AMERICA'S CUP: NOW AND THEN

When we come closer to another America’S cup (6 - 12 March) and are already near the final series that will decide who will be the Challenger that will try to beat the New Zealander Defender (13 - 22 February), a big controversy seems to be developing about the new yachts, and its adequacy as the chosen Yacht for racing the America’s cup.

It’s time to participate in that controversy about the AC75, but I will do that informed by a historical perspective about what America’s cup is, and has been, and I will invite you to give your personal opinion on the comments, taking into consideration what America’s cup historically represents.

Prada Cup- credits studio-borlenghi 

This edition of the Vendée Globe brought a lot more public to sailing and the same is going to happen with this America’s cup, because these are the fastest and more spectacular boats ever and contrary to what some purists think, that is what attracts public, the spectacle.

But not all is well with this America’s Cup, being obviously the main issue the very short number of challengers, only 3 when on some editions there were 11. It is necessary to understand how we arrived here, on an edition with the fastest regatta boats on the planet but with so few entries. If we want the America's Cup to be truly a World's Cup, it is necessary to reverse that trend. 

 Let’s have a look at America’s Cup past and history to try to understand what should change and what should be maintained to warrant it has a central role in the sailing panorama and that it will boost public interest,  making sailing a more popular sport.

America as a denomination for the cup is a confusing one because it has nothing to do with the continent, nor with the United States of America, it is just the name of the Yacht that won the first race of what would become America’s cup. So, it is really all about the Cup that was once won by a yacht called America, even if that yacht was an American one.

Yacht America - 1851

That race was not even in America but around the Island of Wight and it took place as part of the celebrations of the 1851 World Fair. Contrary to what it is today, it was not a match race between two yachts but a “normal” coastal race, in open waters, disputed by many yachts, regular yachts of the time, not specifically designed for winning that race under a set of particular circumstances, as it is today.

The Yacht America entry was made by the New York yacht club. It was an American yacht with an American crew and the British were frustrated and pissed with an American victory in their home waters. The challenge starts from there, a re-match in New York to bring back to the UK the cup America Yacht had “stolen” to Britain on the Isle of Wight. A Cup that started to be known as America’s Cup.

Yacht America - 1851

But now the American yacht (not the Yacht America anymore) was specifically designed to win that race, that was still a coastal open water race, but with the race location chosen by the Americans (New York Yacht Club) that could maximize the design for the local conditions, while the British had to race on a yacht seaworthy enough to cross the North Atlantic and therefore a heavier and slower boat. This was essentiality the reason why the British were never able to beat the Americans.

In fact, it was an almost impossible task but they kept trying, unsuccessfully, for more than a century. As it was put by a prominent American Yacht designer, Clinton Hoadley Crane: "America's Cup racing has never led to good sportsmanship. The attitude of the New York Yacht Club [...] has been more that of a man in the forward position at war who has been ordered to hold his position at all costs – at all costs."

Shamrock IV versus Resolute - 1920

The America’s cup had not in its first century the regularity that has now and between 1851 and 1958, the year that saw the introduction of the 12-meter class to race the event, only 17 Cups were raced and exclusively disputed between the Americans and the UK (England and Scotland) with the exception of 1876 and 1881 were the challenger was Canadian.

Between 1914 and 1937 America’s Cup yachts were designed through the Universal Rule that created the J class. It allowed for the first time similar yachts that represented the best of the technology at the time. Well, similar just in shape, because they had to be built on the Challenger country and had to sail on their own hull to the America's Cup, and that allowed American boats to have a lighter built and a lower displacement.

J-Class Resolute 1920

Between 1937 and 1958 (WWII) there were no challenges. The 1958 edition was raced on a smaller Yacht designed under a rule that existed since 1907 and that ruled the boats used on the Olympic games of 1908, 1912, and 1920, the 12-meter class designed under the international rule.

With the 12m class, the America’s Cup passed from a vanguard design event in Yacht design, raced in the fastest sailboats, to retro design, with a rule that was based on the type of sail yachts that were designed 50 years before. The rule formula, through Chain Girth, effectively prevented modern torpedo keels, modern beam, and modern draft (for a racer), and it is just incredible as an old formula producing outdated sailing boats, lasted for 29 years on an event that had been always been about the fastest sailboat!

