Many, including me, thought that when Alex boat lost a foil, that his race would be finished, at least for the first places. Well, I was wrong and this time I am happy for being wrong😉. Alex, that was caught some days after breaking the foil by Armel, instead of continuing to lose time, put on a huge fight and for several days the two boats race almost side by side, like if the finish line was in sight.
Quite incredibly, yesterday they made more 100nm than anyone on the fleet (near 500nm) and I don't think they have better sailing conditions than some others. Kind of a psychological and physical battle to the limit those two are fighting. It would be interesting to see who is going to break first, or what is the boat that is going to break first (I hope not) since they are pushing them to the limit too.
Another point of interest is a huge storm that is coming from the West and it has the possibility of catching the second group of boats, the one where the American Rich Wilson, the Japonese Kojiro and the New Zealander Colman are. If they are not able to make over 300nm a day they will get caught by the storm, with mountainous seas and winds over 50k. Yesterday most of them has made between 225 and 305nm a day.
You can follow the weather evolution and the boats here: Orange is rock'roll sailing, red is already too much and violet and blue...well nobody will want to be there, not even these great sailors in very seaworthy boats:
Ok, this is going to be a short post: If you want an all around cruiser with 33ft and have only 150 000 euros, buy this one. I know magazines cannot say this but I don't care, this is not a magazine and I don't have publicity concerns.
This design is an old one, I mean the hull, it is a 7 year old design by Ceccarelli and it was a remarkably advanced design at that time, so advanced that it seems brand new. The little Azuree has been given proves, again and again, that it is a fast and very seaworthy boat. It had a ugly cabin and a good interior, a big one due to hull design, and the boat beam.
It has now a nicely designed cabin, that made the boat beautiful, and the interior was bettered with the possibility of choosing different elements according to different needs and personal taste. The quality and the design are also good, being the quality a bit over the usual on boats of this price.
It was tested recently by "Sailing Today" that said, not surprisingly:
"At the performance end of the market, a well-designed chine has more impact, giving the 33C superb balance and poise, even in challenging conditions. Her twin rudders and moderate, high-aspect rig combined with almost full-length single chines mean that she heels over, sits in the chine, and simply flies....
Sailing in 13-15kt the 33C was close winded, playful on the helm and genuinely quick. She rarely sailed below seven knots and was often hitting eight. Heeled over she sat in the chine and she was superbly balanced, but still playful on the helm...The quality of the finish is a notch above the standard production yacht, too."
It is lighter (and probably stronger), using now vacuum infused lamination techniques and vinilester resins, very rare or unheard on boats with this price. The weight is just a bit over 5T , with 1.9m draft a highly efficient torpedo keel and a ballast ratio of 30%. That and the big beam (3.66m) gives him a lot of power and stability that is used to rig 66m2 of sail area.
A very cute boat, with a great big cruising interior, fast, seaworthy, well built and not expensive? What do you want more.😉
Yes, what a look 😉 Like they had done with Wild Oates, they cut and past old 90ft Nicorette, that is now a 100ft maxi, CQS. Except for part of the hull the boat is all new and includes a DSS system as well as some odd looking structures for holding the shrouds and on the transom probably contributing for increasing stability at high heel angles. I like the boat but I do really hate the transom design that seems to be maximized for light wind sailing and upwind sailing but will add nothing regarding downwind sailing. I am very curious regarding those wings on the back and their use. It looks they will increase stability at high heel angles but at the cost of a lot of drag. Can't wait to see them working.
My bet is that it will not be a winner on the Sydney Hobart, if Comanche and Wild Oats are on the race and they will be there. Anyway, more spectacular boats on a great race can only make it greater. The new design is from Simonis Voogd / Bakewell-White.
This was one of the boats that I was waiting with more curiosity: a kind of a Pogo 12,50 with a better cruising interior, a hard dodger and a bit more adapted to long range cruising, at least in a more comfortable way.
Django, started to be a mini racer shipyard (it still offers them), like Pogo, little by little, has become more involved into making fast cruising boats and both brands make today more performance cruising boats than race boats.
