Route du Rhum 2018

[popo]

Main difference between BP Gitana and macif, is that only one has been designed as an archimedian boat.

BP and gitana were designed to be foilers from the start, macif is an archimedian, foik assisted boat, that has been upgraded to fully foiling.

Guess witch one still got all hulls

 

[yl75]

Skipping through RdR SI and NOR the finish line closes December 2nd for all classes.
That should be enough time for some repairs on Charal or possibly Sobedo. Charal also stops in a 150nm zone around the start, so different rules apply to the stop.

Finishing the RdR is big in IMOCA. It's the first race other than the last VG that qualifies for the VG 2020. Not so much of an issue for Jeremie since he finished 3rd in the last VG but for the others qualifying early removes a lot of pressure and also makes the sponsor hunt a bit easier. Adding more miles also helps if there are to many boats, those with the most miles in championship races are in.

The Rhum Multi and Mono fleets are length limited:

Category ULTIME Multihulls ≥ 60 feet without size limitation 
Class MULTI 50 Multihulls in accordance with the rules of the Multi50class 
Class IMOCA Monohulls in accordance with IMOCA class rules 
Class40 Monohulls in accordance with the rules of Class 40 ' 
Category RHUM Multi Multihulls ≥ 39 feet and ≤ 59 feet and not eligible for a class as defined above 
Category RHUM Mono Monohull ≥ 39 feet and not eligible for a class defined above. 

So as long as Sebastiens boat does NOT comply with IMOCA class rules it is ok. Should be easy enough, just don't renew the cert.

So happy (and the other Olympus sisterships) should be considered too small to compete in Rhum multi ?

(I guess adding the bowsprit makes the trick)

By the way Peyron beginning of the race was quite amazing, he was in front of the Outremer 4x and 5x, just a few miles behind the MULTI 50s

 

[Chasm]

Dunno, perhaps they waived the rule for boats that won prior editions.
Loick was real fast at the beginning, now seeking shelter slows him down. Not the worst idea either if the wants to sell the boat at the finish.

More interesting that the maximum length rule is gone. (72' for monos IIRC) Someone should have resurrected Club Mediterranée....  h34r:

 

[Raptorsailor]

  oh no Banque Roll ..now Banque really Rolled....

Maybe it's time they invested in hatchets in the cockpit for Banque roll, or we could save them the trouble and donate some.

 

[Pourquoi nous échouons]

IMOCA - Boris on the move.

 

[tama_manu]

Gabart and Joyon are "knitting" (FJ's term), not very good on the VMG

 

[Chasm]

Sam Davis headed back? No news yet.

Yannick Bestaven headed to port for a repair. track problems, can't hoist the sail.


Fabrice Amedeo headed to port. Who needs a bow spirit?


Another(?) article that Sobedo remains in the race. The are checking and sending in material and laminate specialists..

Dragon defending place 21 in C40.
Loick seems to do a coastal tour.

 

[trimfast]

Sam via twitter talks about delam. it is in french so I could only get partial translation. 

 

[Hwyl]

    Remade (Romain Pilliard) seems to be heading for La Coruna at 5.5 knts

 

[Your Mom]

It seems that although @Rail Meat has a US flag shown in the Skipper list and standings, he has a French flag in the tracker.  Minor detail, but I hope they fix that.

They must be reading this thread...  The tracker now shows his flag as US.  

 

[Roleur]

Looks like 8 out of 20 IMOCA's have retired.  Hard to argue they are more reliable than the Ultime's.  

 

[trimfast]

Looks like 8 out of 20 IMOCA's have retired.  Hard to argue they are more reliable than the Ultime's.  

Pulling my foot from my mouth as we speak.

 

[r.finn]

New generation Lombard still 1 & 2 in the 40 class.  

 

[terrafirma]

New generation Lombard still 1 & 2 in the 40 class.  

Given the conditions that's a good sign for the boat to be still performing with an advantage over the others.

 

[mad]

Ten million here, twenty million there.  No end to the resources available at the very top of the food chain.  Business as usual.

Anyone care to guess how much has been spent so far to build and campaign Banque Populaire?

As long as the sponser is happy on the return? Is it any of our business?

 

[JMore]

Looks like 8 out of 20 IMOCA's have retired.  Hard to argue they are more reliable than the Ultime's.  

Only Louis Burton has officially retired out of the IMOCAs. Isabelle Josche is obviously out as she has lost her stick and probably Fabrice Amedeo as he hasn’t got a sprit. I’m sure some of the others are probably out too but Alexia Barrier (instruments), Manuel Cousin (rudder) and Jeremie Beyou (steering) have said they are going to try and repair and carry on. Still not a great rate out of 20 starters. 

 

[Miffy]

Looks like 8 out of 20 IMOCA's have retired.  Hard to argue they are more reliable than the Ultime's.  

I think the Ultime mode of failure has been more distressing. The imocas generally have been much safer once they started tightening up class rules. Ultimes are like the open 90-00 imocas at the moment. 

 

[staysail]

Does seem pretty rough right now, just seen real time figures well above what I have seen predicted on the grib files for the region covered here,

https://data.diabox.com

Quite a handy website for west brittany.

 

[Mash]

Initiative Cœur (Sam Davis) heading back with significant delamination issues on the hull according to French RdR website

 

[ProaSailor]

Ten million here, twenty million there.  No end to the resources available at the very top of the food chain.  Business as usual.

Anyone care to guess how much has been spent so far to build and campaign Banque Populaire?

As long as the sponser is happy on the return? Is it any of our business?

Sure, why not?  According to this article at Le Télégramme (posted on October 15, 2017), this boat is only one year old (and has now capsized twice already!!!):

https://www.letelegramme.fr/informations/armel-le-cleac-h-pret-a-decoller-15-10-2017-11702572.php

The construction of the Maxi-trimaran "Banque Populaire IX", which cost 10 million euros (US $11.7 million), lasted 18 months. No less than 135,000 hours were devoted to the birth of this giant, of which 7,000 only for appendages (foils, rudders and drift). In total, 100 people worked on the project. 

Sounds like a very conservative cost figure to me.  At US $87/hour, 135,000 hours of labor alone would cost that much, not including materials and shop facilities.  Add to that the costs of support and now two rescue, recovery and repair operations.

Here is how Armel Le Cléac'h explained the first capsize last April ("I was lying down for five minutes to start a nap."):

FIRST WORDS OF ARMEL LE CLÉAC'H FOLLOWING THE CAPSIZING OF MAXI BANQUE POPULAIRE IX
https://www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr/news/premiers-mots-darmel-le-cleach-suite-au-chavirage-du-maxi-banque-populaire-ix

(P.S.  WTF, down vote by @Miffy?  Miffy is miffed.  The price of free speech, I guess.  Just the facts, jack)
(P.P.S.  You don't like this information being public @mad?  Does it spoil the fun of watching this demolition derby?)