[Other Sport] Vendee Globe 2020

[Albion in the north]

Anybody else following this?

33 sailors racing around the world non stop and unassisted. About 2 1/2 months of sailing for the leaders.
Around 4000 people have "climbed" Everest but less than 300 have sailed around the world solo and unassisted.

4 Brits in it this time, 3 of them female.
Never been won by anyone "non French".

 

[n1 gull]

Anybody else following this?

33 sailors racing around the world non stop and unassisted. About 2 1/2 months of sailing for the leaders.
Around 4000 people have "climbed" Everest but less than 300 have sailed around the world solo and unassisted.

4 Brits in it this time, 3 of them female.
Never been won by anyone "non French".

Absolutely love tracking it

 

[Albion in the north]

Absolutely love tracking it

Its been good hasnt it. Been on the Alex Thompson site?

 

[n1 gull]

Its been good hasnt it. Been on the Alex Thompson site?

Thanks for this I hadn’t but I’ve just checked it out looks ace

 

[Official Old Man]

Some tracking sites please.

EDIT sorted

 

[Albion in the north]

Some tracking sites please.

https://www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/race/

Positions updated 6 times a day for the whole fleet and you can also get a lot of information about Alex Thomsons' boat, environment and him physically during the race.

 

[Official Old Man]

https://www.alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/race/

Positions updated 6 times a day for the whole fleet and you can also get a lot of information about Alex Thomsons' boat, environment and him physically during the race.

So should I be worried about boat numbers-
29 - now going the wrong direction.
32 - looks completely lost.
33 - who must have overslept and missed the start.

 

[Albion in the north]

So should I be worried about boat numbers-
29 - now going the wrong direction.
32 - looks completely lost.
33 - who must have overslept and missed the start.

The numbers are positon of the boat in the race.
29 - Jeremy Beyou on Charal - A very fast boat and experienced sailor but he has a rudder problem so is going to find better conditions to fix
32 - also has a problem. I think its the hook at the top of one of his foresails is not releasing so again has to find a calmer place to either climb the mast to fix or maybe get outside help.
33 - Had the same problem as 32 at the start so returned to Sable D"Olonne to fix it. You can return there within 10 days of the race starting to get problems fixed. After that you are on your own.
In 2008 Michel Desjoyeaux returned to get a problem fixed and effectively started the race 40 hours after the others but went on to win the race.

 

[bhafc99]

Alex Thomson retiring. Gutted for him. Absolutely gutted.

I ****ing love this race, look forward to it for ages, and really really wanted him to win it this time.

He was running in first place, and then had massive cracks start appearing in some of the internal structure. He spent days repairing that with carbon fibre, metal struts and all - incredible work.

Started racing again a few days ago, by then in 12th place, and then barely 24 hrs on from that his starboard rudder has gone. Just confirmed his race his over and he’s heading to Cape Town to retire.

Brit hopes now sit with Sam Davies, who’s running 10th at present, in the main pack. She’s sailed a solid race so far, needs to keep with this current cold front as long as she can, because anyone who drops off the back of it is going to get left behind quite rapidly.


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[vegster]

Alex Thomson retiring. Gutted for him. Absolutely gutted.

I ****ing love this race, look forward to it for ages, and really really wanted him to win it this time.

He was running in first place, and then had massive cracks start appearing in some of the internal structure. He spent days repairing that with carbon fibre, metal struts and all - incredible work.

Started racing again a few days ago, by then in 12th place, and then barely 24 hrs on from that his starboard rudder has gone. Just confirmed his race his over and he’s heading to Cape Town to retire.

Brit hopes now sit with Sam Davies, who’s running 10th at present, in the main pack. She’s sailed a solid race so far, needs to keep with this current cold front as long as she can, because anyone who drops off the back of it is going to get left behind quite rapidly.


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One would have thought it might have been a good idea to test the boat thoroughly before departure ? Cracks in the internal structure are a major design flaw that should have been sorted. My money's on the Frenchman to win now.

 

[bhafc99]

Scary stuff overnight. The guy running third (Kevin Escoffier) suddenly sank.

Got into his liferaft and activated the distress beacon, in the Southern Ocean about 850 miles south west of Cape Town.

One of the other competitors (Jean Le Cam) diverted course and reached him after a few hours, but was unable to get him onboard from the liferaft, due to the high wind and waves.

Jean then lost contact with the liferaft as it got dark, and it was starting to look seriously worrying, before eventually finding him again after several more hours. Kevin now safely onboard Jean's boat.

 

[Official Old Man]

Scary stuff overnight. The guy running third (Kevin Escoffier) suddenly sank.

Got into his liferaft and activated the distress beacon, in the Southern Ocean about 850 miles south west of Cape Town.

One of the other competitors (Jean Le Cam) diverted course and reached him after a few hours, but was unable to get him onboard from the liferaft, due to the high wind and waves.

Jean then lost contact with the liferaft as it got dark, and it was starting to look seriously worrying, before eventually finding him again after several more hours. Kevin now safely onboard Jean's boat.

Wow, scary stuff. But reading the report, three boats turned to look for the guy. Am I right in saying that by having a second person on board, Le Cam is disqualified?