They used the know how of making racing boats to make light strong cruising boats, much on the hull lines of the solo racers they also build. We talked here already about the smaller brother, the Django 9.70, a yacht made along the same lines but, by his size, less adapted for long range cruising and the little 7.70, that even if less adapted, is however making a cruising circumnavigation with a French solo sailor
The Django 12.70 shares many of the Pogo 12.50 characteristics. Lets compare dimensions and you will see what I mean. First the Django ones (m, m2 and kg): Hull Length (12.48 - 12.18), beam (4.35 - 4.50), Draft (2.20 or 2.90/1.20 - 2.20 or 3.00-1.20), Ballast (2225 - 1900), Light Displacement (6500 - 5500), B/D (0.35 - 0.35) Sail Area (114 - 106).
The Django is a bit longer, a bit narrower, a bit heavier and with a bit more sail area. Very similar boats being probably the Django a bit better upwind but with very similar all around performance. The Django, contrary to the Pogo has a back stay (that contributes for a better upwind performance), interior proper doors and a more comfortable cruising interior.
On the cockpit the boat features one of the more functional rig arrangements for solo sailing I have ever saw on a cruising sailboat and the shelter offered by the rigid dodger seems quite good, even if it seems a bit low for big guys, but that would be easy to sort it out for a bigger owner. The Djangos are designed by Rolland & Delion. Pierre Rolland is a sailor that had raced successfully mini racers on transats, designing his own boats, before starting a carrier as a NA, Delion is one of the more talented NA of the new generation.
Another great bluewater passage makers that joins the JPK 45 (that seems to have a better finished interior) as one of my preferred fast voyage boats, I mean between the ones that have not a huge price. A basic one costs 300 000 euros and the boat on the photos 360 000 euros. Only the swing keel option costs 30 000 euros, a costly but valuable addition. Voile magazine tested it and they had only said good things about it. A sailor's boat no doubt, one that will shine on a transat or on a circumnavigation by the trade winds.
It is on its way again, with 220 sailboats from all types, including many cats. The yachts that are doing it are mostly recent boats and it is a good opportunity to look at their performance on an Atlantic crossing, following the principle that it is possible to sail a fast boat slow but not possible to sail a slow boat fast, I mean out of what it is really his best potential.
The ARC is not a race even if it has a small racing division and it is only a race for those, that are a very small number regarding the 220 yachts. Most of the boats are from European cruisers that are making the Atlantic loop, passing the European winter on the Caribbean and getting back to Europe in the Spring.
There are also a considerably number of charter boats that are doing the same, going for the Caribbean charter season to come later to the Med one on the European Summer. The Charter boats take the opportunity to offer charter place to the ones that want to have the experience to cross the Atlantic. They are not racing since the crew is typically very inexperienced (with an experienced skipper) but nobody likes to go slow. You can see here what are the boats that are racing and the ones that are cruising. On the list you will have at the end of each boat line racing or cruising, as it is the case.
https://www.worldcruising.com/arc/ar...ntentries.aspx
The organization provides assistance, a social program and loans a satellite tracker for a fee that can go from 1000 to 1200 pounds for boats between 10.3 and 16.29m plus 125 pouds for each crew member. Not much for what is offered and the fun to make a transat with more 200 sailboats. Even on a cruising spirit it is much more fun to make it this way than alone, not to mention comparing the performance of our boat and crew with the one of other cruisers.
I will be more interested on cruising boats till 60ft, with a special interest on the smaller ones, specially the ones that are doing a fast passage. I have noticed some already, even if it is too soon to have a global view, made more difficult because some boats are choosing to go over the rhumb line (or to the North of it), were there is more wind (too much for some), others go really South, almost near the African coast, where there will be less win and others go on the middle of the two extreme options, for medium to strong winds, but not as strong as the ones on the North. Some days ahead there will be a big high pressure center and the ones on the North will be the ones that will have a better chance to avoid it.
