MAPFRE 1ST, DONGFENG 2ND ON THE 3RD LEG AND ON THE VOR

The VOR has been dominated by French and Spanish sailors. Even if a majoritarily French crew has already won the VOR (on the first attempt), the race has been dominated by Australians, New Zealanders, Americans and North European sailors, that constituted most of the mixed crews.

A Spanish crew on a Spanish boat dominating the race is not only a first but also great news for the sailing world with one more nation becoming sailing competitive at the major league. The very good performance of Mapfre will certainly have a positive effect in what regards sailing interest in Spain and that will increase sponsorship that is fundamental for the development of the sport at top level.

How have Spain, or better, Spanish sailors managed to enter the big league without having really big league sail races in Spain? Most were dinghy champion sailors that have been able to start racing offshore due to the Spanish involvement with the VOR in several editions through Telefónica and Mapfre teams. Most of them are veterans of three VOR campaigns with the Skipper Xabi Fernandez having done four and also solo racing circumnavigations. That's his 5th racing circumnavigation.

And they have not even racing with them the only other Spanish sailor that has a similar curriculum, Iker Martinez. Yes they have also on the team two New Zealanders and one Australian but even if certainly good sailors they are less experienced. The only other non Spanish with a similar experience is one of the watch captains, the British Rob Greenhalg. So, not only, as I have heard on several media, "the based Spanish team", but truly a Spanish team. I hope that on the next VOR they include a rule that makes mandatory at least 50% of the team to be from the country where the boat is based.

BREAKAGE ON THE VOR: LUCK WANTS NOTHING WITH DONGFENG

I can imagine the state of spirit of Charles Caudrelier and his crew: for the second time, after leading almost all the leg, they are going to be beaten by Mapfre, at the end of it. They had a big problem on the ram mechanism that controls the canting keel, water on the boat and lost many hours doing a hard  and very difficult repair.

It's a double action mechanism that they managed to transform into a single action one. They did not reveal their problem not to give a moral boost to their adversaries, managed an emergency repair and are back on the fight, trying not to lose the 2nd place for Vestas and Team Brunel, but I guess they will avoid changing tacks as much as possible.

The bad luck of Dongfeng takes nothing to the magnificent Mapfre race. The Spanish deserve a big cheer and they have proven that they deserve to be the big favorites for the final victory...unless they have their share of bad luck too. 

Let's see if Dongfeng is able to do a full repair. Not easy because only two members of the support team can work on the boat. I guess that at least part of the crew is going to have to work on the definitive repair. No rest for these "warriors".
https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/tracker.html

BIG DUEL THROUGH THE STORM : VOLVO OCEAN RACE

Under conditions that would be survival conditions for almost everybody, two teams continue at full blast on the Southern Indian Ocean, with the boats sometimes at sighting distance, on a crazy match race with winds that reached 50kt, gusting 70. All the others are already behind while Dongfeng leads, furiously pursued by Mapfre, that for a short time managed to lead the race.

 Before the race started I had said that the Chinese team, with mostly a French crew was the strongest and that Mapfre, the Spanish team mostly with a Spanish crew, would be the only one able to fight Dongfeng. A pity all the crews are not fully constituted by top sailors. The race would be much more interesting if that were the case, but as it is, I never suspected that Mapfre could put such a big fight to Dongfeng.

With about 2000 nm to sail till Melbourne, the distance between the leader and the chaser is only 8nm. They will finish the race in strong conditions with winds over 20k in about 4 days. I hope they have an helicopter crew for filming the finnish that promises to be awesome.

After leading the 2nd leg for most of the time, Dongfeng was beaten by Mapfre on the very last part of the race. I bet the guys from Dongfeng, having again dominated all the 3rd leg, are determined not to let that happen again. Anyway both crews deserve a big cheer for what they have already accomplished,  a fantastic race on very difficult conditions. They should be exhausted by now.

Some others have made mistakes and paid for them in lost time if not in breakage:
 

But one thing is for sure: this leg will enter VOR history as one of the most difficult and one that gave us spectacular images and movies. You can follow the race here:

https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/tracker.html

NEW SOLO SAIL CIRCUMNAVIGATION RECORD: AV. SPEED - 27.2kt!!!

