Banque Populaire V-Jules Verne Record Attempt- 11/21/11

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Nov 21, 2011.

  1. Doug Lord
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  2. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    Gary said :-"Imagine BPV shadowing the Sydney Hobart and going through the maxis like she did passing the BPLP cruising cat ... might convert a few minds, eh?"
    I doubt it Gary.
    Who was it said:- "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still". :rolleyes:
     
  3. Doug Lord
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    Bp V Jv

    From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

    Around the Horn and Climbing Up the Atlantic

    It was 7:50:30am on 23rd December (Paris time), after 30 days 22 hours 18 minutes and 48 seconds at sea, when the Maxi Banque Populaire V crossed the southern tip of the Americas and with it the last of the three capes of the course of the Jules Verne Trophy: the famous Horn. By posting a time of 10 days 15 hours 7 minutes and 15 seconds on the Pacific, Loick Peyron and his men leave to Bruno, the elder brother of the skipper, the absolute record for the distance.

    From the beginning, a month ago off Ushant, the interval time between Cape Leeuwin and the way out of the Pacific is the first one not to fall into the hands of Loick Peyron and his crew, the crew of Orange II Bruno Peyron remain holders with 8 days 18 hours and 8 minutes, it is to say 1 day 20 hours 59 minutes and 15 seconds better.

    The record in numbers

    Record to beat :
    To become the new record holder, the Maxi Banque Populaire V has to be back no later than Monday, January 9, 2012 at 5pm 15min and 34s (Paris time).

    Reference time :
    Groupama 3 (Franck Cammas) - 48 days 7 hours 44 minutes 52 seconds

    Cape Horn crossing time:

    23rd December 2011 - 7pm 50 minutes 30 seconds
    Average seabed speed since the start : 26.7 knots
    Lead on the Cape Horn crossing record : 535 milles

    Sailing time since the start: 30 days 22 hours 18 minutes 48 seconds or 1 day 6 hours 16 minutes less than Groupama 3 in 2010.

    Pacific crossing Time: 10 days 15 hours 7 minutes 15 seconds or 1 day 20 hours 59 minutes 15 seconds longer than Orange II, which holds the record of this stretch in 8 days 18 hours 8 minutes.

    www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr

    * We are getting up the South Atlantic even faster than we hoped. We are past the first High Pressure to the West, and we went through a stationary front off Rio last night, and are now sailing around the final giant weather system until the doldrums - the St Helena high, placed to our East. This feeds the tradewinds that blow past both the Africa and Brasilean coasts..Currently we are receiving NE winds from the High, so we are sailing upwind on starboard tack, hoping to squeeze past the bulge of Brasil..

    And recently, we have had encounters with humans, cetaceans and possibly aliens....

    There was the most bizarre light in the sky the night before last, Christmas Day night, it was like one of those searchlights outside a nightclub, shining up into the sky from the South..it went from the horizon vertically up to about 25/30 degrees, so not as high as those searchlights, but that same kind of narrow, white beam.

    It was really odd, and it stayed there all night, so everyone saw it, and had a different opinion on what it might be. It did not spin round like the stars, it stayed vertical..The only thing that could be agreed upon, is that nobody, in all their miles at sea, had seen anything like it before.. Yvon, in his usual humorous way, suggested it was an alien landing staircase. Fred thought it might be a solar reflection effect off Antarctica, it looked something like a giant comet to me, but not spinning in the sky might put paid to my theory..

    Part of the great charm of being at sea, is to view unusual things. -- Brian Thompson
    brianthompsonsailing.blogspot.com
     
  4. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    how cool is that ;-)
     
  5. Corley
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    Banque Populaire V is routing to the NW now to pick up more favourable winds to carry them to the finish in Quessant. They are approximately 1500 miles in front of the Groupama3 reference position.
     