Regarding the boats, some yachts doing a great performance, including among them and going fast, a A35, several More 55, a Grand Soleil 43BC , a Moody 45DS, a Dufour 44p, several Oysters, two Hanse 575, a Dufour 455, a Bavaria 51, a Solaris one 42, a Leopard 46, two Discovery 55, a First 40, a FP Lucia 40, three Lagoon 620, a Leopard 48, a Mobile 53, a Catana 47, a Bavaria 47, a X 43, a Lagoon 42, a Lagoon 450, a Beneteau 50, a Catana 531, a Baltic 51, a Baltic 50 a Dufour 385, two Elan 434, a Lagoon 52, a FP Lavezzi 40, a Sense 50, a XP50, Hylas 54 and a Arcona 400.
Lot's of boats? not in 220 and the fact there are many different types of boats there means that downwind on the trade winds, many boats can go fast, even if the speed is not proportional to size. If we consider size then the better performance goes to the A35, the Arcona 400, the GS 43, the Lucia 40, the Lagoon 42, the First 40, the Lavezzi 40, a More 55 a Catana 531 and a Dufour 385.
Once again we see that condo cats can be fast downwind almost at the same speed than lighter performance cats and that it is not enough to have a fast performance cat to sail faster (there is a brand new 60ft Outremer 5x that has been slower than the Lagoon 42), that the cats in a general way are not faster than monohulls and that among monohulls several types have not a very different pace. Having lots of wind, going downwind and not having racing crews seems to contribute to equalize things in what regards performance even if performance cruisers tend to be faster, specially the smaller ones.
That is just the beginning, later, near the end of the passage I will make another post to confirm or not these ideas and to see what are the boats that really have shined on this ARC. You can follow the ARC on a tracker here: http://yb.tl/arc2016#
And the big winner on the 2nd week is Alex Thomson and Hugo Boss that increase his lead over the 2nd to 120nm, almost beating last night the solo monohull 24 hours record, doing 531.5nm (less 3nm) at an average of 22.1K and they did not even reach the zone where all Vendee Globe records are beaten, on the great southern sea desert.
His boat, Hugo boss is on these wind conditions (medium winds) the fastest boat on the fleet.
The designer of almost all the boats that are on the head of the race, Guillaume Verdier, explained why:
He says that even if the hull designs are not very different, each hull and each foils are maximized for a given set of conditions that are selected by the skippers, according with the studies made by their team regarding the more likely conditions they will meet on the race. They try to find the better compromise that allows them to have the overall better performance.
This means that even if the boats and the foils were all designed by Verdier, they are not equal and the foils of Hugo Boss, Alex's boat are the ones that are less good all round but the best ones on the type of conditions they have been meeting, medium conditions.
His foils are bigger, give more lift and therefore the boat is faster on these conditions but on stronger conditions they risk breaking more easily and he has to take them in sooner than the others. It is a long race and it is just at the beginning.
In meantime I have just heard that Alex is going to break the record today since he had already made more miles than what is needed and also that bad luck had come to him:
Just 45m ago he hit a floating object, or animal, in a very violent way. He was going very fast at 24k, trying to sleep, when the boat stopped suddenly and turned around. He has damages on one of the foils but it seems that the boat is structurally sound and not making water. He reduced speed till the sea and wind become more favorable for a full boat and hull inspection.
And the top racers that use foils discovered another problem: As if it was not already difficult living on these rockets for three months, bouncing around and permanently with the sound of the waves reverberating on the carbon hull, now it become much more difficult with the foils at speed making a terrible noise, the kind of noise it is very difficult to endure. Just hear this:
Some gorgeous new pictures and some dimensions were revealed as well as the hull design that seems quite interesting. It is a relatively beamy boat (4.30m) with a big LWL (12.66) for the hull Length (13.02) and a very light boat for one with a centerboard with all the ballast inside the boat (11T).
I have some doubts regarding the displacement and I would have liked to see the ballast and the stability curve, but they don't make it public. If someone can have access to it I would be interested.
The centerboard is deep, with 2.8m and the draft with it raised is only 0.92m. The centerboard is "helped" by two small lateral foils. I suppose the boat can be beached over the central keel, the foils, and the rudders but all that has to be quite strong to allow it without problems.