It says much about the conservative spirit of many sailors, that is confirmed when some, today, still see this period as the golden age of the America’s cup, instead of a dark period, where the boat evolution remained on small details, not on big breakthrough and groundbreaking innovations that would have contributed to sail yacht design development and too much faster sailboats.

J-Class Ranger 1937

Curiously, contrary to what the name seems to indicate the 12-meter class is not a 12 meter yacht, referring the 12 meters to the result of a complex formula. In fact, the yachts have between 20 and 23 meters, typically a full keel and a small draft for a racing boat of that size (about 2.7m). In the last years, because they could not increase draft without losing a lot on other parameters, they had massively oddly designed bulbed keels.

This class allowed yachts smaller and less expensive than the previous J class (36 to 42m), billionaire's yachts, but it proved not to be able to provide inexpensive yachts, and gave a greater role to design in what regards the adaptation to the very particular conditions that were to be met in Newport, where the event took place and to extract all speed from an outdated formula. In the words of Halsey C. Herreshoff: “the International Rule is an inelegant arbitrary formula that controls and restricts the design of these boats within narrow limits.“

12-meter class, Weatherly - 1962

But even if the boats were slow, due to rule, the development and money needed to make a slower boat faster than other slower boats was absurd, or as it has been put by Lawrence Livermore: “The America’s Cup has moved away from being a sport where the skill of the crew counts, you need the best scientific minds to win. I’m spending more computer time on this 12-meter than I would designing a submarine. If we win, it will be because we controlled the knowledge base.”

Or in the words of Tom Blackaller, referring to America’s Cup and the 12 meter class: “Sailing is a cross between war and business. If you try to compete under the assumption this is a sport, you’ll never know what hit you.”

In 1962 for the first time, the challenge comes not from UK but from Australia. The Australian yacht won one of the four races and finished another one close enough to lead the Americans to immediately change the rules, forbidding the use of American technology and design by the cup challengers.

Australia II - 1983

The 1983 edition was a special one; it was the edition where for the first time the Americans were defeated….and by the Australians, after six consecutive attempts as a challenger. That was also the year America’s Cup came closer to become a World’s championship with 7 yachts from 5 nationalities disputing the right to be the challenger. 

Before 1983 America’s cup was almost an exclusively American, UK, and Australian affair. Till 1970 no more than two nations disputed the right to be challenger, and no more than 3 till 1983.

In the next edition (1987) the international success of America’s Cup continued, 4 Australian yachts disputed the right to be the Defender, while 25 Yachts from 6 countries disputed the right to be the challenger. An American yacht won the series, beating the Australian yacht, bringing it back to America.

Compare Australia II hull and kell with the ones
  of  a racer designed 14 years before.

Already for some years, the 12m yachts have become strange, having lost the long keels in favor of odd-looking bulbed massive keels. The low draft and narrow beam, a need imposed by the rules, resulted in heavy boats with big overhangs. It was ridiculous to dispute a true World Cup in such outdated sailing boats and even if the American Defender had decided to maintain them for a 1994 edition, a New Zealand Syndicate issued the first hostile Deed of gift challenge in America’s Cup history. 

Because no agreement was reached in what regards the choice of boats, this edition would be disputed under a strict interpretation of the deed of gift and the yachts would have very little limitation being the more obvious a maximum of 90 feet (27 m) length, or less at the waterline (if they had only one mast).

The NZ 1994 challenger

But what would have been a very interesting challenge, in what regards sailing yacht development, turned sour because while the New Zealanders built the fastest monohull to date, the Americans chose to race on a catamaran, that was even faster, but that was an obvious mismatch to the spirit of the event, that was based on racing in yachts with similar characteristics.

It ended up in the American court that firstly attributed the Cup to New Zealand, due to a race between a catamaran and monohull being a gross mismatch and against the spirit of the Cup, but later the Supreme Court reversed the decision and the cup stayed in the United States.

