Team Vestas grounded

[Hobie Dog]

Is that even salvageable? Wouldn't pulling it back over the reef not be the final straw?

It'll buff right out.

At least the front hasn't fallen of...

Is the environment off to the left in that picture, or to the right?

Boat is already outside the environment. There is nothing out there except the sea, fish, birds and oh a busted up VO-65. :lol:

 

[NZL3481]

Short video interview with Neil Cox

The respect Neil Cox has for his teammates and in particular Alvimedica is crystal clear. Alvimedica's role in this shouldn't be underestimated and again I think you'll find it comes back to the close relationship Will and Nico had during the last VOR as skipper and navigator in amongst the broader respect competitors have for one another in this race.

Whilst there is a lot to do in terms of recovering the crew, gear, etc, it's still highly emotional for the guys involved. Neil Cox speaks like he's nearly lost a family member.

If there is a lesson as to how tight a team can be and what they'll do for each other, then this is it...

 

[couchsurfer]

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...all power to Vestas!...I'm hoping boat 8 was mostly completed already....''the lads on the floor decided to keep things rolling. They were kinda hoping to get some rides themselves,,but I'm sure some good wage might talk it off their hands''

 

[LeoV]

Stan Honey suggested one particular 'safe distance' model (for shallow water wave situations) in the low speed chase report. I have suggested in posts above that I personally considered 2nm a 'safe distance' to remote reefs like this volvo one. But given the ocean pilot comments about accuracy, 3nm might have been more appropriate. It turns out that for the 'main features' this reef seems to have been much more accurately charted than the pilot suggests, but who knows how accurate all the surrounding little islets and coral heads actually are.

Fatigue and work load have to be part of the 'safe distance' equation.

Good points, but

1; distance to warn the navigator for dangerous areas is depended on boatspeed. Specially on the oceans sailing. Onshore the dangers are normally all around . So your mentioned 3 miles is very short of sailing with 15 knots, while its enough if your sailing 5 knots.

I have done some stupid shit in delivery mode, like for training tacking so close as possible to the coast at night. Was in South Portugal when going north, light winds, getting bored. I was really close to shore, but never heard it, did see raised land to warn me, a black band. A low lying island would be missed. Did not hear anything of the ocean surf on the rocky coast. Another member was on depth meter watch, the other on GPS (which is less accurate near high coasts). Never again, to scary. See picture, will never forget this lesson.

This was pre elec charts. Since then I use the gps lat lon as warning signs for the crew to wake me. At least 10 m before the danger. Try to find easy to remember numbers for them.

 

[Guitar]

Great that nobody got hurt.

Good to hear they are headed back.

Bad break all around, but cheers to Vestas, great company and great team, they have my highest praise for their sponsorships / sailing.

 

[The Tug]

Ok I got the whole scoop on what happened.One guy leaned over the back to take a piss another went to get water for dry throat and the spliff in the helmsman mouth got wet when they hit.What do you recon!!

 

[GybeSet]

What do you recon!!

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you're mentally impaired

 

[mad]

The tone of this thread was to let Vestas speak as to what went wrong and not rush to judge / throw under a bus.

We are over 72 hours later and the press releases coming from Vestas are fucking PR bullshit garbage.

The team is ship wrecked on an island with minimal food, water awaiting rescue. They have a sat phone with a dying battery a local generator that runs just a few hours during the day/ night.
What part of that is fucking ridiculous ? This isn't hollywood land where we beam people off the island instantly. In the real world you can't build a tv studio out of coconuts and mangos

It is hard to have more PR when you are still trying to get people and equipment on site.

As for team vesta I hope their only complaint is the lack of females stuck on that island with them.

My point is coming from someone who is genuinely engaged and interested in the race.

And your the only one??? And your vested interest is??
Fuk of!

 

[couchsurfer]

Ok I got the whole scoop on what happened.One guy leaned over the back to take a piss another went to get water for dry throat and the spliff in the helmsman mouth got wet when they hit.What do you recon!!

.

...yes,,I think you're on to something f 'sure.....this definitely supports Robin's theory.....

 

[couchsurfer]

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Charlie Noble, on 02 Dec 2014 - 08:48, said:

The tone of this thread was to let Vestas speak as to what went wrong and not rush to judge / throw under a bus.
We are over 72 hours later and the press releases coming from Vestas are fucking PR bullshit garbage.