François Gabart didn't need this magnificent achievement to be one of the two best solo sailors, monohulls and multihulls have no secrets to him. But after this feat it leaves Armel Le Cleac'h (the other one) a bit on his shadow, now that his victory on the Vendee Globe is already past...and after all Gabart was not there to fight him.

But Le Cleac'h has a new maxi trimaran, he is testing it and I have no doubt that as soon as the boat is perfectly tuned and the right conditions are reunited he will try to beat this record. The fight between these two incredible sailors for the title of world's best offshore sailor is just amazing.

Yes, I know they are solo sailors but since the time a team of solo sailors with no past VOR experience won it, it became clear that if they are top solo sailors, after a short adaptation, they are also great top offshore crew sailors. And this year VOR is proving that with the two leading teams constituted mostly by solo sailors...and not the best of them.

About the new record, contrary to what many think this is not the absolute sail record but the solo sail record. The absolute sail record is in the hands of another great sailor, Francis Joyon, that with his crew made it 1 day 17 hours faster, but this solo record time is really incredible: Gabart has the 2nd absolute time meaning that he beat all previous crew records before the one of Joyon, that is from last year.

He beat the previous solo record, that belonged to Thomas Coville (2016), by 6 days and 10 hours!!!! To be fair even if Coville boat is also a maxi trimaran the one from Gabart is newer and faster, only comparable to the Armel Le Cleac'h new one.

A final point to compare this solo record with the monohull one, 42d 16h 40m to 74d 3h 35m that belongs to Armel Le Cleac'h, just to say that they are not comparable: the multihulls used are maxi trimarans with around 100ft and the monohulls are the ones from the Vendee Globe, with 60ft.

 The monohull record has been established during the Vendee Globe not there having been attempts with maxi monohulls, that means also that while the multihull record is established by a solo sailor that has his routing chosen by a team of specialists (on land) the monohull record is established by a solo sailor that does his own routing while sailing the boat. Not comparable on several counts, except in what regards the sailors that have them, the two solo sailor princes, Gabart and Le Cleac'h.

ALL ABOUT THE BEAUTIFUL NEW BAVARIA (C45)

It looks even more elegant on the dynamic photos, with the boat sailing. The interior looks good, contrary to many other cruisers, the C45 has a great storage space and the performance numbers look good: the perfect main market cruiser, even if not a luxury one, at a very interesting price?

A family cruiser as good as a luxury cruiser except in what regards a luxury finish. Yes? No!!!

On top HR 44, below Bavaria C45

In fact these two denominations that are used as categories for the European Yacht of the year should be changed since they are misleading, making the public believe that the difference between two main market cruisers, a luxury one and a family one, like for instance a Halberg Rassy 44 and  Bavaria C45, has to do only with the luxury finish or at least that the difference in price relates mainly to that.

Besides the differences in finish quality and quality of interior materials there is a big difference between those two boats, one that is responsible for a substancial difference in production costs and one that has nothing to do with luxury but with sail ability and safety stability: the big difference in B/D (considering similar drafts and keels).The Bavaria C45 has 25.7% B/D ( 2.2m draft), the Halberg Rassy 44 has 39.8% B/D (2.1 draft), both with similar keels.

A huge difference that will be responsible for a very different sail performance upwind and that will make the HR, in what concerns stability, a more seaworthy boat with a bigger resistance to a knock down and much faster on the recovery from one. Also a boat with a superior AVS (128º) and a smaller inverted stability. Maybe that is why you can find the Stability curve of the Halberg Rassy on their site but not the one from the Bavaria on the Bavaria site.

Overall stability has not only to do with B/D, draft and type of keel. There are other factors as beam, hull shape and displacement. The Bavaria is a bit more beamy (4.49m to 4.20), the design of the hulls are not that different. I prefer the Bavaria hull design that will add and increase stiffness at a lower angle of heel.

The keels have a similar design, the one from the Bavaria has more 0.1m but the one from HR is a lead one, so the CG (regarding the ballast) is probably similar. The HR displacement  is superior, 13.300kg to 11935kg but  without the ballast the HR is actually 870kg lighter and that difference of weight is entirely due to the 2235kg that the HR has more on the ballast.