This sad episode had at least a big benefice: after this, it would have been even more ridiculous to continue racing on boats based on an 81-year- old rule, boats hugely dated and with a poor and very outdated performance even if their development needed to be faster than the one of the neighbor cost a fortune. 

 A new box rule was created, one that would provide faster yachts and that would be used in the next five editions, the International America’s Cup Class (IACC). The new box rule, was intended “to produce wholesome day sailing monohulls of similar performance while fostering design developments that will flow through to the mainstream of yachting”.

IACC 1992 French Yacht

A committee of designers (22) and prospective owners developed the Rule prior to the 1992 America’s Cup. Unfortunately, the new rules limited the hull beam to 4.5 meter and that in a 25-meter boat would imply narrow boats with a huge ballast (79%B/D) and that meant that the boats would be much lighter than the previous ones, due to considerably more draft, but still heavy boats, that were fast upwind but would not be able to plane downwind, being overall slow boats that could be easily beaten by other yachts of the same size without these restrictions on beam. 

Not properly the F1 of the seas that we would have liked to see on America’s cup but a big improvement over the previous yachts.

Hard to understand how a sailboat with such a length/ beam and that B/D could have contributed to “fostering design developments that will flow through to the mainstream of yachting”, but the new box rule (IACC) brought racing on boats that were not hugely outdated.

IACC 2003 Swiss winner

The first edition with these yachts (1992) was a success: 7 nations and 8 yachts fighting to be the challenger that ended up to be the Italian boat which was beaten on the America’s cup by the American defender.

Even if the first Cup on the new boats was won by the American yacht, 1992 and the new class, ruled after a certain point by collective management, marks the beginning of the end of the United States' big domination in America’s Cup. Since then in 8 editions, the United States won three, as many as New Zealand (that can still win this year’s edition) and Switzerland won two.

The 1995 edition started well with 10 challengers from 8 nations and seemed to continue the internationalization of America’s cup, but the increase of costs due to constant change of rule technicalities (five versions of the IACC rule), led to an escalation of costs, and that edition ended up having fewer countries participating, only 5 and 7 challengers. The New Zealanders won and America’s Cup left America for the 2nd time, now to New Zealand. In the 2000 edition, there were 11 challengers from 7 countries and New Zealand defended the Cup with success. 

In 2003 there were 9 challengers from 7 countries and the cup was won by Switzerland, and because Switzerland had not ocean waters, the races were hosted in Valencia, Spain. Swiss won again the 2007 edition that had 11 challengers from 9 countries.

All seemed to go well in what regards the popularity, the number of nations and the number of participating yachts and even in what regards the evolution to a more modern and fast yacht, the AC90, a new box rule proposed by the Swiss team and accepted by the Challenger, a Spanish yacht club.

IAAC versus AC90

The new class would provide a 90ft yacht that would be beamier, lighter, 50% stiffer, and considerably faster, but then the challenger was contested in its right to issue a challenge by the American team Oracle.

The Americans, that had not only been unable to win the Cup on the last three editions as they had not even been able to challenge it (being defeated on the series to choose the challenger) managed this way, winning a legal action ruled in American courts, to be appointed as the official challenger and therefore being able to change the rules in what regards the chosen yacht for America’s cup.

They rejected the proposed monohull box rule (AC 90) and without an agreement over the boat choice, reverted to the original Deed of Gift and the 2010 America’s Cup was disputed again without limitations others than length, and that resulted in huge multihulls, without any another challenger than the American, due to high costs.

In what regards sailing sport, a very uninteresting America’s Cup with a giant Swiss catamaran against a giant American trimaran with a fixed-wing, that proved to be substantially faster and brought back America’s cup to America.

But if the sportive interest was low, it was very interesting in what regards sailboat development, with the first flying yachts in America’s Cup.

From then on it would not make sense to return to relatively narrow monohulls that would not even be able to plane fast downwind. The AC90 was not a revolutionary boat but just an improvement over the previous cup yacht, with more draft, a large transom, more hull form stability but still with a narrow hull that was not designed for maximum performance….but conditioned by the space available in berths in Valencia marina!!!