My point is coming from someone who is genuinely engaged and interested in the race.

.

.....nice one Charlie....so good of you to join the team!

I don't really care. I'm interested in the story (pictures, video) and that is why they have OBR's. If they can send same day, live pictures from reporters being bombed in Afghanistan then surely... Unfortunately, this story is getting old fast

....errr,welcome to SA,,'S'....I guess we'll put you in with the 'tough crowd' group ...I hope that's okay :mellow: <_<

 

[tama_manu]

3. .... In this particular case, a clearing depth (alarm) would probably have prevented the incident.

Excellent points as usual from Estar, PE and others. From any of the VOR teams, the odds are that this was a known danger, with a sort of risk analysis done and direction given. Abu Dhabi's statement is telling in that they came close and could have missed it at night - they knew about it. Keeping X miles away is a good measure, but if I'm taking some risk by going closer because I want to get to "point B" faster, and in racing you always want to win some extra meters, I usually limit the risk by saying we will tack or jibe at X depth. The value of X will have to do with what the chart tells me about the bottom over my intended course, my experience with the area, my appetite for risk, whether my boat is fragile or sturdy, etc. In the combination of fatigue, focus on sailing fast, and the million other things going on, at night, it would really help to get a little reminder from a computer that will continue to pay attention to the depth. I can't imagine that they set a depth alarm and then ignored it. I'm guilty of not setting one when I should, but when I do set it, I'm usually happy about it.

I realize this is jumping ahead, but if the above scenario is correct, then hubris has something to do with it too. (I wouldn't mention that to Stamm either. Or Joyon.) I think Estar is right, but then why don't they set an alarm? The culture of experienced sailors is to say "I've got that risk covered" and 99% of the time they do, so setting an alarm is overkill. But when sailing 15 knots at night, even the best could use a little help. When Vestas makes a statement we could find out that this is wrong headed, but as Estar puts it, using that tool on board probably would have prevented the incident.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

i want to see them build a new boat in 3 months and rejoin the race. How awesome would that be?

 

[Schnick]

Until we get better pictures, I don't think we can completely rule out the recovery of the deck and maybe even the rig, and construction of a new hull for launch maybe down in New Zealand?

Not likely, but not much detail at this stage. We know there are two spare rigs, enough spare rudders, lying around. Who knows about the keel. They may have got the sails off, and if not the Vestas practice sails are hardly touched.

 

[couchsurfer]

i want to see them build a new boat in 3 months and rejoin the race. How awesome would that be?

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....that'd be the type of Vestaspirit we've come to know and love!

 

[Chasm]

Would be quite awesome.

But how realistic is it? Even if you went to both Green Marine and Multiplast right now with a largish box of Euros.

 

[peragrin]

This part...

The team plans to make a full statement on the facts later this week.

Is the most important piece. So clearly we should shut this thread down for a couple days and see what they say before speculating more.

(Good luck with that!) ;-)

aww I want to make Gilligan island jokes.

Why is Team Vesta Sad? Because MaryAnne and Ginger sailed with Team SCA.

 

[Mudsailor]

'What we can say now, though, is that human error is at the root of the accident,' said Vestas’ latest statement

from Sail-World

haven't found the original comment yet

EDIT - http://www.teamvestaswind.vestas.com/blog/2014/december/next-steps-for-team-vestas-wind

 

[MasterRobin]

i want to see them build a new boat in 3 months and rejoin the race. How awesome would that be?

Vestas should be allowed to purchase or charter a VO70 to continue to participate in each leg.

They could continue to participate "unofficially" like Pen Duick VI in the 1977 race. It would be awesome to have a VO70 to watch among the current boats.

If a new VOD65 is then built they could return to "official" racing with the new boat.

 

[STSailing]

i want to see them build a new boat in 3 months and rejoin the race. How awesome would that be?

If Knut really wants 10 boats on the line next race they're going to need to build a new boat at some point; might as well do it now. Seems like that would be a PR win if they could get back out there.

 

[SCANAS]

I agree would be good to see them get a 70 & get back out there. Give them a pursuit start penalty & obviously not eligible for the podium but give them there own podium make it a bit light hearted.

Or:

Give all the boats some Vestas signage & split the crew up in the remaining boats 1 to each boat. Keep the sponsors happy.