[Closed] Vendee Globe Yacht race starts this Sunday, great footage of the new gen yachts

That's me glued to the Vendee website for the next 3 months and hopefully in Les Sables d'Olonnes for the finish.

😀

Excellent, I expect many failures and loads of awesome onboard footage.

😯

Fantastic videos and awesome kit.

I remember sailing two of Josh Hall's round alone boats out of Ipswich when they used to get chartered with him in the late 90s.

They were stunning in their day but that just highlights how far materials and design has come.

Simply amazing.

Yay, I'll be on the website too. I love the Vendee, even bought a house there.

Saw a clip on the news this morning - those boats are insane...

That first video is giving me goosebumps!

That thing is FAST!

They don't look very comfortable do they?

Cracking footage in that first video. Can't help thinking that the southern ocean is no respecter of carbon fibre though.

I was listening to Alex Thompson talking about the race on the radio earlier in the week. He's only completed 2 out of 5 Vendees. It's tough race in the harshest of conditions. Good luck to him though, it'd be nice to be the first non French sailor to win it.

I would not fancy spending 4 months at 45degrees.

Good luck to em all.

They don't look very comfortable do they?

Nice thread.

To win first you must finish !

Many (all) of these new boats broke on their first real race test, teething troubles of the scariest kind. These boats are extraordinary and sailed at pace alone. The auto pilot tech is amazing

Sadly not at the start as planned this tilme, 4 years has gone so fast, atmosphere is amazing and the crowds unbelievable for any sport never mind sailing.

Will be glued to the race, one of the frue sporting adventures. Sail fast, sail safe.

Probably going to hard getting a good night's sleep.

No such thing, short power naps 24/7. They do lots of specialist training - sleep
10-15 mins wake check stuff sleep 10-15 etc. These sailors have a natural ability to do that but they really work at it

There's an App too 😉

And the reason Alex hasn't finished, it's because he's hard on kit. He's quite a brute.

I've been on the last gen Boss around the Solent, even in the puddle here in 20knts it's was rocking 30knts true. Unbelievable, and so light on the tiller, like on rails.

I'm really hoping this years race gets some excellent footage of them blasting full chat, even light 10knts wind these things fly.

Whoop!!

Oh well that's me out then. I need a good solid 8 hours a night.

They look fast and wet....
I too am going to be glued to Vendee.
Stay safe folks - the limits of technology are exciting and dangerous.

@bikebouy

Is the app the netco sport one?

Last year whilst on holiday in Brittany we wandered around the pontoon where these boats were moored up in Lorient. I couldnt quite believe we were allowed to see the boats so close up, milling around with some of the world's top sailors. Kids loved it too, incredible boats, beautiful.

You can have your own boat and join in here: [url= http://www.virtualregatta.com/en/index_vendeeglobe2016.php ]Virtual Regatta[/url]
It can be a dangerous game though, I think some players don't get much more sleep than the real skippers

Bloody hellfire. 😯

Starting to look like F1 cars with bits sticking out all over the shop.

Yes it's the netco App.

Should pop up with 3 tables, along with the countdown timer in the top pane.

Interesting trade off between the extra drag of the foils and the lift/increase in speed they can offer. I think there needs to be something like 14 knots of winds to make them work - below which they're a disadvantage.
I'm doing the virtual regatta this time, could be fun.

That's incredible footage in the first video - it's beyond my comprehension doing that for an extended period of time. I can just about manage to get my head round sailing at that sort of speed around the cans for a couple of hours as part of a crew, but the energy and concentration required to cope with that across the ocean on their own must be phenomenal. Sportspeople in a class of their own - thanks for the heads up on the race starting.

Amazing stuff

presumably the best place to follow this is from the main Vendee globe website

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/

Fabulous vids.

One more thing before the start tomorrow, it's worth considering the comradeship each of the skippers have with each other. Whilst it's a full on flat chat race to win, they all support each other and wouldn't think twice to ditch the race and go help another skipper in trouble.

The App should give all the positions, race feeds and comms. Obvz the website might have a bit more content, but give the App a go.

This is worth a watch.

One more thing before the start tomorrow, it's worth considering the comradeship each of the skippers have with each other. Whilst it's a full on flat chat race to win, they all support each other and wouldn't think twice to ditch the race and go help another skipper in trouble.