Tom Schnackenberg, the NA that was developing the class, started with an initial idea of a yacht with 26 meters, with a 5.7 beam (conditioned by Valencia traveler lift capacity!) and a 6.5m draft, to end up, after discussion with the interested teams, in a far less exciting yacht with 26 m length, 4.8 m beam and 5.0m draft.

No wonder that after the technological sail show o in the 2010 edition, a joint management decided that the 2013 edition would be raced, not on the AC90, that had become obsolete even before racing, but on smaller flying catamarans, the AC72.

The choice seemed to have interested many challengers; they were initially 12 from 7 countries. But soon it was evident to all that the yacht would be much more expensive than what was previewed and, due to the escalation in costs, only 3! out of 12 remained.

The American defender prevailed for very little with the NZ boat winning all the first races and the American one managing an almost impossible recovery, winning successively all the other races among protests of cheating due to a new control system of the foils. Oracle had already been found guilty of cheating previously, but this time nothing came out of it and the American Oracle team won the 2013 edition.

In the 2017 edition, among a controversy with the lack of safety (a boat destroyed and a sailor dead on the previous edition), it was decided to race in a smaller catamaran, but confusion followed when the AC62, initially chosen, was substituted by an even smaller boat, the AC 50, and the Italians retired in protest. Only five challengers remained and the NZ team beat the American one.

When it was expected some sort of stability that would allow fewer costs and more challengers, this edition (2021) marks a new revolution with the NZ team refusing to continue to use catamarans and proposing a revolutionary flying monohull, the AC75 with two wings with foils that work also as ballasted “keels”, a monohull they said would be able to be faster than the previous catamarans, being able to exceed 50 kt and right itself up from a capsized position.

Initially, there were 6 challengers from 5 countries but even if all yachts share the same mechanical parts to save costs, and the proposed soft sails are less expensive than the previous wing sails, only three challengers remained.

It seems that the safety problems were solved, no pitch-pooling till now, and the capsizes brought no big problems, except on the American boat due to a battery that went loose (but that should not have happened and it was easy to solve). However, the yachts, contrary to what was expected, were unable to recover from a capsize, even if they would not turn upside down and remained lying at 90º. Not difficult to solve that, with a bit more ballast on the wings, but that would diminish their ability to lift on the foils with light wind, something that should be addressed in the evolution of these boats.

These yachts have proven to be spectacular, faster than the previous catamarans, able to sail over 50 kt, and if criticism can be made it has not to do with the boat’s performance, or close performance between the yachts, but with the need to have eight muscle guys working almost permanently at grinders to produce the power to operate the boat systems.

We should not forget that on Cup boats before the era of the flying boats the crew needed to sail the boat had already big muscled guys on the grinders, even if for other reasons, and that these boats carry in fact a smaller crew than in any other yacht in America’s Cup history, except on the smaller AC50 and on the AC72 that had the same number of crewmen.

The problem here is that from the 11 crew members, 8 are grinder athletes and don’t need to know anything about sailing, just have to do what is asked them on the grinders and only crewmen 3 actually sail the boat. That does not make much sense. These grinders are used mostly to produce hydraulic energy but I don't see the difference regarding using hydraulic systems or electrical systems. 

Regarding the need for human power to generate energy for the systems, the easiest way to manage its decrease is to make the crew smaller; taking four guys out of the crew will probably solve it partially and would introduce another interesting factor in racing: the need to manage the available energy on the boat. The use of hydrogenerators and solar panels can also contribute to solve this problem and their development will be very useful for sailing in general.

Also, the use of a bigger battery bank, not for using previously stored energy to run the systems but to manage the energy generated in the boat during the race, can contribute to ending the disproportional number of grinders: eight on a crew of eleven. 

Those batteries, that would be discharged and verified at the beginning of the race, would be used as a storage system, for energy generated in the boat during the race and would allow for fewer grinders, that now are used to generate the needed energy at any given time, with the yachts having very little energy storage capacity.

If we compare these boats with the boats used in the decades, previous to the use of multihulls, we would have to agree that they brought again the America’s cup to its origins, meaning great racing on the fastest yachts on the planet, mixed with extraordinary sail yacht development.