  6. rattus
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    rattus SeƱor Member

    There was a great video explanation posted by the NASA ISS commander (from space!) here:

    http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=125774121

    Very, very cool... but no aliens :(

    Mike
     
  7. Corley
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    Translation originally posted by Laurent on SA Ocean Racing Forums

    Some new audios, one from Loick Peyron. You can find it here, and scroll down to see the one dated January 1st.
    http://www.voile.ban...ions-l5191.html

    "
    Loick: Happy new year to everybody!
    Journalist: how was the new year's eve dinner? Everything went fine?
    Loick: A little bit rough actually, but because of the route we are taking, it is no longer that bad. But nothing crazy; 4 people on deck, 4 people on standby and 4 people in their bunk. The exceptional dinner was prepared by Xavier, PYM, our Swiss on board and Chab. Foie Gras, with a bit of wine; I discovered that afterwards, there was a bit of leftover of a bottle of Montbazillac laying around... And because we are very serious about hygiene, we poured a bit of sterilizer solution on dried fruits, the sterilizer solution being a small bottle of rhum... and all of that was sunken into a lyophilized dessert... which is still for the most part untouched. So not much success with the dessert so far...

    It's really complicated for the crew and for the boat. The sea state was really bad and that is one of the reasons why I decided to take a weird route. And I am sure it is going to surprise everybody; it looks like we want to make a stop to New York first! And it's not completely wrong! At least for the next 24 hours, we are going to continue sailing in that direction. Unfortunately, it is the only way for us to go back home and avoid getting into the Azores High Pressure system. So we have a converging route with a low pressure system which is appearing off shore Newfoundland. So we should be pointing in the right direction sometime tomorrow.
    If we believe the current forecasts, which sometimes look a bit strange, we should arrive around the 6th or the 7th. 6th in the evening, or in the night between the 6th and the 7th... there is a big probability to arrive by night anyway, since there is still much more night time than day time right now. But we will make sure that we arrive in Brest harbour during daytime.

    We are living the last hours with some kind of tropical weather; then it is going to be a bit slow, starting tonigh or tomorrow moning, don't worry, it should last until tomorrow night, and then slowly but surely, it should speed up towards the finish line. We should arrive with sunshine, cool temperatures, but sunshine.

    We are not there yet!!! We are still on the other side of the Northern Atlantic... It's very nice, all those forecasts and ETA... but it is still sailing! I know I am repeating myself, but unfortunately, gear failure is still looming over our heads. Everything can happen. At this stage, a surprise can only be a bad surprise... Not much we can do about it. But we are where we are right now, thanks to the team and the people who are part of this project. Most of the crew is here from the start, the construction of the boat or at least from the first campaing of records, three years ago. As I say, I am just the icing on the cake, my role is just to make sure that the crew works well together, especially in such a small space for 40 days... Obviously, it is much easier to deal with when you are wealthy and in good health... Having such a lead on the record makes it easier. The mood is great on board, obviously. We start the realize that there are a lot of people liking our story, and we will try to share it as much as we can. If it can bring a bit of happyness and joy in those hard times, so be it!
    "
     
  8. Corley
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    Translation by Laurent on SA Ocean Racing Forum

    Second audio of the day, from Xavier Revil who was in charge, among other things, of the food on board.
    You can find it here:
    http://www.voile.ban...6930.html#suite

    "
    Everything is fine; it's rather comfortable right now. It's not always the case, but there is not too much wind for the past few hours; we have quite a few squalls, so we are fighting squalls which hinder us from sailing fast... We have 10 knots of true wind speed right now, and we are sailing at about 15 knots... (that's really a shitty performance, indeed... :blink: )

    We left with 46 days of food, so we are going to be just right... We may even eat some chinese noodles the last day! We are doing fine for the food; we are not hungry, nothing has been damaged or wet. One of my worries was about food damage; once in a while there is quite a lot of moisture in the boat, especially in the South, but all the plastic packaging held on fine; even if there was a bit of water in a few bags. One of the things I am happy about as well, is that I got the quantities right. In the South, and the cold, with 14 people on board, it was a bit of an unknown on how much to plan for. I believe everybody is happy with the food... but we will still be happy to eat a good steak after the finish line...

