Anyone Looking Forward to the Barcelona World Race?

[Haji]

If they ARE using the boards (and I think that they are), just imagine the loads when partially lifting a 60ft boat at 25kts or so. Better hope there are no growlers floating around...

 

[Doug Lord]

If they ARE using the boards (and I think that they are), just imagine the loads when partially lifting a 60ft boat at 25kts or so. Better hope there are no growlers floating around...

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Same considerations on an Orma tri when lifting 60-70% of the boat's weight. There is no doubt in my mind that the curved boards on V3 work better for lifting than the angled boards on Foncia and Mapfre. All three have some degree of vertical lift from the boards-which is a major design step forward for monohull keelboats, in my opinion. And there is no doubt that they are very fast in the right conditions....

V3 video in post 475 of this thread.

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From Sails and Sailboats-roughly translated by google:

On sailing canting keel, fins are usually inclined outwards so that the drift downwind approaches the vertical when the boat heels. On Foncia , this inclination was reversed (it is 9 °), so that the wing is even more lying in the water, and plays a supporting role, relieving the bow and facilitating the planning."Our monohulls now have speed close to polar multihulls for years 85-90, precisely the time we started to equip them with foils" says Mich'Desj

 

[born2sail]

looks like a nice sleigh ride for the southern most 3, with some more struggling for those stuck in the high.

With the boats forced north of 40*S, that puts the leaders on the edge of the fast track. I think Foncia picked a fun time to go into ghost mode. My guess B) after taking Gough Island to stbd., she'll dive S to catch more of the good stuff, gain the best chance of staying in it longer while aiming for a point just west of the east of the next gate.

 

[hiroller]

It looks like a dive south for the rest of the fleet is in order once they punch through the high.

 

[oioi]

was west an option for any of the backmarkers? i know VP3 and Foncia were forced west, and mapfre went that way but bailed. could hugo boss have made the move or were they too late and a gate closed behind the leaders?

i agree, it looks like a two horse race, but there are a lot of miles left and a strange round the world course (going through NZ).

 

[born2sail]

Well, the sea-state could preclude a significant move south, but I'm still guessing well south is where Foncia will pop up next on the screen. As far as going west way back when, my guess is the best time to make that commitment is back at the Equator. No matter what, as soon as the coast of Brazil looks like the place to be, all the pain to get there seems well worth the reward. Too bad Mapfre didn't stick with it. Look how smooth a run they would have had after what nows looks like less than 100nm of suffering, which is less than half the suffering they've experienced the past few days.

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[born2sail]

Here's a look-see at the forecast for surface pressure and precipitation to go with the above...

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[Rail Meat]

Serious boat failure is the only thing that is going to stop Foncia and VP3 winning this. Depending on the circumstances of the failure, one might suggest luck has something to do with it. It seems to me the 2 newer boats are way advanced , heck they stopped for a day or two and are now nearly 500 miles ahead.! We all hope for a close race but the fat lady reckons you might be wrong? LOL

Full credit to the top 2 teams for proving how advanced they are in campaign management.

And yet both of the newer boats were lacklust in the RdR. I know Mich made that disasterous choice to go south, but I can't remember what series of events conspired to hold VP3 back in that race.

 

[Limace]

And yet both of the newer boats were lacklust in the RdR. I know Mich made that disasterous choice to go south, but I can't remember what series of events conspired to hold VP3 back in that race.

Batteries issues believe

 

[eddieww]

And yet both of the newer boats were lacklust in the RdR. I know Mich made that disasterous choice to go south, but I can't remember what series of events conspired to hold VP3 back in that race.

It must have been a lot easier for the two to take the western chance, which paid off, since they were forced over there anyway for pitstops. It would have been a much more risky choice to deviate that far west for the others. We saw Mapfre seem to make that choice and then chicken out. Too bad for them.

 

[hiroller]

To be fair to the leaders, I suspect they would have taken the Western option anyway.

See: http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/actualite/news/detail/life-on-the-front-line-0-9120

Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA), Foncia:

“Some may think that we took this option because we stopped off in Brazil. However, we’d already decided on it when we crossed the Equator. We didn’t wait until we were in the Saint Helena tradewinds before we told ourselves that it was highly likely the way through was to the right. Saint Helena wasn’t a very well organised zone of high pressure. It was a windless shambles, without a gradient, and going through it was dangerous.

