How about a The Ocean Race thread?

[Varan]

Sail-World: Kevin Escoffier's Holcim PRB (SUI) were sailing upwind at 14knots in 40-knots of wind.

Impressive.

Goody: "Our mantra is definitely to keep it simple," he said. "While we've all sailed the boat separately, the four of us have only sailed together as a crew on this boat three times before the first leg, so there's a good reason for keeping it simple."

 

[Laser1]

-Are they allowed to resume this leg officially, or are they required to take a DNF for this leg and do a delivery run to make Leg 2's start (assuming they sort out some kind of solution rather than quitting entirely)?

Hi Mom, As Herman said, the VO65's are not going all the way round the orange. Only 3 'in-port'/short offshores for these guys. This outing to CV only and then cruising back up Norf to wait for the Imoca's to show up in Aarhus.

 

[LTR]

Does anyone know where I can find a link to the sail inventory for the VO65 and Imoca boats?

thx

 

[Slark]

Going to be interesting to see how this plays out:

"For Holcim-PRB, their tactics had worked but they now had some damage to their mainsail which had been torn close to the luff after the clew of the jib had punched through the sail during a tack. Fortunately, the slightly more settled conditions in the Atlantic provided an opportunity for repair."

Do you just glue a patch on while underway & powered up? Seems like a big risk to do nothing, 11HR hot on their tail....

 

[Your Mom]

Hi Mom, As Herman said, the VO65's are not going all the way round the orange. Only 3 'in-port'/short offshores for these guys. This outing to CV only and then cruising back up Norf to wait for the Imoca's to show up in Aarhus.

Thanks. I had forgotten the VO65's aren't doing the whole thing. That explains why they might have thought it would be ok to go ahead without investing in a new main up front, and it also gives them plenty of time to sort out what to do before the next VO65. Hopefully they can sort something out.

I doubt they'll have a functioning main anytime soon... but... If they did... (maybe a repair, or a donation of a backup from another team)... Would they be allowed to resume Leg 1?

 

[Laser1]

Would they be allowed to resume Leg 1?

I would think so. I'm sure someone with the rules at hand can confirm.

However not much use now trailing way at the back, unless they want to build some offshore experience.

 

[Forestdawg]

Now that the race is on, I am following along again:

This just in from The Ocean Race on FB:

"Good news: the tracker is now updated every 1 hour!
Don't miss what is happening on the water

https://bit.ly/TOR_tracker
▻ You want to see every photo and video taken by the OBRs? Head here https://bit.ly/TOR_FromTheBoats
▻ Race Report will come out daily at midday CET.
▻ The Ocean Race Show is planned for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays while the boats are at sea.
▻ On the days we don't have The Ocean Race Show, we'll be putting out a long-form highlight compilation."

 

[wildbirdtoo]

it looks like TOR have listened to comments on social media and are now providing hourly tracker updates

 

[TheDragon]

Massive edited summary video. At 8:00 we see someone using a whole pack of Stugeron. Admittedly it is 15 mg each, but that's a lot to have to take to deal with sea sickness. There is a reason that Stugeron is not for sale in the US or Canada, prolonged use at high doses for cancer patients dealing with chemotherapy sometimes led to drug-induced Parkinson's. Hopefully no such consequences here. I have used it twice, but each time only 2 25 mg tablets 12 hours apart.

 

[mathystuff]

Massive edited summary video. At 8:00 we see someone using a whole pack of Stugeron. Admittedly it is 15 mg each, but that's a lot to have to take to deal with sea sickness. There is a reason that Stugeron is not for sale in the US or Canada, prolonged use at high doses for cancer patients dealing with chemotherapy sometimes led to drug-induced Parkinson's. Hopefully no such consequences here. I have used it twice, but each time only 2 25 mg tablets 12 hours apart.

She took 180mg over 2 days. Max recommended dosage is 100mg per day. Don't you guys read the Beipackzettel?

 

[Schakel]

News from Team Mexico:

I I am pretty sure they will end last. Until someone else breaks main components of their boat.

