NY-Vendee 2016

[Chasm]

New York – Vendée (Les Sables d'Olonne)
Starting on the 29th of May, 5pm local.

16 days to go, time to open a thread about what should be the last qualification race before the Vendee Globe.

Entries, as listed by the organizer with annotations.

• 100% NATURAL ENERGY – Conrad Colman
• BANQUE POPULAIRE VIII – Armel Le Cleac’h
• COME IN VENDÉE – Jean-François Pellet
  -> Needs to place in order to qualify for the VG
• EDMOND DE ROTHSCHILD – Sebastien Josse
  -> Broke the main sail at the beginning of The Transat and retired. So far no indication that they delivered the boat.
• ENERGIES MARINES RENOUVELABLES – Stéphane Le Diraison
  -> Needs to place in order to qualify for the VG
• FLYING WITH FINNAIR – Ari Huusela ...
  -> Richard Tolkien stepped of the boat after sustaining head injuries during The Transat, boat adrift ~900nm of the Azores.
• HUGO BOSS – Alex Thomson
• INITIATIVES CŒUR – Tanguy De Lamotte
• MAITRE COQ – Jeremie Beyou
• NEWREST – MATMUT – Fabrice Amedeo
• NO WAY BACK – Pieter Heerema
• PRB – Vincent Riou
• QUEGUINER – LEUCÉMIE ESPOIR – Yann Eliès
• SAFRAN – Morgan Lagravière
• SMA – Paul Meilhat
• SPIRIT OF YUKOH – Kojiro Shiraishi
  -> Needs to place in order to qualify for the VG
• ST MICHEL – VIRBAC – Jean-Pierre Dick

Three skippers need to place in the race to qualify for the VG. That mean finishing within the time limit, which for this race has a soft definition:

30 TIME LIMIT / RETIREMENT

30.1 The time by which all Skippers must have finished the Race, will be by the start of the prize giving ceremony on 11th June 2016.
This time limit may be extended, for any reason, at the sole discretion of the Race Management and the Race Committee.

This one should be interesting, a direct rematch BP8 vs PRB. Most of the other major VG starters are also in it.

Maître Coq with the dali foil conversion. Viable or not, we'll find out.

 

[Icedtea]

I'm very glad they have that soft time limit in place.

I think for that reason we can expect some people to take it real handy just to get the boat through the course.

I'd be very interested to see if PRB is as up to speed with the foilers in this race, if she's just as quick I would really bet on Vincent for the Vendee.

I am 90% sure that a foiler won't win this Vendee Globe.

One will win one someday, maybe in four years time- but the tech is too new now.

 

[oioi]

The professionals disagree with you. All the wealthy teams who have had new boats built for this edition have built foilers. Not one new build without foils (ignoring nandor fa). They seen to agree that the boats are faster. If it's a question of reliability, with a decent number of foilers on the start line it would seem to be reasonable to think that at least one will make it round and do so quickly. BP8 seems to me the favourite at the moment

 

[Icedtea]

The professionals disagree with you. All the wealthy teams who have had new boats built for this edition have built foilers. Not one new build without foils (ignoring nandor fa). They seen to agree that the boats are faster. If it's a question of reliability, with a decent number of foilers on the start line it would seem to be reasonable to think that at least one will make it round and do so quickly. BP8 seems to me the favourite at the moment

Of course they know fucktons more than me.

But since when has that stopped people from talking shit on the internet?

 

[oioi]

That's why we come here. I think the only non-foiling in with a chance is prb. If its light going down and back up the Atlantic they might just have a chance.

 

[rmb]

the skippers are also allowed to take whoever they want as a media crew, and lots of them are taking their reserve skippers or other prosailor more or less as coaches, so not really singlehanded.

