For a man who has relatively speaking only been following this show, or anything RTW for that matter for all of 5 minutes...let alone got out of your own lake...you are a FFOK (Fuckin Font of Knowledge) Bucmeister.
Think you maybe over complicating it with the women bit. Witt is a wanker but a very talented one on a lot of fronts, but with limited RTW experience and most of his offshore experience is in his own pond, and whilst 90/100' the last few years, Syd's was not big a budget show, yet Witt made it happen.
And very sensible too, given just how gusty it was. Bramblemet must have been massively under reading for some reason. The stronger gusts must have been about 27 ish knots, and with the ebb as well.
You really know how to sour the milk Jack, but that's okay. It must have been your childhood.
It goes to show that when you put a F1 on a dirt track, something's going to break.
You need to remember that these failures were boats, not crew. Pirates were not exactly whole either. The had an unscheduled stopover to fix the keel ram - which resulted in the keel being locked in the centre. The ABN boats admitted they kept their breakages secret, but that they did have a host of keel issues as well. Compared to the VO70's (especially these first gen VO70s) the VO65 is a truck. The only way they break is if you do the breaking. There is no reason to think that they will break any easier this time around than last time. The VO65 has shifted the emphasis firmly onto the crew, and how well they perform. For better or worse the boat isn't what will limit a leg.
I guess designers and builders don't like any publicity of boat damage, which is understandable, but certainly secrecy seems the norm when it comes to structural failures and design and gear failures. With a fleet like this, all maintained at "the Boatyard" there must be more opportunity for secrecy regarding damage and repairs than with more normal races. We know of one case (only one?) of hull delamination after just one short roughish North Atlantic trip, but the repair was only known about because it was done away from "the Boatyard" and could be seen by looking over a fence. It wasn't mentioned in any VOR news that I recollect. I should be very surprised if these boats have not all collected their fair share of repairs, and/or unseen and unrepaired damage. Carbon composite hull testing and NDT in general, is far from a perfected science as yet. I don't think we folk outside the Organisation can know enough to accept they are the "unbreakable trucks" which you suggest, even though they have low RM, and for sure the Organisation is not telling us about defects and repairs; why would they?
While the VO70 had moments of more raw power and speed, in doing a quick google search there is not strong evidence that overall performance was that much greater than the VO65 so I'm wondering what you mean by truck? A VO65 broke a round Britain record set by a VO70. If I find it I'll update, but I remember reading someone involved with the VOR stated the speed differences between the VO65 and the VO70 was only around 15% so I could see the comparison more like NASCARS Sprint Series (VO70) to the Xfinity Series (VO65).
Perhaps the deeper point is that while fast(er) may be cool, you ultimately have to finish the race and other than piling a VO65 on a reef (not the boat's fault), all boats that started finished, including DF with a mast swap.
Great indeed, particularly because I think it shows why Mapfre did so well, at least during that portion of the race. It had the best sail plan for the conditions, a reef and two smaller headsails, skating along, no bow plunging like many of the others. Most of the footage of the other boats doesn't show the upper end of the rigs, but they all appeared to be using larger headsails alone or in combination. Dongfeng seemed to be persisting with a similar sail plan to the one that caused its mast to break in the last race??? Just observing.
If you grabbed Maserati (Ericson 3), Black Jack (Telefonica) and Giacomo (Groupama 4) as is (putting aside say powered aspect and regatta sails) and put them in the start line they would leave the 65's for dead after day 1 and last a lot longer than you think. Some are/were until recently still carrying original rigs.
http://www.sail-world.com/Australia/Volvo-Ocean-Race--Rob-Salthouse-compares-VO70-with-new-one-design-VO65/132240?source=google
+1 and the subject will never be a dead horse bucc!
Don't have to convince me Jack. Would never happen but a new hull build would probably be lighter, stronger/stiffer. Modern rig and sail set > Beast.