    We are in light winds right now, but it was expected. The navigator told us that he we wanted to take a shower, it's today! The next one will be in Brest! The conditions will get cooler as we get closer. Today already, it's better; it's ideal actually, with about 22 degrees C in the boat. For the past few days, with the reaching sailing, all the hatches were closed, and with the heat and no aeration, it was not fun inside; between holding on to the bunk because of the motion of the boat and the heat, it was not easy to rest. When we cook and turn on the gas cooker, the temperature rises even more; it's like an oven, inside! But we have to get used to it; we've been in the cold, and then in (too) warm weather... But now, we have an ideal temperature. We even got the famous Britanny drizzle... so it's cooler on deck. It's true that it has been pretty tiring on the crew for the past 2 days; so now, we take advantage of the lull and rest; in about 12 hours, we are going to speed up again, and hopefully catch the train, and maybe even the TGV!! (Train a Grande Vitesse: High Speed Train; there is a network of 300 km per hr trains in France, called TGV)

    Yesterday and today, we have checked the amas, Pierre-Yves Moreau has done the second ama this morning, before it got too hot. And the sea was calm as well. Florent checked the mast a few days ago. Everything is fine. Everything has been checked, including the halyards, etc. So the last sprint shoud be done in good conditions.

    We have been on staboard tack for quite a while and we are going to stay on starboard tack, except maybe for one or two quick port tacks, because the wind is going to turn with us; we are going to sail aroung the high pressure system all on starboard tack. We may have to correct the course a bit in one or two days, with a few small port tacks, but that depends on how the forecast evolves and how fast we can sail downwind. For the past few hours, we are mostly downwind. Right now, we are sailing at 75 degrees TWA, but that's because we have a line of squalls to go through; it's very localized, so this squall is on our route and it is going to slow us down for 15-20 minutes but not more. And after that, we accelerate again!
    "
     
  9. Corley
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    Reposted by "Geff" on SA's Ocean Racing Forum. Transcript from Brian Thompson

    Day #42 from Brian T (and please take note of the special message at the bottom of this):


    Going through the Sargasso Sea today - there is the weed everywhere.. We have not caught any of this weed on our foils, though last night we caught a plastic bag on the leeward rudder. We had to furl the gennaker, head upwind to slow down, then go backwards to clear the bag, then unfurl the gennaker and set off again.. But what is a plastic bag doing in the middle of the Atlantic? Someone must have thrown it off a vessel - not good. Like all racing boats, we keep every bit of non food or paper items till we get back to land. Not much wildlife out here that we have seen at these speeds.. Wind is picking up today, now it's double yesterday's wind. We have18 knots and we are in the high 20's of boatspeed. Running downwind with full main, medium gennaker and staysail.. Still fantastic sailing conditions around the High Pressure system, and after what may be our final gybe this afternoon, we are heading more towards the Old World of Europe than the New World..Good news! Yesterday evening in the lighter wind Pym and Manu made a thorough inspection of all the watertight compartments on the boat, and Florent went to the top of the mast and down again to completely check the mast. Pym and Florent have been tireless this whole voyage, they have always been on top of all the little maintenance jobs around the boat.. So from the West a cold front approaches, and the tightening of the isobars will slowly increase our wind speed during the night..But the plan is to always stay ahead of the front and in the optimum wind speed for us. We should be able to fine tune our position to do this. That's the wonder of the latest weather models from the US and Europe, of the routing software on board, and of having an extremely fast boat that can keep up with a speeding low pressure system! Last night was incredible for the stars - even with half a moon shining. It was another great dawn and sunrise at the end of the night too. Our watch is the lucky one currently, having sunset and sunrise on our on watch times. Anyway, it's time to prepare another freezedried dinner party for 14 this evening.. And the mighty Banque Populaire is now heading for the barn! Brian
     
  10. Corley
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    Originally posted and translated by "Laurent" on the SA Ocean Racing forums very interesting transcript.