 

[Chasm]

I think its about reliability, the foilers are still an unknown. To many broke right out of the door and the new and faster foil generations are apparently not without issues either. Can't win if you blow up the boat at the first corner of the race. Can't win with a slow boat or slow set of foils either. [Which reminds me of the 24h du Mans 2016, starting in 34 days. Teams must be fast, must be reliable, must meet fuel limits, and so on... The rule writers tighten the thumb screws with each edition. - Then there is always the obligatory Ferrari/Ford driver that will take out a big name or three...]

But then reliability has has always been a huge issue, and often played not out as expected. How many teams replaced big ticket items only to have them blow up anyway? How many major teams never made it out of the Bay of Biscay?

I like that there are not too many campaigns who must race and place at this time. Initially 4 out of 17, now 3 out of 15, only 1 of those is fully registered in the VG. Less stress, perhaps the option to take not more but different risks.

Overall I'd like to see them go out more often, esp. the smaller teams. Qualify early, (slightly) break the boat, don't fall apart as easily in the VG. - Not going to happen but not a bad idea. One of those things the rules could be tweaked for now that there are apparently registration limits in the VG...

Good catch on the media crew member. Lots of sailing footage to be used in the VG coming right up. (Or else!)

Hm. I thought one of the older news articles said that media crew was restricted to those already qualified in the VG. Can't find that article again and the SI/NOR don't make that restriction.

(Yet another reminder to just bookmark and archive e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.... *g* )

 

[Scipion]

Hm. I thought one of the older news articles said that media crew was restricted to those already qualified in the VG. Can't find that article again and the SI/NOR don't make that restriction.

http://www.courseaularge.com/media-man-new-york-vendee.html

Peter Bayer, directeur général d’OSM (Open Sports Management) : « La vraie nouveauté sur cette course concerne les skippers déjà qualifiés pour le Vendée Globe. Ils auront la possibilité d’embarquer un media man afin de raconter leur vie à bord.

(...) C’est une décision conjointe entre l’IMOCA, OSM, Jacques Caraës et les skippers. Le règlement du Vendée Globe ne permet pas de le faire pour les skippers non qualifiés. (…)

Peter Bayer, General manager of OSM (Open Sports Management) : « The real novelty in this race concerns the skippers already qualified for the Vendée Globe. They will have the possibility of taking an embarked media man to recount their life on board.

(...)This is a joint decision of the IMOCA, OSM, Jacques Caraës (co-director of the race) and the skippers. The rules of the Vendée Globe do not allow to do that for the non qualified skippers (…)

 

[oceanwwgg]

don't know if gitana 16 (s josse) will be able to make start of new york-les sables. am a big fan of seb, if not it's really really bad.., for him , his team ect...

any new ??

strange point is, armel in an interview after his arrival, declare he is happy and its important for bpop to compete against gitana on the return transat.. hope he has positive data after gitana dnf

 

[Roleur]

That's why we come here. I think the only non-foiling in with a chance is prb. If its light going down and back up the Atlantic they might just have a chance.

I wouldn't rule out Yann. Fairly similar boat to PRB and Yann knows how to make a boat go.

 

[Chasm]

Thank you for finding that article Scipion. I must have seen that browsing via google translate after reading another article.

(Looks I really should not have canceled the French class that fast. Some time luck of the draw in class assignments gets you even decades later. )

Gitana 16, I had Josse also stricken on my initial list and changed my mind before posting. They are a major team and the damage to the sail and surrounding structure did not look that final. Mast still up and all of that. New battens, a few stitches and there you go.

Looking at the calendar. The damage was 12 days ago, they have been silent on social media since, 12 days till the start. Should be enough time for a quick fix and a delivery run to NY.

Getting some training time in against all the other fast boats should be high on the list. Validating if your idea of where you are aligns with reality or not.

Slightly OT: The website is ...special.

Social media linking nowhere.

Countdown counter counting up.

Pictures as background that are 12MB big and take 2.6 minutes to load - on a 50Mbit line doing nothing else.

wtf

 

[oceanwwgg]

Thank you for finding that article Scipion. I must have seen that browsing via google translate after reading another article.