 

[cill123]

Does anyone know where I can find a link to the sail inventory for the VO65 and Imoca boats?

thx

Not sure how accurate this will be for this race it's an old video

 

[dg_sailingfan]

Indeed. Looking back at their tracks Holcim tacked earlier than 11th hr challenging 11th hr immediately. The watch keeper of the latter should have waken-up the crew in seconds for the required counter-tack. Or he/she did, but the crew was sluggish in their tacking execution. 11th hr took 10 minutes to tack and overshot with a bad VMG and lost 1st place subsequently. Boat speeds was also a bit higher for Holcim, but this classic tactical mistake did it imho.

This tacking duel along the coast in these winds will have been brutal on the crew though with the stacking.

View attachment 568192

Imagine if one tiny small mistake can cost you the Leg. If Holcim can match 11Hours Speed despite a small damage in their Main Enright/Fisher are going to rue that slow tack.

 

[wildbirdtoo]

Imagine if one tiny small mistake can cost you the Leg. If Holcim can match 11Hours Speed despite a small damage in their Main Enright/Fisher are going to rue that slow tack.

i wrote this earlier, but when you looked at AIS tracks, it looked like Holcim had a better tacking angle, so gained slightly on each tack. Might not be that one mistake.

 

[dg_sailingfan]

i wrote this earlier, but when you looked at AIS tracks, it looked like Holcim had a better tacking angle, so gained slightly on each tack. Might not be that one mistake.

If Holcim are tacking better than 11th Hour that is very valuable. Leg 4 from Itajai to Newport has a lot of upwind sailing.

 

[Tom O'Keefe]

Imagine if one tiny small mistake can cost you the Leg. If Holcim can match 11Hours Speed despite a small damage in their Main Enright/Fisher are going to rue that slow tack.

11th Hour tore their J3 during a tack in the Strait. So, they had been sailing on their storm jib. I believe that is how Holcim got past them.

 

[Herman]

Massive edited summary video. At 8:00 we see someone using a whole pack of Stugeron.

That someone is a new Dutch 27 yr old talent, Rosalin Kuiper. The only Dutch sailor onboard of an Imoca in this leg. Co-skipper next to Boris Herrmann and in charge of all the technical stuff on the boat.

Background article in Dutch on her here here:

Drie uur slaap per etmaal, gevriesdroogd voedsel, nul privacy: dit is de Ocean Race van Rosalin Kuiper

Ocean Race: Als enige Nederlandse deelnemer vaart Rosalin Kuiper de wereld rond in de Ocean Race. Het leven aan boord is zwaar. Er is non-stop herrie, nooit privacy en altijd gevaar. „Als je overboord valt, is er een kans van 90 procent dat je het niet overleeft.”

www.nrc.nl

 

[Fiji Bitter]

Do you just glue a patch on while underway & powered up? Seems like a big risk to do nothing, 11HR hot on their tail

This is how they do (did) it,

 

[terrafirma]

Some of the VOR65's ahead of some of the Imocas but no doubt due to the conditions let's see how it plays out in the end?

 

[Fiji Bitter]

That someone is a new Dutch 27 yr old talent, Rosalin Kuiper. The only Dutch sailor onboard of an Imoca in this leg. Co-skipper next to Boris Herrmann and in charge of all the technical stuff on the boat.

Strong girl, but a bit of a shame that she get so seasick. Hopefully just for the first few days.

Quite a character too, she's been up twice on Bar Karate. First time the best, as she was more relaxed (edit: just listened to the last one again, and it's equally good and informative.)

Bar Karate - the Sailing Podcast Ep 109 Rosalin Kuiper - Bar Karate - The Sailing Podcast

Published 6 June 2021We chat to Rosalin Kuiper - trimmer and media for Akzo Nobel in the Ocean Race straight after the finish of Leg 1 in Portugal. There was so much laughing in this episode it might be wise not to operate heavy machinery when lis...

www.buzzsprout.com

You'll find the recent one, 1½ week ago here, also worth a listen:

Bar Karate - The Sailing Podcast

Bar Karate is a weekly discussion of the world of sailing. Our team straddle the globe and bring all the news and inside gossip with a lot of fun thrown in.Bar Karate - you might not learn anything, but you will have fun doing it.

www.buzzsprout.com

And in case you didn't know, Bar Karate are some crazy Aussies, with a lot of VOR experience acually.