    One of the last, if not the last live video conference today. You can find it here:

    http://www.voile.banquepopulaire.fr/Maxi-Trimaran-Banque-Populaire-V/vacations-v5191.html

    Look for the one dated 04/01/12.

    It's 39 minutes long... So I am not going to translate everything.... but I just finished it, and I did translate most of it...

    One of the invitees today is Gerard Petitpas; he was Eric Tabarly navigator for 15 years. He also organized transatlantic races and is/was the president or vice-president of a bunch of organizations and societies around offshore sailing and racing. Un Grand Monsieur.

    At some point, he says:
    "You have the regatta racers, and then you have the sailors, with real seamanship. And they can show their real values only in long ocean crossing races or around the world races. And I am convinced of the seamanship of Loick and his crew."

    He then explains that Loick Peyron crossed the Atlantic the first time at 17 years old, because his father kicked him out because he was not good at school.

    Then Loick Peyron comes on line:
    "
    Thank you very much Gerard! You make me blush everytime! But it's true that I got a good kick in the butt by my daddy, an oil tanker captain, the fourth biggest tanker in the world, at the time... who basically told me to either pursue studies, that I could never catch up, or do whatever I wanted to do. So I did what I wanted to do; that is live by plunder and fresh water... well, sea water, actually.
    In the mini-transat in 1979... We are not getting any younger!!!

    My dear Juan!! Where are we?

    The journalist: is it night time where you are?

    Loick: No, no, it is sunrise...(Kevin Escoffier turns around to show outside through the hatch) Excellent! Our cameraman, the young Kevin Escoffier is quick-wit!! Those gentlemen from Saint Malo will always surprise us!

    So... you have the map, you know pretty much where we are... Our route is curving gently, we did what we had to do, sailing around this Azores High pressure system; so now, we have relatively flat seas. We have a small low pressure system in our back, or actually on our left hip. And we are adjusting our route between not enough wind on our right hand, in the high pressure system and too much wind in our left hand, in the low pressure system. We are going fast, we are doing about 30 knots average speed, that's very good. (Kevin shows the display with 32-33 knots...)

    The ETA has not changed, Friday night; and we may go very high up North, close to the Fastnet and the Isles of Scilly, our preferred place; we have been there already twice last year, once for our Around the Great Britain Islands record and for the Fastnet Race.

    So, I will try to do like you, I will try to be a professional journalist...

    So, at the front, you have the gut of the boat! Before we go outside, we will make a pit stop in the kitchen, where our friend Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant AND Florent Chastel just finished preparing the lunch. It's too bad, you missed the show. So the lunch is some kind of powder, as usual... So here, you have the stand-by shift, Xavier, Florent... So look here, here is the food... Hmmm, it's so good...

    The Journalist: someone had a problem, apparently...

    Loick: Yes, it has been pucked by Napoleon the third!!!

    So you put that in those buckets... The food is often questionable and rarely palatable...
    So here, you are not going to see anything because it is all black, but this is where the 4 young wild boars are sleeping. Ronan is waking up. (Loick let some light enter the sleeping area) Sorry guys, it is for the French television. Kevin, show Ronan's face! (Kevin flashes his light spot on Ronan's face).

    Here, behind Jean-Baptiste, there is our map. We mark each day on the map. This is usually done by our preferred Englishman on board, Brian Thompson. Let's go outside.

    The journalist: we have a feeling that it is fairly relaxed on board... (No?!... Really??!!!... )

    Loick: It's not false... (typical French saying; since we love bitching and moaning, we would rather use a double negative sentence than an affirmative sentence...)

    We know that we have 2 1/2 days of good work to do. But we still stay focused. "Fast but not so Furious" (in English!) And everything is fine. It is a little bit grey in the back over there, because of the small low pressure system I was talking about.

    Of course, we have to be a bit "Reeeelaaaaxed"!