The Cup had been about that since its origins and for 141 years, if we exclude the unfortunate period of 29 years during which it was raced on outdated boats (12m class). During those years there was great racing, but without the original spirit of doing that on the fastest sailboats around, contributing in a decisive manner to yacht design evolution and to sail evolution.

But there is something really bad on this edition, something that should be addressed in a decisive way: the very small number of challengers. That has to change and in what regards that we should look to the past, to the  IACC class, the one that was able to reunite more challangers. 

Measures should be taken to assure that this happened due simply to the very innovative boat design and the necessary development costs and that now, with much less development work to do, with all the mechanical and hydraulic parts being the same and provided by independent contractors, maintaining the stability without rule changes (that imply more costs) it is possible to have a high number of challenges for the next edition.

That means that any changes that imply the use of hydrogenerators, solar panels, or other ways to generate or store energy produced on the boat should be developed and manufactured, as the other systems, by an independent contractor and provided to all teams, forbidding all alterations.

The past proved that stability was essential to lower costs and to increase the number of challengers and challengers from many countries are needed to turn America’s Cup into a true world top sail championship, not only a sailing one, but also a design one.

And something more is absolutely needed to make the America’s Cup a true world championship and that is preventing the possibility of hostile challengers attributing the management of the yacht choice and alteration not only to the Defender and Challenger but to a group formed by all that had participated on the previous edition, or editions and intend to participate on the next ones.

It is also necessary for independent arbitration in what regards rules, regulations, and interpretations. It is not acceptable for the arbitration to be provided by the courts of only one of the countries that participate, the American courts.

The arbitration should be international and independent of any country and if therefore it is necessary to change the name of America’s Cup, well, I don’t see a problem, call it the World’s Cup. That’s the spirit that should be maintained as well as the conditions to have a fair and independent competition with many participants, on the most advanced and fast contemporary sailboats.

VENDÉE GLOBE: BORIS STILL LEADING, BEST FINAL EVER

At two days from the end three boats on the fight for victory! Never happened before and when I mean fighting, I really mean that the chances are almost equal for the three, Boris, Dalin and Burton. 

With a difficult scenario ahead, with changing winds, the navigation has assumed an unexpected decisive role on this final stage, with several possible routes from Azores to Les Sables. 

Two days ago they were four fighting for the win but Bestavens’s route option, leaving the central Islands of Azores to the East proved to be excessive and now even Ruyant has managed to overtake him. 

When they were approaching the Azores, before taking very different routes, Dalin was leading on the water with a 34.7 miles advantage to Burton and 61.8 miles to Boris who, with 6 hours of compensation time to be discounted, was in fact leading the race.

Ruyant was 91.5 miles away from Dalin and Bestaven 155.7 miles, but with a compensation time of 10 hours 15 minutes, Bestaven was very much in the fight for victory. 

With only 680 miles to go, Ruyant and Bestaven at 184.5 and 253.8 miles to the leader, are out of the race to the win, but the very different courses of Dalin and Ruyant gave similar results to the point of being difficult to know who wins or loses this particular round. 

I guess that we will only know that in the next 22 hours, since the two departing points for the long tack to the North, offshore the Portuguese coast, are different with Dalin more to the East and Ruyant more to the West and it is difficult to foretell the advantages of Burton’s position. 

Boris, that I thought would be tailing Burton, because he only needs to stay close behind the leader to win the race, has done more than that and in the last 12 hours chose his own route, leaving Burton and putting his boat nearer to Dalin’s, but more to the west. 

On the route Burton has chosen there is more wind but it is 35 miles longer. Can he recover and gain over that distance in 370 miles before the final tack for Sables d’Olonne? I don’t know but it seems difficult. 

Assuming a 16.5kt average VMG speed it would take 22 hours to reach the point for the final tack, and for recovering those 35 miles that would mean a gain of 1.6kt on average speed from Burton over Dalin. Not an easy task and some luck needed.

Burton seems to be the one nearer the victory due to his compensation time and because he only has to maintain the 78 nm at which he is now from Dalin to win the race and it seems to me that his course more to the West gives him some slight advantage, in the hours to come. In fact I believe he can still lose a dozen miles for Dalin and still win the race.

