Vendee Globe 2016?

[LionessRacing]

Routers allow for tide, and Sea state, and exclusion zones.

 

[Rob Zabukovec]

Does anyone know if the routers allow for tide??? The current router predictions for ALC and AT put them north of Ouessant towards the end of the race. Ouessant is not a good place to be singlehanded on a deep draughted boat in a foul tide with little wind.....

And there are traffic separation zones????

They're all familiar with Ushant, surely?

Of course, but it could be why ALC feels under pressure......Routing software is saying go north of Ouessant, whilst instinct and the shortest route say go south. Only ALC can lose a place.

 

[littlechay]

A racer can limit damage by taking care of boat. Frequent checks for wear. He lost it for me when videoing the birds. Armel may be quiet on the video updates but if I was a sponsor I'd want the quiet one who wins as opposed to the show man who doesn't.

I'm probably the opposite of a lot of folks who have come to respect AT more during this race. I've been disappointed by his speed and focus in recent weeks. When he pushes he has the boat speed to win. Unfortunately all the negative comments historically from the likes of Mike Golding have set him up to be too conservative. He should go balls out from here and sail like he used to. It's the only way past ALC and no one outside of our bubble cares who comes 2nd or 3rd. It's time AT NOW - get the big guns out and do everything you can.

Scopas is a troll! or a conspiracy theorist - either way not from this planet :wacko:

Still think the heart of the post is a fair question--is Alex too cautious now?

I don't think so. You don't get to be in second place at this stage of Vendee and so close to the leader by being too cautious. He took some nicely calculated risks early on (or got lucky) and then blew his foil (whether it fell off or hit something doesn't worry me at this stage as I'm sure it will all come out) and he has done well since then. On Stbd he has been in the hunt, on port he seems to have adjusted well. Could be that he has a better boat and better choice of sails too, but a boat has never won the Vendee by itself.

I'm impressed with him in this race as like most others I expected him to go for the 24 hour record as soon as they turned left for Cape Town and break his stick instead he was quick but smooth and seemed to have it all under control. Good race for him wherever he finishes now.

Armel has been super consistent. I don't speak French so I can't really comment on what he has or hasn't said to the press. Certainly the English speakers seem to have been more vocal on the PR side of things but I think that is probably just a cultural thing when compared with the French who don't tend to blow too much about their achievements.

 

[Zander]

Just over a hundred miles lead now. Its both a nice little buffer and way too close for comfort. Great work by Thomson keeping the pressure up to the line.

 

[Kenny Dumas]

Light air finish could get very interesting. Be nice to see stbd work for a while...

 

[jack_sparrow]

Time on port tack for the man in black to get to the red flare canal is shinking by the minute....Armel won't be a happy camper.

 

[jonas a]

A couple of things to consider before passing the final judgment on the two leading sailors. A) in the lighter winds, it's hard to know exactly what the real TWA's and TWS's were. B) Not really clear to what extent the sea state impact the usefulness of the foils. C) unreported damages

 

[moody frog]

Does anyone know if the routers allow for tide??? The current router predictions for ALC and AT put them north of Ouessant towards the end of the race. Ouessant is not a good place to be singlehanded on a deep draughted boat in a foul tide with little wind.....

And there are traffic separation zones????

They're all familiar with Ushant, surely?

That's the next thing, having to go that much up North, will bring them in tricky waters not only near Ushant but also when sliding down along the South Brittany and Vendée coasts: coasts and tricks Armel knows as well as "the palm of his own hand" as French say.

Of course, the faster the boat is the less influential the tricks are? But....

 

[Zander]

Time on port tack for the man in black to get to the red flare canal is shinking by the minute....Armel won't be a happy camper.

Dunno, there is some logic to the idea that the more of a straight shot it becomes, the easier it will be to defend.

 

[Alex_]

Starboard. VMG 22.7 vs 19.7. The fight is on.

 

[bissona]

Starboard. VMG 22.7 vs 19.7. The fight is on.

Mr Thomson has found another gear

 

[dcbsheb]

AT pushing as hard as possible to close the distance with only 4-6 days remaining. Crazy to think that these guys are within 100 miles of each other at this point. Cudos to both to be able to push their boats this much for this long. Says quite a bit about the construction of these latest generation foilers and the OD masts & keels.

 

[scopas]

Starboard. VMG 22.7 vs 19.7. The fight is on.

Mr Thomson has found another gear

That's what I meant. Now we see who the real Jackall is. Bring it home AT...

 

[stief]

AT pushing as hard as possible to close the distance with only 4-6 days remaining. Crazy to think that these guys are within 100 miles of each other at this point. Cudos to both to be able to push their boats this much for this long. Says quite a bit about the construction of these latest generation foilers and the OD masts & keels.

. . . and the construction of the skippers. Rich Wilson brought up the 'noise' issue again:

“We rocketed through the night in a manner that is not at all my style. Yet there seemed an opening to get to Cape Horn if we went very fast and the wind gave us the chance, so we did. It was shocking and noisy and bouncy and noisy and big seas and the boat ricocheting and noisy and fast, fast, fast. And yet, when all was said and done, our little boat icon on the position reports showed 14.9 knots. So for the leaders of this race, who routinely would have little boat icons showing 19 knots, or 21 knots, what must that be like on board other than petrifying. It’s the one aspect of this I do not understand: how can those sailors tolerate that stress?

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/18097/squalls-at-cape-horn

 

[jack_sparrow]

Time on port tack for the man in black to get to the red flare canal is shinking by the minute....Armel won't be a happy camper.

Dunno, there is some logic to the idea that the more of a straight shot it becomes, the easier it will be to defend.Last couple of days will be a round shot..Armel's sphincter has to be tightening right about now ...trust me ..I'm a Priest.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Time on port tack for the man in black to get to the red flare canal is shinking by the minute....Armel won't be a happy camper.

Dunno, there is some logic to the idea that the more of a straight shot it becomes, the easier it will be to defend.

Last couple of days will be a round shot..Armel's sphincter has to be tightening right about now ...trust me ..I'm a Priest.

about 40hrs from now AT will be able to wipe it for him.

 

[stief]

Whole article worth a 2nd or third read: VG features Nándor's words on coming out of the storm:

It took forever for dawn to break and I wasn’t sure we’d survive it in one piece. At times, we were caught in such enormous breaking waves, they simply grabbed the boat and threw her 20 – 30 metres away, where it felt like we’d landed on concrete. The boat is creaking and crackling, water flooding across everything.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/18105/putting-hungary-on-the-solo-offshore-racing-map

Tracker doesn't show waves tossing the boats 20 or 30 metres, of course.

 

[Rob Zabukovec]

ALC's dilemma is best characterised by the disparity in the routes indicated for Maitre Coq...... Play forward +152 hrs.

If ALC follows the router, he can't stay between AT and LSDO and lets AT inside him. If the weather doesn't go as predicted, he could be in trouble..... This could be a grand stand finish.

 

[RKoch]

AT under 100 miles DTL, 24 kn vs. 21....

 

[stief]

On fire