    The Journalist: we just saw Yvan Ravussin; how is he doing?

    Loick: how is doing our Swiss friend?

    Yvan: well the Swiss is all pumped up; in a hurry to arrive and eat a bit of chocolate; there is no more chocolate on board!!! A small fondue at the arrival, it would be really great.

    Loick: A cheese fondue, of course...

    Yvan: of course!

    Loick: I am asked if you have digested well the rhum...

    Yvan: Of course, rhum HELPS to digest; but you have to be careful not to overindulge...

    Loick: Let's see Brian... "It is for the French TV" (in English) What did you think of the rhum?

    Brian: the rhum? It's the best one, from Martinique!

    Loick: An Englishman with good taste!! He is right.... And the young "Figariste" (name of the sailors specialized in the Figaro Solo races) is at the helm; that's why you have to hang on...

    The journalist: we were worried, we thought that nobody was at the helm.

    Loik: No, no, there is always someone at the helm; at least one guy has to work...

    The male journalist: you have to balance between the competition and the seamanship. I guess you have some power left under the foot; but you will still make some nice runs, without risks, of course...

    Loik: exactly... But it is also all the difficulty, when you have a machine like this boat under your feet. This boat is exceptional. I can't stop saying it, but truly, this is a unique boat. But I have said that on other boats as well: you have to know when to slow down. I always said that you know a good pilot on his braking technique. To accelerate, it's easy, you just have to push on the pedal on the right. To know when to slow down, it is especially important on a long trip like this one... You have to preserve the machine, but still maintain very high average speeds.

    The journalist: To slow down the boat, that's one thing; but what about the helmsman, they must be tempted to go full on, especially at the end like now...

    Loick: no that's OK; I used my big bushy eye brows right at the beginning; and I look at them... like that, and I frown just a bit, and the youngsters calm down right away...

    The male journalist: I remember, when I have been on races like this, even if it was a lot slower than you today, you are always thinking about the next machine, the next boat, the next level of performance; have you had those thoughts, or those discussion, even if it is only for the fun of it?...

    Loick: Sure, we think about it, and we talk about it between ourselves. It is not simple... We were talking about it with Fred Le Peutrec, a few weeks ago, in the South... One of the way to go faster in the water, will be to NOT be IN the water but ABOVE the water. By the way, some day, it will be interesting to know how to make the difference between a plane and a boat... But for now, we are still pondering, because all those machines that can fly over the water for relatively short distances, or only on relatively flat seas, with our current level of knowledge and technology, they still would be in trouble in the very rough and crossed seas that you can find in the deep South, or in the Northern Atlantic, for that matter.
    So, sure, it is going to evolve, it always does. So for sure, this record, if we indeed break it, in a few years, will be beaten again. And that's good, by the way!

    The male journalist: So would you be interested by other machines, other experiences, still on the water, of course...

    Loick: Yes, of course! I am born for this. I don't get bored. Whatever the machine, the distance, the size of the waves, the age of the captain, I am still efficient, and I hope it is going to continue for a while...

    The male journalist: still, it has been great fun for you and the crew on this boat...

    Loick: yes, of course, and that's why we will do it again, either together or separately... For half of this crew, it's not the case for Brian nor for me and a few others, but for a lot of them, they have never seen Cape Horn; they passed it for the first time, those young "rookies" (in English), and unfortunately, they did not see it! So it is going to be a good motivation to get back at it, and most likely on even faster machines...
    "

    A new invitee, Mark Van Peteghem; one of the 2 head designers of BP5... (19:25)
    VP congratulates Loick and the crew for the good work they have done, and insists on the fact that it is the sailor that must find the right balance on how far to push...

    Loick: Thank you Mark, but it is a really good design you have done, very interesting. I can see the synthesis of what I have found on smaller boats, but on a bigger scale.... You can tell there has been a lot of work done. Design work and sailing work as well, for the past 3 years. It did not start yesterday... For sure, it started way before I showed up. I have been very luck to come on board at the top of this progress in the preparation of the boat...
    It's interesting, for instance, under the beams, on all the ORMA 60, you end us with some small hair crack, (Loick is holding his arm horizontal), either under the arm pit or at the wrist... On this boat, nothing. It's very surprising, there is absolutely no sign of any strutural issue. It's very impressive.

