12th edition of Transat Jacques Vabre: 8 Tris (Multi50 & Maxis) started on Sunday

Is Thierry's strategy going right ?

Interesting now to see Thierry's strategy on Multi50 Ciela Village sailing WNW course (see attachment)... Seems he just likes to cover his direct opponents who are heading more directly SWS with a distance of 39-45 nm... safety first ?

 

Bye, bye HB... see you in 2016...

The 8th boat is out of the game officially ... 19% of 42 boats within first 3 days of the race gone. Thats a really bad quote.

Alex and Guillermo are sailing HB back to shore like a snail mail with NNE course at 3.2 kn.
http://tracking.transat-jacques-vabre.com/fr/

 

Weather tactic.... falling into the holes...

Good to know that the times of heavily demotions are gone.... last night only "O Canada" reported from some Masts problems (damaged mast track)... lets hope they can stay in the race...
http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/news-o-canada-damaged-mast-track


... the Multi50 stuck "waiting for stronger winds" :-( So the IMOCAs got the chance to overtake them Westerly :-( .

Macif and Sodebo pace their own race far front already southerly of Canary Islands. They have sailed now ~1/3 of the whole distance... lets see if they can beat the old record

In the TJV 2013 the leading MOD70 (Edmond de Rothschild) of Sébastien Josse & Charles Caudrelierad had an average speed (over ground) of 22,12 kn, closely followed by the 2nd MOD70 (Oman Air) of Sidney Gavignet & Damian Foxall with 21,77 kn (Source: http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/previous-editions )

It seems Sodebo got its performance back as seen in the beginning... running steadily since last night around 26 knots while Macif hangs behind with swapping 19-22/23 knots... distance between both is slowly increasing to 80 nm.

Pitty that the third maxi Tri Actual didnt make it to keep on direct hunt (distance to Sodebo nearby 600 nm) within its class... now sailing WNW on similarly latitude around 38° N as leading IMOCA PRB . It would be a real blame if Actual would be overtaken by the IMOCAs... shame !!

Lets keep on track: http://tracking.transat-jacques-vabre.com/fr/

 

IMOCA vs Multi 50

For the second or third day in a row the lead IMOCA is way faster than the lead 50-must be two completely different weather systems. How could the 50's get it so wrong and the IMOCA's get it so right?

 

I have this question in mind, too... cant look into the brains of these multi50 sailors.

For me it looks like that they lost the view onto the whole picture. In other words to take brain science: "if you search in the street for "red cars" actively, e.g. because you like red coloured cars and you intend to buy a car you seriously must think about which colour you order, then over time, you see more and more red cars... as the other coloured cars are filtered out." - Its an unconciously process done by the brain. Suddenly you think: "Oh... so many red cars on the street, why I havent noticed them before ?" - But its an illusion.

Maybe the Multi50 crews have taken too heavily a look at each other, thinking all time: How can I overtake the lead of my own class... and herewith forgotten to look the bigger "weather system" mainly focussing to keep an eye onto the tactics of their opponents. Maybe they all together had been too devensive sailing to avoid risks. About the capsizing of Prince of Bretagne by sure they had been informed... so maybe they took off the feets from the gas pedals.

So it looks now all are stuck together in a bundle...

Indeed, the performance is very disappointing we see these days. Feels like "old boats". Too bad...

Lets see... maybe they find their way back into the battle with the IMOCAs. The tris still have the bigger speed potentials of something between 6-12% I would say.

 

Considering the conditions I don't think the Multi50's are doing too badly. The pressure that the IMOCA's are in is playing to their strengths and not ideal for the multihulls, when conditions lighten the Multi50's will come back. In reality that is beside the point for the Multi50 teams they are all pretty competitive with each other in terms of performance and a class victory will be a great achievement.

 

looks good now that the three multi50s keep together... "small regatta" inside the big race.... yes, would be great to see the tris speeding up... 9-10 knots is really slow as shown by FenetreA Prism.

I hope its not reality what we see on the tracker, that Actual Tri is sailing backwards... the next "maxi Tri" out of the game??? (see attachment).

Oh.... just see.... Brazil is out of the game. another IMOCA gone.
http://www.transat-jacques-vabre.com/en/bastide-otio-head-cascais-portugal

Pitty for the destination port as it was the Brazil boat, right ?

 

Team Actual have withdrawn from the race with damage to the mast canting system.

http://www.teamactual.eu/2015/10/avarie-a-bord-de-lultim-actual/

 

Multi 50 vs IMOCA 60

Same story but much closer: The lead IMOCA 60 monohull is doing 20.7 knots and the lead Multi 50 is doing 20. 2 knots. Very interesting.

 

Tjv

At last, the Multi 50 leader is faster(by 4 knots) than the IMOCA leader.
And hallelujah(!), Macif(27.4 knots) has passed Sodebo(26.2 knots)!

 

Good to see what the live tracker shows, that leading Mluti50 Tri Ciela Village has a distance to arrival now 3894.50 nm at a speed of 19.6 knots, the leading IMOCA Banque Populaire VII has 3,635 nm at a speed of 15.3 knots.

Pitty that Maxi Tri Actual abandoned because of some heavily structural damages... looks really bad.




One only can imagine how heavily the loads must have been in this "bad weather" zone... or does know any more details about the circumstances ?

 

Tjv

Sodebo is back in the lead. The two boats are 1.71 miles apart! A match race in the middle of the ocean-pretty cool.

 

Close to 30 knots on a sunny day...

yeah... I love Thomas' Mashine... its so fabulously going. Yesterday they were close to 30 knots, perfect sailing conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGzo2rN7wpA


What an elegance and quietness this boat can spread out perfectly trimmed... lovely to watch.

That monster is coming along like a heavy 300,000 pound Diesel Train keeping straight on the rails whatever comes...

In Germany we have a word for such beautifully conditions: Its "Emperor's Weather" (which goes back to the times of German emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941)). This emperor only liked to appear for public open air events having sunny weather without clouds on the sky.

Seems Thomas and Jean-Luc prefer the French version with a bottle of Champaign.

 

Hugo Boss sinking!

Crew airlifted clear--

HUGO BOSS STATEMENT 1545HRS utc

Update – Emergency Situation - Alex Thomson Racing

Alex Thomson and Guillermo Altadill, skippers of yacht HUGO BOSS in the Transat Jacques Vabre set off their emergency beacon this afternoon at 13.25UT. The Spanish Coastguard was informed and sent a rescue helicopter to their location 82 nautical miles from the Spanish coast. Both Alex and Guillermo were rescued from the location by helicopter and are on their way back to land.

HUGO BOSS incurred some structural damage earlier this week forcing Alex and Guillermo to stop racing. The Skippers had made a repair and were on route to A Coruna where the technical team were waiting to meet them. After sailing for a period of 36 hours in high seas and strong winds, the structure of the boat deteriorated further and the boat started to take on water and sink. The technical team are in A Coruna, Spain awaiting further information from the coast guard.

Managing Director Stewart Hosford expresses ‘Our first concern is with Alex and Guillermo and when they are safely on the ground we will address the situation with our IMOCA 60 and begin the salvage process. We are grateful for the swift response from the rescue services in this situation.’

 

Spirit of Hungary

There is a rumor that the IMOCA 60 "Spirit of Hungary" has lost its rig.
Confirmed 2:53 EST on Spirit of Hungary website. What a shame....
http://spiritofhungary.hu/soh60-tjv...t-a-mezony-tobb-hajo-megserult-soh-hajonaplo/