I recall reading the account of Pete Goss turning round and beating back 160 or so miles to rescue Raphall Dineli. A fantastic achievement. He's certainly a guy I'd want in my corner when the chips were down.

This is worth watching if you have the time, from a certain alternative sailing site 😉

Is the Virtual Regatta worth it if you don't send any money?

I can't even find the "heading programmer" at the moment. Do I have to buy that?

What is TWA?

TWA is true wind angle (ie the actual wind direction which is different from AWA apparent wind angle which is what you feel on the boat and to which you set your sails).

No idea on the virtual app as it seems to have hung up and I am not registered yet

Thanks

Start in 10 mins - live here

Cheers jamba

So I'm ready for the start, course set

Then at 12:02 it reloads or tries to

So now I'm staring at a VR think going round

Amphill virtual regatta app not working for me, just watching youtube feed. Its a 80 day event we can "catch up" later and win just like Mich Des did in 2009 😉

Signed up to virtualregatta, not much of a clue what I'm doing but just put the spinnaker up, bared off a bit and set auto TWA. The app itself is a voyage of discovery

So how are we all doing?

I'm upto 83,055th so quite excited

I'm Ampthill on there as well.

74,139th loads of people got caught to close to Spain

VR app failed to work for me so yesterday I lost interest - Jamabalya Racing never left the dock 😐

bared off a bit and set auto TWA. The app itself is a voyage of discovery

That's a good way to hit the land 🙂

bore off btw 😉

I'm not far behind you Ampthill in about 106,000 (Stapleford Flyer) currently on starboard about to take your stern off!
I was out when the race started and although I set the boat up before the start it headed off too far north with the wrong sail up so I'm playing catchup.
J-dog, I'm having to just play on my phone as I can't get the web page to run on my old PC.

Alex upto 2nd, 10NM behind Armel..

Great photo..

[img] [/img]

I've slipped back to 140,000 or something. I'll look for the Stapleford flier tomorrow

But I think that the virtual rankings are a bit odd. Maybe overly based on the "standard route"

I just joined - currently at ~210,000, so looks like I have some catching up to do. I'm in 'KAPOW sailing'
Nick

I'm in the heady ranks of the top 10,000 😀 Hugging the Portuguese coast.Going to get reamed on the way across to the Canaries though 🙁 .Might have to invest in the pro-sail upgrade.

Loving some of the images and videos of the new foiling boats. I hope they hold together....
[img] [/img]

That's what, 8-10 tons and 60' of boat...
!

@jambalaya appreciate the advice on terminology. Currently doing splendidly well in 83 thousand two hundred and something and not hit land. Have you got off the start line yet?

Great thread, great images. Bookmarked!

Bloody hellfire.

Starting to look like F1 cars with bits sticking out all over the [s]shop[/s] ship.

Woohoo.In 24 hours I've lost 100,000 places.And then gained them all back and then some.Now sat in the top 5000 (about the same as my mtb results) after taking a flyer through the Canaries.

Top 5000 respect

Dropped back to 200,000th

nice job Rorschach ..... is that the boat name also? (need to keep an eye on you!)
I to up to about 4500 by going east but then lost a load in the canaries .... currently about 50k but hopefully climbing.

Alex back into 3rd, took a bit of a detour for a while but made hell of a lot of positions back up. I'm following them on twitter too, loads of onboard footage and 1/2 hr updates from most of the skippers. Some amazing shots folks, just about to settle with a bottle of wine and scan through them all...

The problem with hugging the coast is at some point I've got to gybe and start heading towards Cape Verde ,lest I run headlong into the centre of the doldrums.And at this point I'll lose about 100,000 places....again.

59938th at the minute, I'm wondering how best to get away from the coast as well.
I'm going away for 2 weeks on Monday so it'll be interesting to see where I've ended up once I get back.
I'll have to look some of yous up, I'm crousti no-mates at the minute

Coastal route looking dodgy in about a days time but of course it can all change. There is a reason why the actual skippers are all staying offshore though!

All looking for low pressure systems, so East or West of the Cape Verde's?? Hmmm most look West...

Alex back into 3rd, took a bit of a detour for a while but made hell of a lot of positions back up. I'm following them on twitter too, loads of onboard footage and 1/2 hr updates from most of the skippers. Some amazing shots folks, just about to settle with a bottle of wine and scan through them all...

