is 143 miles out. He gets a 10 hour and 15 minute correction so he should be able to beat Charlie's time. Herman is about 75-80 miles out, doing 20 knots and is owed 6 hours so he could be first as well.


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## rbrasi

Is it known how he repaired his port foil? I can see that he tied ropes to the end and lashed it to the hull. How did he get out there to fasten them?


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## Jeff_H

rbrasi said:


> Is it known how he repaired his port foil? I can see that he tied ropes to the end and lashed it to the hull. How did he get out there to fasten them?


One reporter said he made more than 40 trips out onto the foil. He is an engineer and yacht designer. He apparently designed a solution and fabricated some kind of carbon fiber wedge that he fit to act as a fulcrum and bearing for the foil.

Jeff


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## Telesail

I feel so sorry for Boris (although, as he said, he was sleeping when he hit the fishing boat). He probably would not have beaten Bestaeven but might have been second....

Good advert for Watt & Sea that one of the founders has won the Vendee! Incredible race and historically close finish with so many boats home within 24 hours!


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## Jeff_H

I too felt sorry for Boris Herrmann. He sailed a good race. Just before he hit the fishing boat I had calculated an ETA for the boats up to Jean Le Cam and applied the 'rescue credits'. I came up with Besthaven 1st, Dalin 2nd, Herrman 3rd, Le Cam 4th, Burton 5th and Ruyant 6th. The next time I checked, Ruyant and Burton caught into some big wind and started to move hitting speeds near 20 knots, but when I looked at Herrmann, his VMG;'s were under 5 knots. I thought what the heck is that about. I figured he must have gybed or tacked and wasn't back up to speed yet. But when I looked again, I realized something was wrong and then saw the news. 

I must say that I was rooting for Jean Le Cam mostly because he was an old man with an old Farr. What was there not to like? I also was rooting for Isabelle who was sailing a great race in the Indian Ocean. 

Jeff


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## paulk

Pip Hare has just finished, despite having keel issues and shifty weather coming up from the Azores. Good going! Averaged something like 11 knots over the whole trip, apparently.


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