Looking at the boat speed polar from Bavaria with 12K of TRW, the speeds are very good, being the one at 35º  hard to believe. Probably the boat is maximized for that wind speed but it is better not forget that those numbers regard flat sea. On normal sea conditions the polar speed will continue to be good except upwind close to the wind.
As the waves get bigger, with the wind and sea condition, the wave drag increases dramatically and the boat needs more power to sail upwind. More sail will be needed and the boat starts to heel. Then the RM that comes from the ballast becomes really important, but on the Bavaria, due to the huge differences of ballast, that boost of RM will be a very small one, compared with the one of the HR and the performance of the HR will be much better than the one of the Bavaria.

While the HR will be able to maintain the upwind angle and power on, the Bavaria will have to open the upwind angle to look for power and diminish wave drag with a substancial loss in VMG. Another difference will regard the ability to resist gusts that will be much better on the HR.  When the boat heels on the gust, the much bigger ballast of the HR will bring the boat back on situations where the Bavaria will broach. That will result in a Bavaria need to reef earlier and in less speed.

The two rudder set up on the HR will also contribute for a better control in gusty conditions. Besides, with a 4.49m beam the Bavaria will have to have a very very deep single rudder, almost as deep as the draft. That will not only increase mechanical efforts on the shaft and supports as it will make delicate med mooring since the probabilities of the rudder touching the bottom are much increased when sailing astern towards the quay.

To put things in perspective I should say that this relatively small B/D is not, by any means, a "defect" from the Bavaria but typical on the so called family yachts. The Oceanis 45 has a 26.6% B/D (2.27 draft), Sun Odyssey 44 a 26.6% B/D (2.20 draft), Dufour 460 a 26.5%B/D (2.20 draft), Hanse 455 a B/D 30.2% (2.25 draft).

The Hanse is the one that has proportionally more ballast and maybe that is why, from these builders, it is the only one that publish the stability data. From all those it will be the one with a better safety stability, or reserve stability, having an AVS of about 117º, far away from the 128º of the HR,but almost for sure, better than the other ones.

Why do all those boats have a much lower B/D than the HR, if it is important for more safety and sailing? Because it is much more expensive to do a boat with a large B/D than one with a considerably smaller one. That is due to the needed reinforcements on the hull and boat structure to handle safely the more important forces involved. And because most people when choosing a boat are not aware or understand the technical side and don't see any diference: after all on the boat shows they look all the same and if they are all the same why pay more?

Bavaria Shipyard is short to call the C45 a performance cruiser, they say: "Pure sailing pleasure meets perfect sailing performance.. a performance rig permits higher speed...... an exceptional, superior sailing performance"

Sure, more sail area makes a boat faster but more sail area without more stability (stiffness), out of light winds  means also that you are going to have to reef a lot, earlier than other boats with the same stability and less sail area. It means also that you are going to have a problem with gusts, unless you have a full crew sailing the boat.

The Bavaria C45 has a 22.2 SA/D, the Hanse a  20.4 SA/D, being the beam and type of hull not much different. It is clear that the Bavaria will be faster in light winds and downwind but with stronger winds the Hanse, due to its considerably superior B/D, ratio will be faster upwind and on a beam reach, sailing much better on gusting conditions. The Bavaria will have to reef considerably sooner than the Hanse, becoming slower.

So much for the superior, exceptional sailing performance. I have no doubts that the Bavaria hull is very well designed but I don't believe in miracles. If the words used to describe the Bavaria ringed true then we should be comparing it with other boats with those sailing characteristics, boats like for instance the Grand Soleil 46LC or the Solaris 47.

Both have not very different hulls but a very different B/D. The GS46 LC has a 35% B/D , Solaris 47 has a 34.3% B/D. The Solaris has the ballast effect potentiated by a considerably superior standard draft (2.8m. The one of the GS is just a bit bigger. Note that the Solaris can have less draft but in that case it will have more ballast and a bigger B/D ratio.

The GS 46LC has a 19.2 SA/D and the Solaris 47 has 24.2 SA/D. The bigger SA/D from the Solaris corresponds not only to a slightly more sportive boat but to a more powerful one. The B/D between the Solaris and the Grand Soleil are close but the Solaris has not only more 0.5m draft as it has a more efficient keel, with all the ballast on a torpedo.

Regarding the speed of a boat, if the hulls are similar, what counts is not the standard sail area, that can always be altered in light winds by a code 0 (upwind) or a geenaker (downwind), but the boat power that corresponds to the boat stiffness. It is there that we can see the speed boat potential since it is what determines the sail area the boat can carry safely.