“Shortly after leaving Recife, before we headed off definitively on our S’ly option, I hesitated and we were on a SE’ly course for three hours, not really knowing if it was the right option. However, receipt of the latest wind files confirmed that it was indeed working below us. For three hours there was a bit of hesitation and tension…”

 

[hiroller]

Maybe one of the fleet can rescue this block of wood seen atop an iceberg floating in the Southern Ocean this week!

http://blogs.abc.net.au/news/breaking-the-ice/

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[MR.CLEAN]

Fuck, with 20 knts of boatspeed MD can hang on to that wind for a while. But that ridge is moving with 35 knts or more, so he will get left behind in lesser wind.. But Pella is not lucky, thought he would have decent wind all the way 30 hrs ago. But no, light winds coming. So my money to on MD. Lesson learned, make a stop...get a mojito and carry on.

Not a bad strategy :lol:

In the meantime, now we need to start looking for the lows coming off of S. Brazil and the ones coming from Cape Horn. Wave models will be as important as the wind and surface pressure data...

Boy, I sure wish we had telemetry from the boats (anybody from BWR Central listening?)

The Yellowbricks are standalone transmitters. So no chance of additional data unfortunately.

Just to clarify, in the BWR the trackers are standalone as you say, so are only sending back pos, course and speed.

Yellowbricks can accept nmea data via a serial connection (as per the ones on Sodebo and Banque Populaire) so can also send telemetry data back... It is just a question of money really for organisers, as each data packet is then bigger, and as someone mentioned the team privacy aspect as well.

It is also a bit more of a hassle to install when the trackers are just on a temporary hire... But can be done!

Nick Farrell

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Yellowbrick

www.yellowbrick-tracking.com

Welcome, Nick. Oh, and fuck off, newb.

 

[nkb]

News from Neutrogena this morning :

The weather has forced our hand a bit yesterday evening. We would have liked to continue east like bel and estrella, but wind from the west filled in on top of us, but at around 5 knots.

This forced us to make the decision to start going south, consigning us to a longer period in lighter air than the two in front of us. As can be seen from the Sat photos, they are crossing this ridge in the right place, in an area with better breeze.

It would not have been possible for us to go dead downwind in 5 knots of breeze to get to their position before we went south, so we are making do with what we have.

Our outriggers make it impossible to fly an overlapping headsail at close angles, which has not been particularly helpful either.

In short, we will be out of this light weather around noon today, we will just have lost a bit to those two boats in the process.

We will catch up as the wind gets stronger. Hopefully today, with better breeze, the sun will be a bit less strong. We are looking a little like crabs these days.

Ryan

 

[Haji]

Ugh...you can almost feel the agony of of their struggle in the light airs. It can be so maddening, I think Ryan puts a great face on it.

 

[spacecadet]

They maybe struggling but Anna is cooking eggs for Dee on her Birthday so things must be ok!

 

[estarzinger]

"Saint Helena wasn't a very well organised zone of high pressure. It was a windless shambles, without a gradient, and going through it was dangerous."

That risk assessment is the voice of vast experience.

We don't have even a shadow of his experience or skill, but we have learned two things:

Its real easy to spend too much time thinking about how to route thru the grib weather and not enough time thinking about what happens if the gribs are not correct. A probability assessment - are things likely to play out in the grib forecast pattern very likely or not very likely - is more important that the micro routing detail of the grib.

And, if the gribs are predicting slack pressure and light wind, it is strongly likely there will be some really big holes.

The iceberg sat radar scan is very interesting. It would be nice if some PHD to be would pick it up and so a good study of the ice distribution. We know so little about it. We have had four friends hit ice down there (between south georgia and Cape Town) - lost rudder, lost spreader, lost boat, and one came thru ok.

 

[born2sail]

Sheesh, those are ugly headings for HB (202*)and WAW (214*).

 

[born2sail]

The rankings haven't been updated to show the 18:30 reports, but the tracker has.

It looks like the conditions for the leaders are going to favor the bunch that can get below 36*S.

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[born2sail]

Complete ranking data just posted...

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