 

[bhafc99]

No, he won't be disqualified. The race committee will compensate him (and the other three) for the time they spent in the rescue.

It's happened in previous races, most famously when Brit Pete Goss had to turn round and battle upwind for almost two days, constantly getting knocked over by the adverse wind and waves, in order to rescue Raphael Dinelli. Reached him when he literally had just moments left stranded on his boat before it sank completely.

Famous shot taken from an airforce plane that could only watch and hope for hours…



But it depends what Le Cam has to do now. If he has to take Escoffier to Cape Town, then realistically no amount of compensation will get him back into the same weather systems as the others, and then he's lost the ability to run the same race.

There's an argument for trying to swop Escoffier onto Alex Thomson's boat, as he's already en route to Cape Town to retire, but that's probably logistically too dangerous.

More details coming out now. Apparently Escoffier's boat crashed off a wave and literally split in two. He had just seconds to set off the beacon and leap into the inflatable liferaft. Then spent almost 12 hours adrift while the others desperately looked for him in the dark. Terrifying stuff.

 

[Albion in the north]

Transcript of Kevin Escoffier's account of the boat sinking and rescue.
https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/20717/vendee-english-live-24-kevin-escoffier

In 2008 Jean Le Cam (Who rescued Kevin Escoffier yesterday) was rescued by the same boat (PRB) when it was sailed by a previous owner during the Vendee. Incredible seamanship and bravery.

 

[Albion in the north]

Alex Thomson retiring. Gutted for him. Absolutely gutted.

I ****ing love this race, look forward to it for ages, and really really wanted him to win it this time.

He was running in first place, and then had massive cracks start appearing in some of the internal structure. He spent days repairing that with carbon fibre, metal struts and all - incredible work.

Started racing again a few days ago, by then in 12th place, and then barely 24 hrs on from that his starboard rudder has gone. Just confirmed his race his over and he’s heading to Cape Town to retire.

Brit hopes now sit with Sam Davies, who’s running 10th at present, in the main pack. She’s sailed a solid race so far, needs to keep with this current cold front as long as she can, because anyone who drops off the back of it is going to get left behind quite rapidly.


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Sam Davies now struggling as also had a collision and heading north to assess the damage.

Ive been following Pip Hares journey to the start line for a year or so and it would be amazing if she was the first Brit home as well as the first female.

 

[bhafc99]

Things getting really interesting this morning.

After 64 days of non-stop racing, and having covered 23,500 miles so far, the leading six boats are all within just 78 miles of each other.

Nothing makes up for Alex Thomson and Sam Davies being out, but this is great to track.

 

[bhafc99]

Finish in sight. Leaders likely to cross the line in about 10–12 hours time, at current pace.

Unbelievably close result in store.

After 80 days non-stop racing, the current leader (Charlie Dalin) is about three hours closer to the line than second-placed boat (Louis Burton). But they're heading to the finish from completely different directions, so this is far from a procession. The weather could yet significantly favour either.

Then there are two other boats that could end up winning too. They both have 'time redresses' in their favour – they stopped racing to help with the rescue of Kevin Escoffier (as above), so the jury awarded them compensatory time, that's taken off their final finish time. Third-placed Boris Hermann is currently about 5hrs behind the leader, but has 6hrs redress due to him. And fifth-placed Yannick Besthaven is currently about 10hrs behind the leader, but has 10hrs 15 minutes redress due to him.

So we could end up with four boats all finishing within mere minutes of each other, after 80 days racing.

Struggling to think of any sporting comparison that captures how inconceivably close this is. Makes things like the Dennis-Taylor-world-snooker-final-coming-down-to-the-final-ball seem like foregone conclusions.

 

[schmunk]

Struggling to think of any sporting comparison that captures how inconceivably close this is.

I've seen a dead heat in a Zeppelin race...

 

[vegster]

Finish in sight. Leaders likely to cross the line in about 10–12 hours time, at current pace.

Unbelievably close result in store.

After 80 days non-stop racing, the current leader (Charlie Dalin) is about three hours closer to the line than second-placed boat (Louis Burton). But they're heading to the finish from completely different directions, so this is far from a procession. The weather could yet significantly favour either.

Then there are two other boats that could end up winning too. They both have 'time redresses' in their favour – they stopped racing to help with the rescue of Kevin Escoffier (as above), so the jury awarded them compensatory time, that's taken off their final finish time. Third-placed Boris Hermann is currently about 5hrs behind the leader, but has 6hrs redress due to him. And fifth-placed Yannick Besthaven is currently about 10hrs behind the leader, but has 10hrs 15 minutes redress due to him.

So we could end up with four boats all finishing within mere minutes of each other, after 80 days racing.

Struggling to think of any sporting comparison that captures how inconceivably close this is. Makes things like the Dennis-Taylor-world-snooker-final-coming-down-to-the-final-ball seem like foregone conclusions.

My moneys on the Frenchmen.

 

[Albion in the north]

My moneys on the Frenchmen.

Would be good to have a non frenchman for a change. Go on Boris! (Hermann not any other Boris)