Grand Soleil 46 LC

Finally a big advantage from the Bavaria over the HR and many other boats: storage space.On the HR 44 it is really low due to the big aft cabin. On the Bavaria, on the owner's version, the boat is not only offered with a sail locker as it comes with a dinghy garage, at least that's what they say. Well, on this case I admit it makes no sense to talk about a dinghy garage, unless the dingy is deflated, because it has only space for a 2.2m dinghy, too small for most yachts, but it offers a very good storage space in the "dinghy locker".

Solaris 47

The Bavaria offers a very neat rigging with four winches at the reach of the helmsman that control all the lines on the boat. The C45  is offered in three versions, a basic one (Holiday) one with teak and better finish (Style) and another one with better sail hardware, including a carbon bowsprit, carbon spars and a boom direct control with a line to a cockpit travel, near the wheels. It also features an open transom (Ambition).

The Bavaria C45 is a great step forward regarding the Bavaria 46, a better sailing boat, a nicer looking one with a more funcional and agreeable interior. It is better but it could be a lot better. Some less positive comments show my disappointment for Bavaria not having  taken the opportunity for being really ambitious making a mass main market boat with the same stability characteristics of more expensive boats. They could have made it at least on the Ambition version. That would have given its denomination a true meaning.

ACTUAL, THE MAXI TRIMARAN, CAPSIZED AT THE HORN

Yves Le Blevec the solo skipper that was attempting to beat the only circumnavigation record that still belongs to a monohull, the one against winds and currents, is well and inside the boat waiting for a rescue.

The boat capsized at the Horn under not unusual weather conditions for this time of the year, wind from 30 to 50K with 70k gusts, 5 to 6 meter waves. Probably it was on one of those gusts that the arm that holds the amas broke leading to a capsize. The boat was on autopilot with the skipper trying to sleep. It happened at 4:21 am.

As I have said before, for beating the record all he had to do was to keep the huge trimaran in one piece...and that included not to capsize. He was very ahead of the old monohull record but going the wrong way around has nothing to do with a circumnavigation on the other direction. Only for trying Yves Le Blevec has already earned the respect of all other multihull ocean racers.

Yves Le Blevec was rescued by the Chilean navy using an helicopter. Nice to know thatb they are there for the rescue and that they are great professionals. Thanks to them!

It is not a first time for Le Blevec neither for Actual (another trimaran with half the size). Some years ago, on a Transat Jacques Vabre he capsized off

the Portuguese coast (movie below).

VOLVO OCEAN RACE DOMINATED BY SPANISH AND CHINESE

Well, that's a way of saying because if the Spanish boat has mostly a Spanish crew the Chinese boat has only a Chinese  on the crew, being the others mostly French. Anyway it seems that I got it right before the beginning saying that this edition would be dominated by the Chinese and the Spanish team.

DongFeng after leading most of the 2nd leg was beaten by Mapfre that had been 2nd on the first leg. Only the bad Dongfeng result on the first short leg (where it was 3rd) and the weird way this year the classification is attributed explains why Dongfeng is 3rd, even if it has been the boat that led the race for more time. 

Regarding the classification it seems to me that in port races not having any weight at all on the classification makes no sense as it makes no sense that extra point attributed to the winner of a leg, or even worse, the Newport to Cardiff leg to score double points. It would make sense the longer legs to be awarded more points and the shorter ones less, but Newport to Cardiff is way shorter than Lisboa to Cape Town so why the first has double points and the last single ones? And why the very short leg between Alicante and Lisboa has the same points as much longer legs like Lisboa to Cape Town? What is the logic of all this in what regards racing performance and sport achievement?

Dongfeng is leading again and it has one more French solo sailor on the crew, Fabien Delahaye, a Figaro and 40class champion that substitutes Daryl Wislang. I don't think they will be slower with the change. Now the Chinese boat has five French sailors out of nine...and one Chinese. The Spanish boat, Mapfre has also 5 Spanish sailors, among them the Skipper. I hope they change the rules regarding this because it makes no sense at all, I mean, the nationality of the boats and the nationality of the crews. Vestas, the Danish boat that is on 2nd place overall ( 5th on this leg), has also a single Dane on the crew while the two Dutch boats have on Brunel two and on AksoNobel just one Dutch!!!