    The journalist: When you arrived on the boat, did you make any modification? Or do you manage the boat in a different manner that Pascal Bidegorry?

    Loick: The way to manage the boat? Most likely. But structural or deck changes, no, nothing; maybe 1 or 2 details, but nothing important. Why? Because all the men, and girls and women involved in the conception and preparation of this boat, they were not inexperienced (Loick is using a funny French saying, but I do not know how to translate. He is saying that they were not one year old partridges...)
    Most of the people sailing on the boat were part of the design and preparation of the boat. So of course, it is a well thought through boat, done by people who know what they were doing.

    Now, about how to manage the boat, yes, it's different. By the way, the guys are telling me that it's different. And most likely, I must have a way that is more "reed" than "oak" as say the famous fable from Jean de la Fontaine... (my guess, and it is only a guess, is that Pascal Bidegorry must have been a "my way or the highway" type of guy... Just a supposition.)

    The journalist: very interesting... So there is some softness in Loick Peyron, you look at the long term and you spare your ride...

    Loick: Yes, usually, yes; or at least, I am trying... What?! The Botero of the seas!!! That's Escoffier, they have so much culture in Saint Malo!!!


    The male journalist: Talking about Kevin, I am very impressed with the work of communication that you are doing. I know that it is very difficult to manage your race, your boat, and at the same time, take care of the communication. And the communication side has changed a lot in the past few years. You are one of the few who knows how to tell a story. But how does the communication work that has to be done today changes the management of the crew and the boat?

    Loick: It's also part of our duties; I always thought so. Now, it is much easier to manage with a big crew like this, where you can share the load. Especially when there are guys like Kevin AND Ronan, who is his helper for the communication work, and replaces him once in a while. When the equipment works, and that is a big improvement over the past, and when you have a crew, it's easy.
    The issue is when this is a single handed race or a short crew; the stuff does not always work, time management is much more difficult.

    But I think that we have to be careful NOT to show too much. When you are sailing solo, you cannot send something different everyday. Not seing too much is actually good, it keeps the imagination working...

    Gerard remembers very well that when Tabarly comes out of the fog, in 1964, after 30 days, everybody says this is a miracle; no news for one month. And the same journalists, just after that, complained that we could not see anything...
    For that matter, I like wery much this weekly live conference; once a week, it's a good rythm. We are still lucky, in this sport not to show everything. I like that; sometimes, the quality of the sound is too good. I miss the BLU radios, when you had cracks in the sound!
    "

    Van Peteghem then talks a bit about the evolution of the boats. the key points:
    - the boat speed doubled in a bit more than 10 years.
    - the material, the simulation software
    - but first and foremost, the way the sailors manage the race and the boat is critical...

    Question to Loick: if you were doing the same trip again, what would you like to see changed?

    Loick: the weather, first... Send a letter to Eole and make some wishes for us. It would be a good way to improve the record; we all know that the potential of this boat is much higher than the time we are going to make. We all know that we spend a lot of time slowing down, and also making a much longer route.
    So going faster on the same route, why not? It can be done...
    But shouldn't we, instead try to reduce the distances, by being able to go through rougher seas... Maybe that's the trick... At some point, the only way to improve it will be to shorten the distances...

    The journalist: have we reached a limit, between speed and safety? Are they in opposition?

    Loick: absolutely, they are in opposition, in a car, on a bike, on a boat, same thing. Just on a kinetic energy point of view, it is to speed squared... I have to tell the guys once in a while; we have to slow down, because at a certain speed, a single hit/slam can be damaging.
    But strangely, for a multihull, and especially a trimaran, you need minimum of speed; it's like a bike; when you stop, it falls. For trimaran to be stable, especially in rough seas, it has to be pushed on one side...