(Looks I really should not have canceled the French class that fast. Some time luck of the draw in class assignments gets you even decades later. )

Gitana 16, I had Josse also stricken on my initial list and changed my mind before posting. They are a major team and the damage to the sail and surrounding structure did not look that final. Mast still up and all of that. New battens, a few stitches and there you go.

Looking at the calendar. The damage was 12 days ago, they have been silent on social media since, 12 days till the start. Should be enough time for a quick fix and a delivery run to NY.

Getting some training time in against all the other fast boats should be high on the list. Validating if your idea of where you are aligns with reality or not.

Slightly OT: The website is ...special.

Social media linking nowhere.

Countdown counter counting up.

Pictures as background that are 12MB big and take 2.6 minutes to load - on a 50Mbit line doing nothing else.

wtf

concerning josse/gitana the issue is : can they make the delivery of their gitana16 for may 29 in new york ??? no data on ais, nor from the team. it's a very short window !

 

[Sailbydate]

The professionals disagree with you. All the wealthy teams who have had new boats built for this edition have built foilers. Not one new build without foils (ignoring nandor fa). They seen to agree that the boats are faster. If it's a question of reliability, with a decent number of foilers on the start line it would seem to be reasonable to think that at least one will make it round and do so quickly. BP8 seems to me the favourite at the moment

+1

 

[Chasm]

Josse abandoned the race on day 4, the pictures in the Spanish port are from May 4th.

IIRC part of the team was there when he arrived in port. A 15h drive from Lorient.

Lets make it complicated and say they can't use a local loft: Take the main back home, repair, deliver it back to Spain. Call it 1 day to decide, 2 days driving, 1 day to repair. 2 more days to rerig do some minor repairs and a good check of everything. Cast off on the 11th.

That leaves what? 14 days for the crossing and still a few days left in NY for turnaround? Should be possible. Even with time for the charity race on the 27th. Not the lastest and greatest performance, but a good simulation of race stress and fatigue.

If it's basically just the battens and a few stitches. If the mast track or the locks are busted it will take much more time. Not performing 100% is one thing, risking major damage is something else.

Also remember that for some reason nobody pays me to do their planning. h34r: :lol:

 

[surlepont]

If you check AIS Gitana 16 left Sanxenxo on the 8th. No AIS data on marinetraffic after that, but I checked PRB's AIS last week before it had finished the Transat and its latest data was from May 2nd. So it can mean they left for the delivery on the 8th...?

In their latest monthly webzine the voiceover does say that Seb is going to do the NY-Vendee after his retirement from The Transat.

Guess we just have to wait and see...

 

[oceanwwgg]

voiles&voilier sailing magazine, tweet this morning a quick sum up after the transat arrivals.

they mention that gitana16 have had a quick (2 days) repair (battens and mainsail) probably in sanhexo (spain).

and that seb josse is on delivery mode now to new york to make the start of new york les sables on 29 may.

 

[surlepont]

voiles&voilier sailing magazine, tweet this morning a quick sum up after the transat arrivals.

they mention that gitana16 have had a quick (2 days) repair (battens and mainsail) probably in sanhexo (spain).

and that seb josse is on delivery mode now to new york to make the start of new york les sables on 29 may.

That's good to know as the team didn't feel inclined to respond to my question for more info via twitter yesterday... Do you have a link to the article? I can't find it.

 

[oceanwwgg]

it was in fact vendée globe organisation tweet from may 17, "premier bilan avant le vendée globe" http://bit.ly/1XjimtF

 

[Chasm]

In another article mentions that Maître Coc hit a whale and damaged the starboard foil during the delivery.

They are figuring out if they can do a quick fix, or will have to replace the foil in France. Jérémie will race, if necessary with a shortened foil. They are also making a plug. - I guess that is one of the not so secret spares the foilers will carry furing the VG.

Apropos foils, one of the articles reminded us that the IMOCA only allows appendage adjustment in one direction. The teams opted to change up/down. In/out is fixed. (outside the marina)