If the boat was mine probably I would not have it beached except on an emergency. Not the same thing as an aluminium hull. The rudder and foils can always found a stone or rock and I doubt that they can be strong enough for that eventuality. Well, one can always dive before doing it to prevent that but on cold climates I would not like to have to do that 😉
The tankage is not big for the size, with 400L of water and 200L of diesel for a big Yanmar 80hp engine. The sail upwind is 83m2. That don't seem much for the weight of the boat. On the design it seems that there is an option for a cutter rig with the smaller sail going really inside the boat, over the cabin. If that is so the sail area will be more interesting since besides the staysail it can have a genoa with 53m2. That will give a sail area of 111m2 plus the 25m2 of the stay sail. The sailing potential becomes more interesting and even more with a 103m2 Geenaker.
The boat design is very nice and even if they don't say nothing about it, I hope they will have an option for a deep keel, or even better, a swing keel with all the ballast on the keel, to make this a more powerful sailboat, more stiff and able to carry more sail upwind, a faster boat able to face bad weather with easiness. That hull really deserves that.
This is not a boat to make concurrence to entry mass production builders, it will be supposedly better built, with a better finished interior and the price will be around 390 000 euros, with VAT?
More here: http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2016/05/feeling-1390.html
Well, the name says it all about the boat program: a low flying machine that is not pointed to top racers but to the average sailor that wants to have a lot of fun and experience what was reserved before for only top sailors. The Easy was designed by Guillaume Verdier (top racing NA) and it is built by Absolute Dreamer Jean-Pierre Dick's company. It has been nominated for the Yacht of the year contest on the Multihull division and I saw on a video the faces of the testers: pure delight. What a luck to have a job like that☺!!!!
This cat has 8.1m of length, 4.3m of beam, weights only 325kg, has a max charge of 260kg, a big mast with 13.7m and it was tested by Multicoque. com.... and we can feel the wonder of Briag Merlet regarding that test:
"The wind is a bit below 10 knots, enough for nice sailing, installed on top of the foils. There are many boats around us in the weak wind, but all seem to be stopped. The catamaran is sailing in the middle of them displaying peaks at around 25 knots. Yet it is difficult to realize the speed without watching the other boats and the coast. It seems so easy ...If we look at the sails, it seems that the wind is turning with us. We are always regulated for a close haul. Indeed, our apparent wind is such that, once the boat on foils, all the sails are as tight as they can be. A Gennaker was originally planned but was abandoned because even downwind it deflated automatically!"
If flying on that one seems not only great fun but possible to the average sailor, having one seems more complicated since the top building, all in carbon, makes it very expensive, at 150 000 euros.
The Outremer 45 looked already well, the 4X looks even better. Many said that the new 45 was slower than the previous model and even if that seemed not to have any downside on the sales (already 30 sold) it seems Outremer decided to correct that with the 4X.
The 4X is just a 45 with a 2ft longer waterline due to the increase on the transom platform, with less 500kg due to many carbon parts, among them the daggerboards, the spars and also the suppression of the rigid bimini. The weight is now 8.2T and the genoa area was increased in 16m2.
The interior is the same, a nice one about the size of the one of a lagoon 42, kind of diference in space between a performance cat and a condo cat, that and the speed. The interior can be about the same size, but it is much nicer not with an apartment look, like on the Lagoon.
The Outremer 4x is surely a very fast cruiser having on the price the only thing not to like. If an Outremer 45 with a minimum decently equipment costed already about 600 000 euros (without VAT) this one will not sell for less than 750 000 euros, possibly more. I wonder what kind of fast monohull one can buy with that kind of money? A Solaris 50 costs way less than that, with its luxurious interior and all. Price is really the only thing I don't like on the 4X ;-)
I found out that I don't have on the Blog a post about the Pogo 30, I mean, I have one regarding a movie with an ocean passage, but none about the boat. Quite incredible since I like a lot this little boat and only explained because I had posted about it on the Sailnet thread, on one of the last posts. So, lets talk a little about this fantastic pocket long range cruiser and I say long range cruiser because it is not only used for that (with several Atlantic crossings) as it was born out of the Pogo 6.5 mini transat racer and from the desire many sailors had to have an inexpensive fast small cruiser built with the same characteristics: Speed and seaworthiness, long range, but also with a functional and comfortable cruising layout.