    The journalist: I am sorry but we have to let you go... So take advantage of being just between you, because in three days, in Brest, I can tell you that it will be different!

    Loick: yes, thank you; JEAN-BAPT! say good bye!!!
    "
     
  11. Corley
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    Update from Brian Thompson reposted thanks to "Geff" on SA's Ocean Racing Forum

    And from Brian on Day #44:

    Guess how far we have to go.. 1000 MILES !

    We have just turned over our countdown odometer from 1001 to 999!

    So to now break the existing record, we have to average about 10 knots. 2 days ago, near Bermuda, it was 17 knots, and back at the Equator, 6 days ago, it was a 13 knots average required.

    For a while there, we were slipping backwards on the record, and it could have turned out badly if the weather did not follow the predictions., as we were a long way from home..Fortunately it did, so now we are relatively secure speed wise, it's down to the great unknowns - equipment breakage and unseen floating objects, that could scupper our dreams now..We are being as prudent as possible, sailing at a good pace, but in control at all times, so we hope that will cover most of the risk of breakage, The other is in the lap of the gods to a large extent..

    The speed of this boat is very deceptive, when you are below, or in the cuddy on deck, or even on the helm looking forwards, it all seems relatively tame. But a couple of times today I have been reminded that 35 knots is very, very fast indeed.

    Earlier I went to the leeward side, to look at the gennaker trim, and watched the wake firing off the leeward hull. It's unbelievable how fast that looks, and how strongly you get the impression of the boat hurtling through the water..

    The second time, I was steering, and Chab was standing by me to take over. We both looked away from the bow for an instant, and BAM! We were hit by a block of water that had been thrown into the air by the bows. That block had hung in the air, motionless, for an instant, and then the beam, 30m back, and our upper bodies drove into it at 35 knots..it was like lying on the floor and a 25kg flour sack being dropped on your chest from a 4m height. Chab thought he had been punched in the head, though fortunately,he did not think it was me!

    Normally when a watery wrecking ball like that comes through you crouch right down in a fast, reflexive move, but this time we missed it..However, it was extremely funny at the time, and I was glad to have had a good hold of the helm, to not get knocked off it..

    Will send more later.,

    Time for 1h 20m sleep..
     
  12. Corley
    Joined: Oct 2009
    Posts: 3,781
    Likes: 196, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 826
    Location: Melbourne, Australia

    Corley epoxy coated

  13. Doug Lord
    Joined: May 2009
    Posts: 16,679
    Likes: 349, Points: 93, Legacy Rep: 1362
    Location: Cocoa, Florida

    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Bp V Jv

    =====================
    Corley thanks-great video! It looks to me like the wing mast was canted to weather-didn't know they could do that on this boat-anybody else notice it-towards the end of the video......

    PS-thanks for all your updates...
    ------------------
    UPDATE: Thanks to the video in the next post I found that the cant angle of the mast is 12 degrees-very interesting! If they can do that on a 130' tri in the Southern Ocean why isn't it a regular feature on many more smaller boats???
     
  14. Corley
    Joined: Oct 2009
    Posts: 3,781
    Likes: 196, Points: 63, Legacy Rep: 826
    Location: Melbourne, Australia

    Corley epoxy coated

    Thats a pleasure Doug, It's a pity there was all that ice, fluky winds and gales in the south they could easily have gone under 40 days had that been more favourable. According to the tracker only 90 miles remaining till the finish line.

    Heres a video tour of the boat posted on SA its pretty shaky but does show some interesting things like some of the canting gear and the hydraulics that operate it.

    http://vimeo.com/34596861
     

  15. yipster
    Joined: Oct 2002
    Posts: 3,486
    Likes: 97, Points: 58, Legacy Rep: 1148
    Location: netherlands

    yipster designer

    That allready 40 minutes back, around the world and if all goes well she be racing in this evening than, bravo!
     
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