This post was made having as reference the data available at 14.00, race time. The map shows the conditions they are going to encounter on the last tack to France and those are very good sailing conditions that will give an average speed between 14 and 18 knots.

Assuming an average speed of 16kt on the last leg (about 320nm) that would mean that the 6 hours Boris compensation in time, will be translated in about 96 miles and that should be more or less (depending on the average speed) the distance that Dalin has be ahead of him for winning the race. 

It could hardly have been more interesting. Even the incertitude brought by Boris time compensation introduced a bigger level of suspense on the final stages of the race. I guess they have been sleeping very little on the last days and are going to sleep even less on the next two days. 

The only thing for sure, regarding the end of the race is that on arrival the first three will be completely exhausted, having given all they could to win the Vendée. A titanic fight for the finish.

VENDÉE GLOBE: BORIS LEADING THE RACE, BESTAVEN 2ND

The leader of a race is the one that will win it if the race finished at that point and if the race finished right now, at the time I am writing this, Boris would win, Bestaven would be second , Dalin third and Burton 4th. 

Why: Boris has been making on the last 4 hours a 18.0 kt average speed, he is at 78.1 miles from Dalin that leads on the water and has a 6 hour compensation time, the one he lost looking for Escoffier at organization’s request. 

If Dalin crossed the finish line right now that time would be recorded and when Boris crossed the line, his time would also be recorded and 6 hours would be taken from that time being the winner the one that ended up with the shortest time. 

Assuming Boris would maintain for more 6 hours the average he maintained on the last 4 hours (18.0 kt), the distance that separates him from Dalin( 78.1 miles), would be made in 4 hours and 23 minutes, meaning that the winner would be Boris with an advantage of 1 hour and 26 minutes. 

Looking now at Bestaven, and also assuming that he is maintaining for more 10 hours and 15 minutes the average of the last 4 hours (16.2 kt) he would take 10 hours and 4 minutes to make the 163.0 miles that separate him from Dalin and would leave him 11 minutes behind. 

Of course, that would be now, but the leader of a race is the one who would win it at a given point and the ones leading would be at this point and quite clearly Boris 1st and the 2nd Bestaven. Of course it depends on the average speed that they will maintain on the compensation hours they have, that can be smaller or bigger than the one they made on the last 4 hours. 

But the fact is that Boris and Bestaven are very much in the race for the win and contrary to what many would expect they are not losing miles for Dalin, but winning: Dalin made a 15.0 kt VMG average on the last 24 hours, Boris made 15.4 and Bestaven a 15.5 kt average. 

The only one that is winning miles over them is Burton that made a 16.0 kt average on the last 24 hours. Fantastic race with these four very close in what regards the fight for the first position and with great chances of winning the race, when they are at 1337 nautical miles from the finish line…. and what a finish it will be!

VENDÉE GLOBE: BURTON - 4th?...2nd?...or 1st?

Whoever does the math in the organization places him at 4th, 108 miles from the first which is obviously a nonsense, and I say this for the simple reason that so far Burton's strategy is paying off, having managed to maintain over water an average 2 knots faster than Dalin and having already left the zone of the weakest winds, while Dalin still has a few hours to go. Burton is now 6.3 knots faster than him (on water) but also 5.2 knots faster in VMG. 

It is evident that he is either 1st or second, having been in a titanic fight for days with Dalin, that sailing over the side of the damaged foil tries, with a more direct route, not to lose much, while Burton, with the foil intact, but older in design and performance, tries to sail where the conditions give him a greater speed differential for Dalin, making a longer route, but faster on the water, side by side, but with a big lateral gap between the two, that Burton increased over time. 

I would say that when it comes to crossing the high pressure zone without losing time, it is practically a tie between Burton and Dalin. They remain side by side although with a lateral difference of 230 miles, which is huge for this area of ​​the Atlantic. 

The organization continues to give the classifications having as reference the most eastern island of the Azores, Santa Maria, which is nonsense because no one, except perhaps Seguin, will pass it by, all going further west. Burton will be the one to pass more to the west probably west of the central group (west of Faial) or even close to Corvo Island, the Azores western Island. 