Pogo satisfied that aspiration, back in 2002, with the Pogo 8.80 from whom the 30 directly descends. The Pogo 8.80 was a popular boat that made several cruising Atlantic crossings but the market regarding those boats was much smaller than what it is today and the Pogo 30 has much better accommodations, is more powerful and fast too. I suspect that in 3 years more Pogo 30 here sold than Pogo 8.80 on 10 years.
Designed by Finot/Conq, it can have a fixed torpedo keel (1.95) or a more popular swing keel (with all ballast on the keel - 2.5/1.1m) has a hull based on the mini racers, very beamy (3.70m) with all the beam pulled back and has a rounded bow. The deep draft, the considerable ballast and the large beam give it a lot of stability maintaining a very good reserve stability and a very good AVS.
The Pogo 30 is very light with only 2.8T and built like a racing boat, using infusion on all parts including the hull structure. The sandwich uses a mousse PVC (closed cells) on the core , the boat has two waterproof compartments one at the bow one on the transom, it is unsinkable and uses, like the other Pogo, a mast without backstay.
If you are looking for a 30ft, fast, seaworthy, offshore boat that deliver a lot of fun sailing and don't mind to have a basic but functional interior, you should take a lot at the Pogo 30, that costs about 90 000 euro on its most basic version, no sails, no electronic, no VAT. They provide on their site a complete list of extras with prices. http://www.pogostructures.com/en/
The popularity of the boat is responsible for a huge number of videos on the internet. I will select some, but there is more there and increasing every season. There is also a good test sail by Toby Hodges that had a lot of fun test sailing the Pogo.
What a race!!! I never expected to see, well below Madeira, 7 boats separated for less than 55nm. And what to say about the performance of Riou and his boat with old type foils?
For the moment Armel is ahead but only with a 9nm advantage over Riou while Alex and Hugo boss have been by far the fastest last night, recovering from his bad tactical option, winning 20nm to everybody, being now 3rd and winning miles on the two first.
If you have never followed the race try it on the tracker and you will see how amusing it is, with lots of options like seeing the wind they have and the one they will have ahead, trying to understand their tactical options in relation with the weather. Here is the tracker, now working well:
We had already talked here about this boat, while on the project stage, but many of these projects are just dreams that never sea the light o the day... too good to be true.
Just look at this boat, all carbon, beautiful, with a dinghy garage and a swing keel (1.6-3.75m), with all ballast on the keel weighting between 8.8/10.5T (depending on equipment), 1T of water ballast on each side, a big tankage (750L of water and 750L of diesel), a comfortable interior and tell me if it is not too good to be true.
The lucky owner, that commanded his dream boat to Finot/Conq, reached on the maiden trip over 24K. Good for him, not all have the possibility to see their dreams come true, but at least this guy had and I can say that I like his dreams, that, I am sure, would not be far from the dreams of many.
I know, I know, it was some months back, but I was cruising and the movie is really great, in English too. They caught a big storm and the images are quite interesting. So if you have not seen it I really recommend it to you.
Arnaud Boissieres meet an old cruising boat out of the Portuguese coast. Even if Arnaud has not a fast boat (he is 14th sailing with the group of Pros with older boats) look at the diference of speed and also to diference in the trim, with the IMOCA going upwind and making a lot of apparent wind.
Looking at the race it is with pleasure that I see a lot of close fighting with PRB and Riou, on the boat without the new foils pursuing Armel, only 10.5NM away. The first 6 are inside a radium of 36nm, really nothing considering this race.
