VENDEE GLOBE: FIRST WEEK (GREAT MOVIE)

The first week of a great adventure (Week 1... por VendeeGlobeTV

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:

http://tracking2016.vendeeglobe.org/gv5ip0/

FC3 53 A DREAM COME TRUE

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.

More about this boat here:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/11/fc3-61-and-fc3-53-by-finotconq.html

NEW YORK - VENDEE TRANSATLANTIC RACE

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.

VENDEE GLOBE: A RACING BOAT MEETS A CRUISING ONE

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.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skippers/81/conrad-colman
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skippers/86/kojiro-shiraishi
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skippers/69/rich-wilson
http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skippers/77/nandor-fa

ITALIA 9.98 A WINNER

What can I say more than what I have said here?:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/11/iy-998-from-italia-yachts.html

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.

MORE ABOUT THE MORE 55 :-)

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 ;-)

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/search?q=More+55
 http://www.more-boats.hr/shipyard.php

VENDEE GLOBE, A BRITISH LEADING

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. 

http://tracking2016.vendeeglobe.org/x6hz61/