It is now clear what Burton is trying to do and it is unbelievable that he planned this course a week ago in function of what he has ahead now: he will try to avoid the area of ​​high pressure and light winds, that everyone would encounter along the way if they sailed in the direction where the organization considers they are sailing to (island of Stª Maria), and will try to make the most of the strong winds of a storm that comes from the West to the East, and that will dissipate before reaching him at full force. 

As usual, Burton is not afraid of strong bets. Will he succeed? Only time will tell but he knows he has to bet strong because in a couple of days, both Dalin and Ruyant will be sailing in good conditions over the side of their intact foil, and these conditions will remain until arrival. Both have new generation boats, with bigger and faster foils and will be one and a half knots faster than Burton’s boat, and there is nothing that Burton can do to counteract that, except to gain in navigation what he cannot gain in speed. 

None better to confirm what I'm saying than Ruyant. I saw this video after writing this, but I cannot say that I was not satisfied to see it confirm what I say, almost point by point. Listen to what he says, the best race assessment I have seen in a long time.

BURTON RECOVERED 1000 MILES AND IS FIGHTING FOR THE VICTORY

If he wins the race a new legend will be born and he will be the man who on a Vendée made the biggest recovery ever, to the victory. Now he is 2nd at 20 nm from the first, Dalin, and both are fighting a huge battle leaving all the other behind.

He was one of the good surprises of this race, not a favorite, never having won any significant solo race, neither in Mini nor in Class 40 or Figaro and his best result was a 7th place on the last Vendée, a remarkable place since he was racing an old boat.

This was his third Vendeé (abandoned early on his first one after being hit by a fishing boat) and that is remarkable for a 35-year-old sailor and maybe only possible because he married into a legendary sail family, the Escoffier family. Louie Burton's wife and Kevin Escoffier are cousins. For the ones who don't remember Escoffier was the one that was racing in 3rd place when his boat broke in two and was rescued by Le Cam.

His wife, Servane Escoffier, is also a good solo sailor with many transats raced and a circumnavigation race. She learned from his father, Bob Escoffier, also a solo sailor with whom she made some races in duo. But her uncle Franck-Yves Escoffier (Kevin's father) was an even bigger solo sailor.

Franck-Yves was a fishing sailor who became one of the best solo-sailors of his generation, having won many races including three Transat Jacques Vabre and Three Transat Route du Rhum, most of them on a Multi50 that became a legend, "Crêpes Whaou!", a very beautiful trimaran, a boat that surely is remembered by many of you.

So, with a family like that he had something to prove. Well, not anymore after this race, where his performance was unexpectedly good, I would even say extraordinary. This time he is racing in a relatively competitive boat, not one of the new and fastest ones, but one of the best of the older generation, the one that has won the last Vendée Globe.

But having a good boat on this race and being a good sailor is not enough to be among the fastest. Look at Kojiro Shiraishi that with a new top boat and the experience of another Vendee Globe and the 2nd place on a less demanding IMOCA circum-navigation race, was never able to sail consistently among the 13 first and now, after some problems with his mainsail, is racing on the tail of this vendée.

Due to the big number of fast boats on this race, with its small racing pedigree it was already good if Burton was able to race among the 10 first, especially, after having stopped for 5 hours, a penalty for jumping the start line, but after the Cape of Good Hope and on the Indian Ocean, racing near the exclusion line, where the winds were stronger and seas bigger, and for many days, he was 2nd, chasing Dalin that was sailing on a new and faster boat.

Contrary to him Dalin, a year older, is a racing champion with many victories and podium places on the minis, Figaro and IMOCA and one of the big favorites to the victory. All, me included, even if impressed with Louie Burton's performance, did not really think that he was able to beat Dalin or even Ruyant, also with a new boat and an impressive racing pedigree.

And even less when Burton started to have huge problems, first with a malfunctioning auto-pilot then with a damaged mainsail rail, forcing him to reef it on the 2nd reef and preventing the full use of the sail. That handicapped him seriously, he lost time trying to repair, unsuccessfully and was not able to recover to the head of the race. 