Great race for the New Zealander Conrad Colman (15th), for the Japonese Kojiro Shiraishi (21th) the American Rich Wison (23th) and the Hungarian Nandor Fa (22th). It may appear strange that I am looking at guys over the 15th place but that's because I know this race, I know how good are the Pros that are ahead and what it takes for dreamers and adventuriers to be on this race and sailing as good and fast as these ones are doing. They are all extraordinaire charachters with extraordinaire life stories. Trust me and read their life story on the links below and I believe you will not lose your time and will understand better how big this race is, not only for the race itself but by the ones that are racing it. For most a dream that they carried all their life, not to win it, just to make it.
Simply that the boat have done what it was designed for: to win. It has won the 2015 ORCI and 2016 world championship, 2016 Italian, German and Dutch ORCI championship. Yes it is mostly a ORCI optimized boat but it had also won the 2016 XVIII Trofeo S.M. La Reina- 2016 (Valencia - Spain) and was 2nd at New York Yacht Club 162nd Annual Regatta (USA).
On the Middle Sea race there was one racing with an IRC of 1031, that should be faster than a JPK 10.10 (IRC 1003). The JPK beat the 9.98 in real time and by a lot, but that boat had already won the Fastnet and the crew of the 9.98 was not probably a top one (not the onet that won the championships). Anyway a boat to join the JPK 10.10 as one of the best cruiser racers on the market, a beautiful one too.
The 9.98 is mostly thought for racing but contrary to others offer a nice interior for short therm cruising. I just hate the screws around the mast that could and should be cover by a carbon ring. That would add 50gr to the boat weight but would make quite a diference on the interior.
The odd thing is that there is not much more to say about the More 55!!! How can that be???, a boat that is sold for the same price of a same length Bavaria, featuring much better building processes, including a stainless steel back bone and a vacuum infused hull should be main news and the sailing magazines should be excited for testing the boat.
Well. it seems it is not like that. They don't advertise on boat magazines so they are not so interested in testing and besides this is a true outsider, a brand that started from a charter company unsatisfied with the boats on the market and that decided to make their own boats? That's unheard off!!!
More charters equipped its fleet with the More 55 (that had already made a season on the Caribbean and on the Med) and are going to substitute their Salona 38 by a new boat, the More 40. If I charted boats I would be very interesting in charting these ones (Croatia) and I would recommend the experience to the ones that do that....and please after that make a post here about the boat. I am sure there are lots of people interested, starting by me ;-)
Just beautifull!!!
Not so nice but as interesting, the interior of one of the new generation top solo racing machines, the Gitana, explained by the Skipper:
It is in English but you really have to put the sound up to hear it :-)
Regarding the race, well, we had a British leading (Alex) and it seems that on medium conditions we have many boats with very close performances, as well as the top skippers that are sailing them, including Riou on the first boat with "old style" foils.
Alex and Hugo Boss are also the first to go for a different route option. Don't know if it is a smart move since he was leading on the other course. Armel and Banque Populaire are leading now. Jean Pierre Dick and Riou are also very close.
We have already the race divided into three groups, the pros with top boats, the pros with older boats and the amateurs, no matter the boat being from the last generation, like the one from Pieter Heerema, a top boat sailing among the last.
Cheers to Riou that on a boat without new foils is keeping up with the fastest on his 4th Vendee Globe and will be on the hunt if the new boats have problems with the foils. In fact I believe he is one of the strong candidates to the victory, the only one racing having already won one.
The tracker is not working well and it don't work with some browsers, Try Firefox on 2d definitions. Please post about the race on the comments below.
But be very careful before ordering one. I recommended one to friends, helped them to make the deal and more than two years after they have not yet the boat delivered. No date for delivery and have the boat full paid. I emailed Salona complaining about that some months ago and the CEO replied to me saying that they would have the boat delivered soon. Several months later that CEO is no more on Salona and they don't give a date for boat delivery. The boat, a Salona 38, is made (for several months now), but it has no sails and no electronic and it seems they don't have money to buy and install them. They are working on a 60ft, that was commanded later, but that is not yet fully paid, as the Salona 38 is.
