Coville/Sodeb'O Begin Hunt for Jules Verne Trophy

[Chapped]

From the Sodeb'O home page this morning: www.sodebo-voile.com

Top start for Thomas Coville and Sodebo

 

Thomas Coville crossed the start line of the record round the world solo in front of the lighthouse Créac'h the island of Ushant on Saturday 29 January at 12h07'28''French time.

The trimaran Sodebo rushed to starboard with the wind from north-east 20 to 25 knots under mainsail with two reefs and "string" (small gennaker).

The skipper must jibe about half an hour after the line to pass the afternoon and much of the night next to the sea port in fairly short Gulf of Biscay. Thomas jibe again to negotiate the tip of Cape Finisterre before descending rapidly along the Portuguese coast in tonic but stable condition.

After completing this course of more than 40,000 kilometers around the three great capes, Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn, the skipper must return Sodebo cut the line at Ouessant before March 28 at 1h40'34''(French time) , a minute less than the reference time of Francis Joyon (Idec), which is 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds.

 

[Keith]

Watch this video from his start he almost pitch poles....... did the hull design help him get back on his feet???

click on "Top left Brest"

http://www.sodebo-vo...ias/videos.html

 

[scottmax]

Watch this video from his start he almost pitch poles....... did the hull design help him get back on his feet???

click on "Top left Brest"

http://www.sodebo-vo...ias/videos.html

That certainly had a pucker factor of about 9/10.

Lets hope he gets around safely and with out many more of those.

 

[Hobie]

Jules Verne Trophy or Single Hander Round The World Record?

 

[eric e]

he didn't appear to be at the helm at the time

i wonder if there are and mercury type crash switches that on autopilot could trigger a traveller or sheet release

when the nose down gets worse that 35?degrees?

 

[Chapped]

The trophy could be claimed by Coville if he can beat the current record when he comes across the finish line, as there are no restrictions for crew size. Is it likely that will happen?... probably not, when one considers the blazing record set by G3 and who knows what BP might be capable of delivering in the right conditions. Consider the thread title to be an outside the box bit of presentational panache and enjoy the ride as TC blasts his way down the Atlantic in search of terrific routing and beneficial openings in the St. Helena High. Last time he did this attempt he lost out to Joyon by two days after 59 days at sea and the single biggest obstacle, which probably cost him the record, was the St. H High and how far he had to go west in order to get around that bad thing.

 

[Keith]

Jules Verne Trophy or Single Hander Round The World Record?

Solo single handed non-stop.... Francis Joyon is the current holder.. on Idec

Jules Vern is fully crewed record..

 

[Tony-F18]

Respect for racing such a hugely overpowered boat for three months straight.

 

[MartinRF]

he didn't appear to be at the helm at the time

Watching in full screen mode one clearly see him working the wheel to make the boat bear away.

/Martin

 

[Multitrail]

he didn't appear to be at the helm at the time

Watching in full screen mode one clearly see him working the wheel to make the boat bear away.

/Martin

And just before the bear away he is talking ín a stone age VHF radio without freeset, losing all his coolpoints and boat attention - I could have sponsored him with that if he only had told me.

 

[Y-Bar]

Well at least if it did flip, right at the start would be the place for easy recovery. He was probably just testing the strength of the forward beam and bow of the port hull at the time while talking on the radio.

Maybe a timely little reminder that even the best have to pay attention all the time as well as your average multihull hacks

You can see him start to steer down / bear away in the video but nil or not much main dunp.

Nice to see it on film though as most times it would happen out of sight.

 

[catsailordude]

Dumping the main would probably have made matters worse on this downwind point of sail. The apparent wind would probably have moved aft as he stuffed the nose and the boat slowed. The only thing to do is bear away and hope it's not too late, although bearing away is difficult when all three rudders are out of the water.

 

[Trevor B]

Man, that happened fast! Yikes.

 

[coxcreek]

Sodeb'O was saved by her curved lifting foil - kept the float up just enough to stop a complete bow bury. Also the Irens' boats have sharp shaped deck camber; that obviously helped too. But that was soo close.

 

[F18 Sailor]

Curved foil helped but the excess floation in the main bow brought Sodebo fully up as the curved foil was out of the water by that point. Coville didn't seem that concerned in the video, he could have dumped gennaker (to the point of it ragging) if it was a more serious situation. It would be nice to know how the autopilot responds to a potential pitch pole and if crash switches are installed.

 

[hump101]

Curved foil helped but the excess floation in the main bow brought Sodebo fully up as the curved foil was out of the water by that point. Coville didn't seem that concerned in the video, he could have dumped gennaker (to the point of it ragging) if it was a more serious situation. It would be nice to know how the autopilot responds to a potential pitch pole and if crash switches are installed.

This is the clever consequence of the extended main hull and balance of width and buoyancy distribution - the boat pitches and yaws as the lee hull slows, but it only yaws until the main hull bow hits the water and stops the yaw rotation, which then slows the pitch rotation. The earlier this happens in the plant, the less pitch rotation, and the more chance of recovery. With similar length hulls the boat would have continued to yaw and pitch further, past the point of no return.

It's not exactly fit and forget, but it makes the boats so much more resistant to pitchpoling, so perfect for singlehanded racing, even if the price is a slightly heavier, slower, boat. Really clever design, as not only does it reduce the pitchpole risk in the plant, but it induces this planting response whilst still in the safe-to-recover zone. As pointed out by others, the skipper didn't have to do anything - the foils weren't in the water and the sails weren't dumped. NI is a genius, in my opinion, so far ahead in his understanding of how these boats behave dynamically.

 

[paps49]

Oi Jemmy thats a pucker allwrite!!

 

[Y-Bar]

Curved foil helped but the excess floation in the main bow brought Sodebo fully up as the curved foil was out of the water by that point. Coville didn't seem that concerned in the video, he could have dumped gennaker (to the point of it ragging) if it was a more serious situation. It would be nice to know how the autopilot responds to a potential pitch pole and if crash switches are installed.

This is the clever consequence of the extended main hull and balance of width and buoyancy distribution - the boat pitches and yaws as the lee hull slows, but it only yaws until the main hull bow hits the water and stops the yaw rotation, which then slows the pitch rotation. The earlier this happens in the plant, the less pitch rotation, and the more chance of recovery. With similar length hulls the boat would have continued to yaw and pitch further, past the point of no return.

It's not exactly fit and forget, but it makes the boats so much more resistant to pitchpoling, so perfect for singlehanded racing, even if the price is a slightly heavier, slower, boat. Really clever design, as not only does it reduce the pitchpole risk in the plant, but it induces this planting response whilst still in the safe-to-recover zone. As pointed out by others, the skipper didn't have to do anything - the foils weren't in the water and the sails weren't dumped. NI is a genius, in my opinion, so far ahead in his understanding of how these boats behave dynamically.

I would consider them two very lucky genius'ss No trolling intended.

63 miles ahead of Joyon at last report but thats nothing at this stage.

 

[Wacka Elvis]

christ - didn't seem to be pushing that hard but a Northerly like that can be very puffy - did seem to be breezier than earlier in the vid...

Anyone know if he has any auto-release systems for those 10mins a day that he'll be asleep??