He then sailed for many miles with the group of four that included Le Cam and Boris, but having difficulties in keeping the pace, and even that was only possible due to great navigation.

He stopped again for several hours trying to repair the mainsail mast rail and the fixation point of one of the forward sails but it proved to be impossible on the big waves of the southern ocean. Pissed with not being able to compete in speed with the others he decided to make way to a small desolate Island on the Southern Ocean (Macquarie), to look for shelter to do the needed repairs.

Due to the problems with the autopilot, he was not able to sleep and arrived there completely exhausted and needing to sleep some hours. He was planning to do the repairs in 4 hours but things proved to be much more complicated and he lost about 20 hours till he started making his way towards the finishing line.

At that time, the first,  Bestaven, was  938 nm away and he didn't even think he had a chance to overtake him again. But amazingly he did not lose motivation and happy with having again a fully functional boat, attacked relentlessly all the time and after 23 days he overtook Bestaven who in the meantime had been overtaken by Dalin. Now he is chasing again Dalin, that is now the first, winning every day some miles.

Dalin, who has now a foil that is not completely functional, but on a more modern boat, is putting a big fight, so big that they are leaving all behind, being for several days the two fastest on the 24 hours average, but Burton continues winning, little by little, four hours ago he was at 20 miles, now he is at 17.

This incredible recovery will become part of the Vendée history but if Burton manages to win he will not enter the Vendée Legend only as a winner but as the one that has done that after more than a 900-mile recovery, after being penalized with 5 hours, for winning on a boat of an older generation and for starting it not as one of the favorites to the victory.

PIP HARE ENTERS THE VENDÉE GLOBE LEGEND!

Bad luck strikes Pip Hare: She was sailing a 22-year-old boat, the oldest boat on the race, and making a fantastic Vendée. She was in the middle of the classification, having overtaken and leaving behind Alan Roura and Arnaud Boissieres, who are sailing in much more modern sailboats, with new foils.

But one of the rudders broke and we can see on this video a desperate Pip Hare, with the boat with the sails down, on a rough sea, saying that she has a spare but needs a calm sea to try to make a rudder replacement. Pointing to the stormy skies she says that bad weather is on the way and that she does not know when she will have conditions to change the rudder. We can see the despair on her face!

In this video, we see Pip Hare training the maneuver in the port with help. Now imagine doing it alone in the sea conditions shown in the previous video. I would have said that was impossible and the same opinion was shared by the land team that said that she should wait TWO DAYS for better sea conditions.

But she must have thought: I had so much work and suffering to be where I am and am I going to let everyone pass me, losing two days? NO!!!

And she attempted, and incredibly succeeded in replacing the damaged rudder in those sea conditions! A strong will is half the way to do anything, but I still don't understand how she did it. 

Last time I took the rudder out of my boat to repair it took three big men to put it in place, two on the ground to push and one on top to pull the guide cable. The rudder on my boat is a deeper single one, bigger and heavier, but even so, alone and with the rudder moving around on the agitated waters, it seems impossible to me.

Pip Hare just joined the Legend of the Vendée, not that of the winners, but that of men and women who did incredible and seemingly impossible things to continue in the race, and those will be remembered as much as the ones that won the race.

She only has to finish the race to have accomplished a huge feat, not only sportive but in what regards endurance and resourcefulness.

 In what regards the race, with the repair, she lost 210 miles for Roura and Boissieres, that have overtaken her, but she is already on the chase, and being faster than them.

Cheers to Pip Hare that didn't have a big experience with IMOCA, started the race slowly but has become faster and faster to the point of making miracles in what should be the slowest boat in the race and also the more uncomfortable and hard to sail. All the more modern boats offer much bigger protection to the sailor, from the sea and wind, and when the temperature is very low, like on the austral ocean, that can be a big advantage and save a lot of energy.

She deserves a better boat and I hope that after this fantastic race she can get the sponsorship for getting it, even if it is much more difficult to find one in the UK than in France. Certainly, Medallia, a customer feedback management software platform, that sponsors her boat has more than its fair share of publicity revenues with this fantastic performance.