The ones that know me from the times of the previous thread (same name of the blog) on sailnet (more than 1 million hits) know that I had only said good things about Salona and that I helped to raise the brand reputation on US, being several yachts bought after sailors read my comments on Salonas (they have told me so).
I post this advice on the same spirit, the one to talk about boats and builders with trustfulness regarding what I know, no matter what. I wish Salona a rapid recovery and I hope they start to act in a trustworthy way because if not they are done anyway, sooner or later.
Meanwhile if you want a boat by the same designer (Cossutti), very similar, also with a stainless steel backbone, just a bit bigger and a bit less expensive, I would recommend you to look at this one, the More 40:
It is being built by a new shipyard that had already made a 55. The Shipyard is owned by Swedes but it is on Croatia (not far from the Salona one) and some of the workers that used to be from Salona are working there now. I don't know this shipyard the same way I knew Salona but I guess it has to be better, at least in what regards delivering boats. Leo Curin, that I knew personally (ex Developer manager on Salona ) is ahead of the production.
Regarding the sailboats we will have an edition as interesting as the one in 2000/2001 that saw for the first time a canting keel boat winning the race. Many thought that the concept was not reliable enough for a circumnavigation race. The same happens with this race regarding the new "flying" foils and some, like Riou, prefered to play safe, not using them. One thing is for sure, it they will not break it will be a flying boat winning this race and probably the 24 hour record for a solo monohull sailboat will be beaten by a large margin. Flying boats are awesome and raised the beauty of sailing to another level. Enjoy:
You can follow the race start direct on the official site or in any of the 33 TV stations that will transmit it live. The circumnavigation race takes only place each four years and this is only the 8th edition, being the first the one in 1989/1990.
The Vendee Globe is not only my favorite sail race (since the first edition) as it is the one that had put sailing among the most popular sport events, well not really sailing but the vendee and the vendee is about sailing at is best. Last year the start was covered live by 22 TV stations. This year it will be live on 33 TV stations all over the world!!!!
Cheers to them all, the organizers, the racers and the French because without the enthusiasm of the French for sailing, particularly solo sailing, there would no be a Vendee. Today on the starting line, with 29 racers, we can see sailors from many different nationalities.
If we look at the podium of all editions we will be looking for the ones that dominated monohull solo sailing since the 90's:
Maybe this year we will see the first non French winning the race. We have racers from more 8 countries including an American a New Zealander and a Japonese butIt seems to me that the only one that has a decent chance to do that is the British Alex Thomson, 3rd on the last edition.
On past editions the only podiums not integrally French had British on it, the great and only Ellen MacArthur, Mike Golding and Alex Thomson were the ones. Ellen MacArthur made 2th and she become instantly more popular in France than in UK. Sill today the French have a huge respect and admiration for that Lady.
As a tribute to all those incredible sailors and to the race itself let's have a short look at all editions, unfortunately only in French, but the images tell half the story. As a side comment you can see on the 2001-02 edition a boat that went straight to the beach, on the Portuguese shore. It come so fast that broke the keel and only stopped near the cliffs. It was on Baleal beach, the place were I lived at the time and I was one of the first on the scene. Nothing happened to the sailor, Patrick de Radiguès, a Belgian, that was asleep and only awake when the boat hit the sand.
Please feel free to use the comments section of this post (and the others I will post about the race) as if this was a boat forum. I will be glad to have the participation of all of you on the following of this race. You can select the option to be notified when comments are posted. The race will be even more enjoyable to follow if there is a wide participation through the comments section.
Yes I know, the biggest sail race on the planet is starting in three days and I promise to post about the new edition of the Vendee Globe but before all our attention goes to it, time to look at another great race, the VOR and some great videos posted when I was cruising. Here they are:
Yes I know, I haven't covered the Giraglia, the other Med classic, I was cruising, but that's not a reason not to share a nice video. The wind and sea conditions did not provide for truly spectacular images, even if some are just beautiful. By the way the cover boat of the Middle Sea Race video is the Solaris 42 that won the 2 crew division. Nice to see the Double handed division deserving the spotlight ;-)