Alex ... glad for him he has got back in the game, as much as I want a Brit to do well imo he is no where near the level of the top French guys. If he wins it will be by boat design choices.

Twitter feeds sound good .. so maybe finally I should sign up, I need more social media distractions like a hole in the head though 😐

Virtual Race - my setup never worked in time for the start so I gave up.

Only cost me 48,000 places......woop 😐

Just seen that the first place VR boat is currently stuck off the coast of Africa doing under 6 knots

I'm heading West of Cape Verdes as the wind is looking very light inshore over the next couple of days

At the moment I'd rather do badly doing my own thing for my own reasons. Than do better following the auto suggestions and learning nothing

edit

Hmm. There is a boat off the coast of Africa that is slightly South of me but well inshore. Its 80,000 places ahead of me. Clearly I must take these ranking too seriuosly

Hola Cape V' 😀

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxEO3_1WEAA6XjD?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

Late starter but I have set up a group called "stw" if anyone would like to join.

@bike shows you how powerful these boats are - double reef (?) in fairly moderate breeze. I recall a fried who has a Class 40 say first reef on that boat was at around 14 knots

I have applied to the stw group

These things are shifting! Surely, as long as wind or breakage doesn't muck it up, we're in line for a record?

Also applied to group.

One tweet from Alex stated "I've been clocking 30knts ave for the last 2hrs"

😯

That is mental

I should have had Hugo Boss as my virtual boat. I thought I'd chosen a foiler but I haven't

'kin 'ell !

No foiler here either. I just assumed all the VR boats would be equal unless you paid for the upgrades.

So now I just have to hope I can claw back the 24 to 36 hours I am behind the rest of the STW group. I still think some of you are too close to Africa though.

How do I join the stw group - can't see a group option, just the option to find individual boats?

Edit - ah, got it! Community for chat stuff, not on the game itself. Just applied to join.

Heading towards the doldrums.. overheard on the radio "ere Mum, I can see the Sea from ere.."

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxObRkIXUAA3GFW?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

And Alex playing "peek a boo"

[img] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CxOiHOKXEAAs5Te?format=jpg&name=large [/img]

Paying the price for going too far east......lost 60,000 places in 24 hours 😥

There are so many playing it though, you only need to slow by a couple k an hour or change course by a few degrees and tens of thousands pass you immediately. Over 400,000 on it now.
P.s. what's a foiler? I know nowt about sailing except the names of a couple of sails, and that only from playing VR in the past

See the big wing thingies sticking out the side of Boss in the photo above....thems foils. Hydrofoils (the windward one is usually retracted) create lift,partially lifting the boat from the water reducing drag and therefore increasing speed.They also increase the righting moment (how much force it takes to make the boat heal over) meaning they can use more sail area (though this is somewhat nullified by the rules restricting the beam and amount of ballast they can use).
They are faster downwind but possibly slower upwind (not that there's much of it in the Vendee) but the issue is how reliable they will turn out to be especially how they handle the southern ocean.
They are pretty scary beasts capable of 30knots plus and demanding to sail.....ON YOUR OWN!!.....For 75-80 days.Bonkers.
[img] [/img]

Years ago all the fuss was about canting keels, still fail occasionally now after all this time. How times have changed.

I can imagine a few scenarios where the foil would fail, extreme lean angle in rough seas where constant bashing off short chop would make the foil bend and fracture. Then theres the scenario where the foils under too much load "gripping" the water and trying to force the boat upwind or the more obvious one where the foil won't retract back in the box...

Gotta love this technology, all the time testing in Weston Tank simulation to then push it to the extreme.

Fabulous.

Biggest worry is them hitting stuff in/on the water.The have designed them with shear points as they'd do a LOT of damage to the boat at 30knots!!

Tangy Lamotte has lost the top part of his mast, now back at Cap Verde for a little "bricolage" (diy) no help is permitted inc any outside materials not aboard. He let people know they cannot come within 5m of the boat. It's going to be a project to rig something to allow him to fly any decent headsail. Bon courage

Thanks Rorschach, great explanation.

Still Boss'ing it.. 65nm in the lead, and pulling 5knts more boat speed the two behind him..

[img] :large[/img]

And JLeC at full chat..

[img] :large[/img]

These photos are current or library ?